Humility

Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Ps 84 (83): 10-11 Turn your eyes, O God, our shield; and look on the face of your anointed one; one day within your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

Collect O God, who have prepared for those who love you good things which no eye can see, fill our hearts, we pray, with the warmth of your love, so that, loving you in all things and above all things, we may attain your promises, which surpass every human desire. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Ruth 2:1-3.8-11;4:13-17; Psalm 127; Matthew 23:1-12

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practise what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the market-places and to have men call them 'Rabbi'. But you are not to be called 'Rabbi', for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father', for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher', for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:1-12)

Humility At times one sees references to Jesus as a social revolutionary who opposed authority in society and religion, attempting to overturn the corrupt institutions of his time and place. There is no doubt that the religious authorities felt threatened by Jesus — Pilate could see clearly that their implacable hostility was due to jealousy. The people hung on his words and were struck by his holy authority. The core leadership (though not all the leaders, by any means) hated him. But it must be remembered that our Lord in no way opposed their office and class as such. In our Gospel he commands respect for their office and an obedience to their proper and best teachings, which is to say, in the legitimate exercise of their office. “Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you.” He himself is found dining in the home of Pharisees. The scribes and Pharisees may be largely credited with enforcing in the nation the Sabbath observance, which was a linchpin of Jewish life. But, he says, “do not do what they do, for they do not practise what they preach.” So our Lord’s principal critique of the scribes and Pharisees was of their own practise of religion, and the bad example they gave of self-exaltation. Now, while our Lord in our passage today commands religious obedience to them, we know from elsewhere in the Gospels that he did criticize many of their prescriptions on how the Sabbath was to be observed, their prescriptions on the practice of Corban, and various other matters. But it was the heart of their religion which our Lord especially condemned. They fiddled and fussed with human regulations meant to protect the weighty matters of God’s Law, but forgot and neglected in their own lives those weighty matters of love, justice and true adoration of God. They lived in self-exaltation. John the Baptist called them a brood of vipers and our Lord called them white-washed sepulchres. Our Lord feared the contagion of their example, for they were the leaders. He did not want his disciples to be seeking their own glory in their religion.

Accordingly, he says, “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the market-places and to have men call them 'Rabbi'.” This self-exaltation was at the root of their oppression of others precisely in religion. “ They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” The burdens of religion which they imposed enforced their sense and practice of power. They gloried in their titles and made of them a means of personal exaltation. As the religious leaders they did not serve, but sought to be served. Christ’s disciples were not to take their cue from them. “But you are not to be called 'Rabbi', for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father', for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher', for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant.” Our Lord was not condemning the use of titles as such. He himself gave a title to Simon: it was Peter, the Rock. Simon thenceforth was known for this title and it was his by Christ’s designation. Christ called James and John, “sons of thunder.” He gave to John the Baptist the title of “prophet.” He said to his disciples that he was indeed their Master and Lord. When speaking to Nicodemus he said to him that he was “a teacher in Israel,” and doubtless our Lord would have allowed Nicodemus to be addressed as such. What our Lord was condemning was the self-exaltation in such practices. They ought to have been the occasion of humble service. At the Last Supper, when our Lord concluded his washing of the feet of his disciples, he said, you call me Master and Lord — and you are right, for that is what I am. So it was right to use these titles, but they expressed humble service. It was legitimate for his disciples to use appropriate titles (such as Apostle, Rock, and others in later history) provided they expressed Christ-like service and humility before God and man.

Life is short and eternity is long. Let us use every day to grow in the spirit of Christ, who left aside the glory and position that was his as God and became as we are, indeed humbler still, even to death on a cross. But God raised him up. Thus does our Lord conclude his words with this ominous and yet exhilarating dictum: “The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:1-12). Let us make that the programme of our everyday life.

(E.J.Tyler)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Second Reflection: (Ezechiel 43:1-7)

Giving Glory to God One of our favourite prayers ought be that which we repeat during the Rosary: "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit." We are created to give glory to God, and our happiness will lie in giving God more and more glory. St Ignatius Loyola coined this great caption for the generous Christian: All for the greater glory of God! One of the striking features of the visions of the prophet Ezechiel is their revelation of God's glory. In ch.43: 1-7, the prophet tells us that he "saw the glory of the God of Israel approaching from the east." The "vision was like the one I had seen" previously. He tells us that "the glory of the Lord arrived at the Temple", and he "saw the glory of the Lord fill the Temple." So through the prophet, God was impressing upon his people his glory, and their vocation to recognise it especially as connected with his presence in the Temple.

Let us cultivate in our hearts the desire to do all for the greater glory of God. It will involve recognising and honouring with profound reverence his very presence, wherever it is — and we are enlightened in this by our Faith. He is present in our souls if we are in the state of grace. He is present in the Tabernacle of our churches, in the Sacraments, in the Priesthood and its ministry. He is present in so many ways in his body the Church. Let us live each day in such a way that God will be honoured and glorified, and that through us he will be enabled to glorify his name.

(E.J.Tyler)

----------------------