Jn 7:1-2,10,25-30 Secret to Success

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
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By FR ALFONSE NAZZARO

Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, "Is [Jesus] not the one they are trying to kill?  ...Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?  But we now where he is from. ...Jesus cried out...and said, "You know me and also know where I am from.  Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true."

We know where he is from.  I love this quote!  It's so wrong!!!  The truth of the matter is this:  the inhabitants of Jerusalem knew nothing about the Lord, except for the simple fact that He lived in Nazareth and His mother was Mary.  That's it!  And yet, they were convinced they knew everything about Him, who He was and where He came from.

Now here's a good lesson for all those people who think they are experts in everything!  Think again, friends.  You shouldn't be so confident in your judgments.  Is it any wonder why the Lord told us to "Stop judging!?"

Buildings have their straight lines, right angles and shapes.  They fit perfectly in empty lots.  Physicists have their crisp and clean and polished formulas.  They use them to translate the Universe into theories and numbers and shrink it to fit inside our very creative minds.  Mathematicians have their neat equations and rounding off rules.  But I love Pi (3.141592654...) and it's resistance to being "confined." 

Positivists value the objective and despise the subjective.  They love the carved wood, not the sawdust.  Why? Because they prefer the clean to the dirty, the finished product, the measurable; not the raw, the unpolished, the natural, the emotional, the subjective.  Rate your pain on a scale of 1-to-10.  How foolish!  We need to give our souls a voice and a vote.  Why?  Because we are deeper than our atoms. 

We are atoms with a soul; that is, hardwired and variable; objective and subjective; human and divine.

Cinderella is more than just a beautiful maiden.  She is the handmaid of the Lord, giving voice to the soul.  Those people that are obnoxious can't stand her (cf. Wis 2:12).  Those who love her don't know her or where she comes from. 

Jesus is more than just a man. He is the Son of Man.  He was not just born in Bethlehem.  He existed before the world was made.  He was more than a Jew.  He is The Word made flesh.  For this reason, St. Paul said, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28).  Those people that are obnoxious can't stand him.  Those who love him want to know more about him.

He went to Jerusalem in secret.  What's it take to be successful?  Just yesterday, I asked a couple of hundred people what they thought.  I heard what I had heard before:  talent, hard work, risk taking, money, being in the right place at the right time, investment, perseverance, sacrifice, belief, failure, correction, etc.

Nothing new.  Nothing surprising.  Nothing very interesting.  Everything hardwired.  So is this it?  Hardwork + Talent + Risk Taking +... = Success?  I don't think so.  I think there are many more variables, and some not so easy to quantifiable, like humility, faith, hope and love, but most importantly, humility.

I think humility is the secret to success, to everyone's success, even to Christ's success.  Blessed are the meek and humble of heart.

Christ revealed His true identity through humility.    To recognize Him requires great humility. 
To believe in Him requires great humility.
Win-Win.
Success.