"FOR GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE"

 16^th July, 2022:

TUSEDAY,  TWENTEENTH WEEK 

OF ORDINARY TIME (C)

(1 Ez 28: 1-10); (Mt 19: 23-30)

"FOR GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE"

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we paid attention to the expressions of the Scriptures, we found out about the wrongdoing of pride and everything that had frequently kept man from tracking down their direction back towards God. The Lord is really warning and reminding us not to yield to the allurements of pride that can lead us down the way of ruin. We need to oppose the things that may frequently separate us and God's affection and beauty, our numerous shortcomings and weaknesses, especially that which included our self-image and pride, which is the very botch that had deluded Satan down the way to annihilation.

In our most memorable reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel telling us of God's announcement in regards to the Prince of Tyre. Relevantly, we should comprehend that Tyre in those days was an extraordinary city, established and having a place with the Phoenicians, a race of individuals who had some expertise in exchange and business in the times past, laying out various settlements all through the Mediterranean in old times. The city of Tyre consequently turned out to be fantastically rich and regardless of the presence of considerably more remarkable neighbors, the city and individuals of Tyre were frequently ready to have their direction and keep up with their relative opportunity because of their massive financial limit.

For that reason the lords and leaders of Tyre could act with relative exemption, doing anything they desired, gladly flaunting their impact and power, in any event, when they were militarily mediocre contrasted with the superpowers like the Assyrians and the Babylonians in those days. The Lord cautioned them and every one of His kin of the risk of pride, self image and excessive arrogance, all of which can turn into our demise on the off chance that we leave them unrestrained or on the other hand assuming we even enjoy them. Furthermore, the Lord's decrees and forecasts in the end worked out when the city of Tyre in the long run, years and years after the fact, was wrecked and obliterated by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, as verified by authentic confirmations.

In our Gospel section today we knew about the illustration that the Lord Jesus talked, the notable story of the camel that goes through the opening of the needle, which the Lord said would be simpler to happen as opposed to for one who is rich and glad, strong and haughty to go into the realm of paradise. This was a correlation and a point that the Lord made to tell His pupils and devotees that, similarly as it would be outside the realm of possibilities for a camel to go through the opening of a needle, then it would have been even more outlandish for a man loaded up proudly and inner self to go into the realm of God and into the Holy Presence of God.

That was precisely the way in which Satan fell as well, influenced by the pride that made him to defy God, and that equivalent enticements were made and introduced by Satan to our progenitors also, and many individuals, from one age to another, had fallen into these equivalent allurements. For that reason many individuals found it hard to come to the presence of God since they have permitted pride, inner self and pomposity to hold themselves back from understanding that they were miscreants and needed God's recuperating and pardoning, and on second thought, they continued to carry on with their lives in daydream believing that they were doing the right things, and burned through the vast majority of their lives and endeavors in seeking after their own self-centered wants and needs.

Today, the Church commends the banquet of St. Stephen of Hungary, the primary King of Hungary. He acknowledged the Lord as his Savior and was vital in laying out Christianity as the sole confidence of his realm and territory, propelling the reason for the Lord and His Church. And yet, St. Stephen of Hungary was likewise recognized as an incredible and committed ruler who invested a ton of energy and work to really focus on the great and the prosperity of his subjects. He gave a lot to join his realm and to accommodate them, with numerous endeavors and undertakings to work on their occupation.

St. Stephen was very much recalled and regarded on the grounds that he was genuinely an extraordinary lord who didn't permit arrogance, desire and pride to in the middle among him and his commitment to God. He was unassuming and focused on the calling which the Lord had given him, and the Lord favored Him and His kin, and he and his realm were made secure. He didn't ache for power or common brilliance, or gloat of his power and significance, yet rather gave his all for the authentic improvement and prosperity of every one of those whom the Lord had shared with be under his consideration.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let every one of us thusly give our best for oppose the allurements of common magnificence, joys and other material merchandise that can misdirect us down some unacceptable way, and let us likewise put forth the attempt to oppose those enticements, and move away from pride and self image, advancing rather to be modest and to pay attention to the Lord. Allow every one of us to be available to invite Him into our middle and give our very best for follow Him as well as could be expected, continuing in the instances of the blessed holy people, particularly that of St. Stephen of Hungary whom we have recently talked about before on.

May the Lord be with us generally, and may He reinforce us with the boldness and the craving to follow Him and to serve Him consistently. May He assist us with opposing the enticements and tensions of pride and inner self, so we may continuously become perpetually devoted to Him, and be nearer and nearer to Him, presently and consistently, evermore. Amen.