I suppose that there are times in all of our lives, when we feel a little boastful.  Maybe at some times, we are a little too proud.  And at those times, maybe we put on airs and act way too important.  And the one time that this seems to happen for a lot of people is when they go to their high school class reunions.   And it’s funny, because it doesn’t seem to matter whether its been five years, or twenty-five years, or fifty years since you’ve graduated from high school, everybody wants to look good when they go back for their high school reunions.  And people will go to extremes to look good too!  I knew a girl who lost sixty pounds for our last high school reunion.  People wear fake eyelashes, and fake hair, and fake fingernails.  At our 10 Year Class Reunion, it looked like the girls in our class were keeping Lee’s Press On Nails in business, from all the fake fingernails in the room.   People borrow or rent fur coats, and bigger and nicer cars, and they bring pictures of their perfect kids doing perfect things.  At a class reunion, EVERYBODY wants to look good, to look important, and to look successful.  And it’s really kind of an odd time for all this to come out, because most likely we are not in close contact with our high school classmates.  Maybe it’s all of our old high school insecurities, that makes us want to go out of our way to make a good impression now in front of our old classmates.  But go to any high school class reunion in this country, and you’ll find people trying desperately to put on a good show, trying to put forth a better image.  There’s not usually a lot of humility at high school reunions.

       I mention this, this weekend, because all three of our readings today on this Fourth Sunday of Ordinary time, our last Sunday before we go into Lent, all three readings are talking about humility.  And we don’t hear a lot about humility today.  Nobody goes to their high school class reunion to show how humble they are.   Nobody dresses up, or cleans up, or drives the right car to look humble.  Humility is somewhat a lost value in our culture and society today.  We are so busy trying to look good, and successful, and important, that we forget what God calls us to.  Is it any wonder then that our pride is out of control?  Did you hear the words of our second reading?  “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something.”  My brothers and sisters, St. Paul is putting us in our place.  We can put on all the airs that we want to.  We can brag and boast and pretend all that we want.  But in the end, we are those foolish, weak, and lowly people that God is using to build His Kingdom.  It’s not about us.  It’s all about Him.  Just as John the Baptist said, “He must become greater and I must become lesser.”

      All of this brings us to The Beatitudes.  In the eyes of the world, the Beatitudes are laughable.  How can Jesus really say that the poor are blessed, or those who mourn are blessed, or those who show mercy are blessed?  What we are bombarded with every day is that the rich are blessed.  And aren’t people who don’t have to mourn really the ones that are blessed?  And wouldn’t it be great if we never had to forgive anyone and be merciful to them, because they never did anything to us that we had to be merciful for?  That’s the way the world thinks!  Jesus turns it all around.  The Beatitudes challenge us to completely rethink our values, not in light of ourselves, but in the Light of God.  With Jesus, every thing is different.  The last become first.  The greatest among us serve.  The rich become poor.  The persecuted, the peacemakers, the clean of heart become the ones who are blessed.  And in Jesus’ new order of things, suddenly these become the new things to be proud of -  not our clothes, now our cars, and not our fingernails.   Can you imagine a class reunion where we were judged  not on our looks, or wealth, or successes, but where we were judged on the things that really mattered to God? 

       My brothers and sisters, let us humbly serve our God.  Our greatest glory will never be about us.  It will always be what WE can do for God, and what we can do for God’s people.  We need to humbly re-orientate our values.  Let us put God first.  It is then that we will truly find ourselves.

May God bless us today,  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti…Pray for us !!!