Pope Francis today warned against seeking the best places in life, even elbowing neighbors out of the way, and reminded that in any case, “God pays a lot more than man! He gives us a place much more beautiful than any given us by man.”
The Holy Father offered this reflection as he considered the Gospel of today, from Luke 14, before praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
The lesson Jesus gives in the Gospel, the Pope said, is on the value of humility.
“History teaches us that pride, ambition, vanity and ostentation are the cause of many evils,” he said. “And Jesus helps us see the need we have to choose the last places, that is, to seek littleness and hiddenness: humility.”
Our Lord’s lesson underscores the opposing nature of two attitudes: the one who “chooses his own place” and the one who “allows his place to be assigned by God and awaits from him his reward.”
“Let’s not forget this,” Francis added: “God pays a lot more than man! He gives us a place much more beautiful than any given us by man. The place given us by God is close to his heart and his reward is eternal life. ‘Blessed indeed will you be,’ Jesus says, ‘For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’”
Jesus also shows his preference for the poor in these parables, the Pontiff noted.
“Today Jesus becomes the voice of the voiceless and directs to each of us a grief-filled call to open our hearts and make our own the suffering and the anguish of the poor, the hungry, the marginalized, the fugitive, those cast down by life, those rejected by society and the arrogance of the powerful. And these who are thrown away represent, in reality, the majority of the population.”
The Pope invited the faithful to ask for Our Lady’s help in the path of humility.
“She has been humble her whole life; may she make us capable of actions given gratuitously, acts of welcome, of solidarity with the marginalized, so as to come to be worthy of the divine reward.”
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Full text: https://zenit.org/articles/on-humility-and-giving-generously/
