It is 18th July 2018. The readings are from Isaiah 10:5-7, 13-16; and the Gospel from Matthew 11:25-27. As long as we realise and remind ourselves constantly that we are just the instruments in the hand of the Lord, we will have a peaceful and prosperous life. The moment we claim that the success and victory has happened because our own intelligence, skills and efforts, we become proud and boastful that irritates and angers God. No instrument can take credit for the job executed except the one who uses the instrument. We wonder at times why God allows us to be humiliated and brought low by the ones we are familiar with. We have some persons in our families, communities and work places who bring our reputation down and make us not to succeed at all. Those persons whom God used to deal with our sinful living begin to think that they are great heroes, the saints and the righteous person. It is God who wishes to deal with our unwanted and manipulating attitudes using some people who are so close associates of us. Once God has achieved what God intended in our lives, God does not permit them to harm and humiliate us anymore. If they continue to persecute us thinking that they are so powerful, God deals with them sternly. We reflect in the first reading a situation related to the arrogant boasting from the Assyrians. God reminds them: “Does the axe boast of having cut down a tree? or the saw magnify itself against the one who handles it?” (Is.10:13). God used the Assyria, as the rod to discipline the people of God and bring them back to God. But the Assyria went beyond what God intended and God punishes them and brought them low in 721 B.C. It is better for us to be handled by God for our personal sinfulness and to be reminded that God does it anyway using anyone as an instrument to bring us closer to God. The Responsorial Psalm intercedes, “The Lord will not abandon his people.” (Ps.93:14). The Gospel instructs that God is pleased to reveal himself to those who revere God’s only Son Jesus who knows the Father. We need to have a childlike trust to understand what God is doing in our lives. No theory and theology can solve the human problem except the unquestionable self-surrender in deep faith to the plan and will of God. As Jesus reveals His divinity in the Gospel, let us know and assert our dignity by affirming our nothingness before the greatness of God. In knowing and loving God, we are just the instruments in the hands of God. May we enlighten our minds with trust and remain blessed. Have a good day.