UNLIMITED LEARNING FROM THE LORD!
He is the one and only UNLI!
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
July 6, 2014
UNLIMITED LEARNING FROM THE LORD!
I work once more in a complex school setting. Back here
after 28 years, I move around circles and groups that deal daily with what is
known as teaching-learning situations. One goes to school to learn. One listens
to lectures and subjects oneself to routine in order to learn, hopefully, for
life. Going to school may end with graduation, but learning is meant to be
lifelong.
But there is learning that is lifelong and learning that is
meant to last forever, without end, without limits … In the Philippines, we
call it UNLI … short for unlimited. UNLI refers to unlimited calls provided by
cellphone companies to hook loyal customers. It also refers to the craze of the
day, that would probably cause more diabetic cases in future – UNLI rice!
Popular restaurants now are competing themselves to death by offering unlimited
rice for the price of budget meals.
Today, the Lord offers UNLI learning. He counsels us to
learn from him, who is “meek and humble of heart.” That type of learning goes
beyond graduation, and goes even beyond life in this world. It is not only
lifelong learning, but learning for eternal life – the ultimate UNLI ever!
The first reading and the Gospel passage seem to dovetail
with each other. Zechariah talks about a vision of a king who is not at all
kingly, but one who is “savior, meek and riding on an ass.” The Gospel shows us
that what Zechariah prophesied became real and personal in Christ. Even if he
were “Lord of heaven and earth,”’ and even if “all things were handed over to
him by the Father,” he remained UNLI in lowliness, simplicity, meekness and
humility.
People who are proud are short fused. They have limited
patience, limited understanding of the reality of life as God would have us understand
it. They have a limited grasp of
spiritual realities, and see life in only two dimensions: the here and the now.
People with an UNLI mentality know that there is more to
life than here and now. They know there is a third dimension that makes life
UNLI … without limits, without borders, and without boundaries.
Many years ago, when I was young and impulsive, I had a very
humbling experience in Europe, en route from Madrid to Lisbon, then Fatima in
Portugal. People who are proud are always humiliated. But people who are humble
and only humbled even more. They have an UNLI type of inner resources, that can
only be acquired, not by rote learning, but by learning from the Master
Himself!
That type of learning is focused on unlimited humility,
unlimited meekness, and unlimited trust in the Lord.
Today, I lay claim to that UNLI load of what matters most in
the end – lowliness, meekness and humility. And when one learns from the Master
Himself, one also learns a whole lot more! …
His yoke is easy, and his burden light! What more can we
ever ask for? It leads to UNLI happiness, UNLI life, together with God in UNLI
Heaven, our ONLY true home! Amen! Let’s go UNLI then!
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