Humility

Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 86 (85):3, 5 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of mercy to all who call to you.

Collect God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. 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: Ecclesiasticus 3:19-21.30-31; Psalm 67; Hebrews 12:18-19.22-24; Luke 14:1.7-14

On a Sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honour at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honour. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Then he said to the host who invited him, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbours, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14:1, 7-14)

Humility An act of humility can be a good worldly tactic. That is to say, it can be a calculated and successful means of gaining the praise and esteem of others. A show of humility may be the best way to gain acceptance after a serious mistake or moral failure. It can also be a good strategy after, say, an election victory. But this worldly-wise humility need have nothing to do with humility of heart, and expressions of humility in the world can spring from nothing other than political or social savvy. In today’s Gospel our Lord speaks of humility not in terms of immediate temporal advantage, but in ultimate terms. “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:1,7-14). To understand the specifically Christian virtue of humility, we must read the Gospels and contemplate the heart of Jesus Christ. This is exactly what our Lord invites us to do: “Come to me, all you that labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” Further, humility is a fundamental feature of the heavenly Father, for at the Last Supper Christ said, “he who sees me sees the Father.” Therefore, as Christ is meek and humble, so is the Father. Everything we see the Son doing in the Gospels that manifests the humility of his heart, reveals also the humility of the Father. So then, humility reigns in the highest heavens, in the very heart of God. It therefore also pertains to the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Spirit’s wonderful gift. If we think of this divine virtue, this virtue reigning at the heart of the Godhead, we shall esteem Christ-like humility and strive to grow in it. We grow in it by humbling ourselves, rather than by exalting ourselves. By contrast, while humility reigns in heaven, pride reigns in Hell. The first sin that was ever committed was a sin of pride, and it was committed in heaven by one of the most illustrious of the angels — Lucifer, the bearer of light. He became the prince of darkness and the father of lies. He exalted himself and so was humbled.

The book of Genesis tells us that God created our first parents and placed them in the Garden of Eden. Leaving them to enjoy its fruits, he commanded them to respect the divine law of good and evil. They were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But then another personality entered the scene, Satan. He intervened with his insinuating temptation to attempt to rival God. “No,” he said, “if you eat this forbidden fruit, you will be like God.” Eve liked the thought of it, took the evil plunge, and went and enticed Adam to do the same. So Lucifer, full of self-exaltation himself, enticed our first parents to exalt themselves in like manner before God. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, our Lord tells us in the Gospel (Luke 14:1, 7-14). Before the world began, pride took root among the highest angels in heaven and wrought havoc. They were cast out into hell. At the dawn of human history, pride took root in our first parents and wrought havoc among them and among all of mankind. They were cast out of the Garden in which they had been placed. A Redeemer from heaven, God’s own Son, would have to come in order to restore the situation. We ought look on pride, or the effort to exalt ourselves before others, as ridiculous and ruinous. I remember when I was growing up we had a dog, and every bone we gave the dog, the dog would bury. And it knew exactly where all its bones were. One day a sister of mine brought another dog into our home for a while, and what did our dog do? Just to assert its superiority, it went and dug up all his bones, put them together in a big heap in one corner of the back yard and stood over them, watching the new dog that had just arrived. The new dog, all frustrated at the sight, could only bark back from a distance. Our dog just watched, very satisfied at being superior to the other dog because it had all those bones. It was funny and ridiculous, but how like human beings our dog was! How often we want to be, and try to be, and succeed in being, the top dog before others!

As St Paul writes, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Though he was God himself, St Paul continues, Christ did not look on equality with God as something to hang on to, but rather he humbled himself and took the form of a slave, and even went humbler still, to death on a cross. And so God raised him up on high and placed him at his own right hand. Our Lord himself is the great example of what he means when he says that the one who humbles himself will be exalted. So let us study the example of our Lord. Each day let us spend a few minutes with a Gospel passage, putting ourselves in the scene and observing our Lord prayerfully. Let us learn from him, especially from his humility, his shunning of all self-exaltation, for “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles himself will be exalted.”

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second reflection: (Luke 14:1, 7-14)

Love for the Poor If we are earnest about following our Lord closely, there will be some things we are instinctively drawn to work on in our life. It could be extra time in prayer, which is wonderful. It could be extra time given to the apostolate, which is wonderful. It could be extra efforts in the religious and spiritual education of our children, which is wonderful. But there will be many things that we will tend to neglect. Time will be needed for us to see what these things are. We must be open to that development in ourselves and committed to the full will of God, if we want truly to advance to a close union with and likeness to Christ. We shall have to take the means to become more aware of what needs to be done in our life, and hence there will have to be regular spiritual reading, listening carefully to the homilies at Mass, taking regular spiritual direction, and so forth.

One thing we must do is to develop a Christ-like love for the poor. God loves the poor, the suffering, the outcast, the one who is deprived in some way, and he is rich in mercy. If we aspire to be his children, we must learn to love the poor too, and to be merciful to those in need. God will show his mercy to the poor precisely through us. Our Lord in the Gospel today (Luke 14:1.7-14) says to the Pharisee who had invited him to the meal, “When you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; that they cannot pay you back means that you are fortunate, because repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise again.” Our Lord was making a general point. We must learn to love the poor, the needy, the helpless, and do what we can to help them. Indeed, in our Lord’s description of the General Judgment, which we find in chapter 25 of St Matthew, he says that we will be judged on how we have helped those in need, because what we do to the least, he will regard as having been done to himself. We will be rewarded or punished accordingly.

We ought ask ourselves, do I have much love for the poor as yet? Have I begun to grow in this aspect of the imitation of Christ? If we in our hearts have to admit that we do not love the poor very much nor help them much, then we must admit to that in the presence of God, and ask for the grace to start working on it by taking some attainable and concrete steps in that direction. Let us pray for the grace to make a real beginning in putting on the mind of Christ our Lord in this aspect of our Christian life. The saints loved the poor. So must we, if we wish to be like Christ.

(E.J.Tyler)

Further Reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 2443-2449 (Love for the poor)

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