30th Week in Ordinary Time : Saturday 4th November 2023

Social behaviours reveal a lot about a person’s true nature and self-worth. As with today’s Gospel reading, Jesus observes that people with an exaggerated sense of self are the ones who pick places of honour at wedding feasts. This includes people who pray aloud on street corners, wearing fancy religious vestments and pulling sad “fasting” faces, etc. (cf. Mt.6:16). Nowadays, this translates to people who habitually post every mundane detail of their lives on social media. Others resort to ostentatious displays of material wealth.

On the other hand, people with a healthy sense of self-worth do not see the need to trumpet their social statuses by calling public attention to themselves. They are affirmed from within, from an interior knowledge that they are loved and celebrated, thus giving rise to a self-confidence that needs no public validation. This happens when one is in touch with one’s heart, mind, and soul; in other words, with God, who validates and affirms each of God’s creatures. Humble and grateful, these are the people who, in turn, affirm and validate others instead of themselves. Like Jesus, who never called attention to Himself out of an inferiority complex, Christians should be confident that God will exult those who humble themselves. Any self-exultation is nothing more than pride and vanity.

The Lord will not abandon His people nor forsake them. Amen.