Daily Gospel Reflection for January 2, 2017

Today's Gospel: John 1:19-28, Memorial of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen

Humility can be tricky to navigate. To live humbly means to live gratefully within one’s means. It also means that we recognize what our God given gifts are, and are not.

We’ve all heard adults say to children something like: “You can be anything you want to be when you grow up if you work hard enough.” This statement can end up in the alley of cruelty, having the potential to instill a lack of self-worth when failure is imminent. A person gifted to work with their hands as a tailor, mechanic, or sculptor would experience frustration and possibly unable to succeed on the path as a nurse or business consultant. No matter how hard they worked, they never became good enough. If we are fortunate, we may realize we’re headed in the wrong direction.

There is a special grace in finding our true self, in who we are meant to be in God’s plan. Gaining wisdom and being able to recognize what I am called to do opens me up. We learn what we are not called to be, and become able to praise someone who is better at whatever it was we are not. We can pray for the other's success.

Let us be humble enough to accept our calling, and courageous enough to bless others whose gifts are different from our own.

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Ponder:

What have you attempted and not succeeded at as fully as you had hoped? What did you gain from the experience?

Pray:

Precious Lord, thank you for creating me to be the person you desire. Give me the openness of heart to see your will for my life and the courage to follow your plan. Hear my prayer for another; prosper the works of their hands, O Lord, and give them what will rebound to your own profit.