Wednesday of Holy Week
Isa 50:4-9
Mt 26:14-25
They paid him thirty silver pieces…
When asked how they would introduce Jesus, one of my Catechism students said that Jesus was ‘humble’. That started the discussion that Jesus is the perfect Adam. The first Adam committed the original sin out of pride, because he wanted to be like God. Jesus humbled himself and became man. He is God, but he took on human nature. That is a stark contrast to what Adam and Eve did.
One of my favourite books is The Little Prince. And I’d like to share a quote from the book which I feel is very accurate:
‘Grown-ups are very fond of numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask you the kind of questions that should be asked, such as: “What kind of voice does he have?” “What are his favourite games?” “Does he collect butterflies?” Instead they ask: “How old is he? How much money does his father earn?” They really do imagine this is the best way to discover what sort of person he is!’
In today’s reading, we get a number on how much Jesus’ life cost. It was thirty silver pieces. To those of us who are unaware of the Divine Revelation, these thirty pieces of silver may lead us to think that Jesus was a man of very low standing. This shows us another aspect of Jesus’s humility – he allowed himself to be thought of too little by the world, despite being God. God, who is by right of immeasurable and infinite, allowed himself to be priced at thirty pieces of silver.
I think Jesus gave us a lot of examples in the Bible because humility is crucial to our salvation. Jesus allowed himself to be baptized, Jesus obeyed his parents. And in my imagination, Jesus may even have had to put up with difficult clients as a carpenter. So why these many examples? I once read in a book that God would rather we fall into any other sin so that we don’t become proud that we have become very good. And to be honest, I’ve fallen into sin many times when pride started creeping in. This is when I started thinking that I was really good.
Jesus is inviting us to be humble. In tomorrow’s Mass, Jesus shows us another example of humility. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. During that time in the celebration, may we open our hearts to Jesus’ invitation to be humble.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Stephanie Villa)
Prayer: Dear God, please give the grace to overcome pride.
Thanksgiving: Thank you, Lord, for showing us how to be humble.
OXYGEN 
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