22nd Sunday of the Year, Cycle C-2016
FIRST READING Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God. What is too sublime for you, seek not, into things beyond your strength search not. The mind of a sage appreciates proverbs, and an attentive ear is the joy of the wise. Water quenches a flaming fire, and alms atone for sins.
SECOND READING Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a
Brothers and sisters: You have not approached that which could be touched and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm and a trumpet blast and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them. No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.
GOSPEL 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 honor at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. 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 neighbors, 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.”
My sisters and brothers in the Lord,
Humility is not easy for any of us. The Scriptures often encourage us to live humbly but we can find ourselves resisting. Today the Scriptures want to teach us more about the gift of this virtue.
The first reading comes from the Book of Sirach, part of the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures. It is almost a hymn to humility but also exhorts us to appreciate proverbs and to listen well to others. Anyone who lives in a community, perhaps a family or a parish or even a religious community, can understand how important it is to listen to others. In order to listen to the other person, I must put my own way of thinking and my own thoughts aside so that I can truly understand what the other person is saying.
The second reading today comes from the Letter to the Hebrews. This reading wants us to realize the immense mystery that we encounter in Jesus Christ but also in all of creation and especially in other human beings. We are always approaching God in every moment of our lives. Yes we remain unaware of His presence. He is always with us in Himself, in His creation and in one another. His presence is a devouring fire if we let it be.
The Gospel from Saint Luke gives us a story about a person who goes to a banquet and takes a high place and then is asked to move down. This is simply wisdom: don’t look for the high place because someone greater than you is bound to show up and you will feel a fool. Most of us are not the top people in the world! So we should not act as if we are entitled to the top treatment. We will only get embarrassed. This seems such a simple lesson and a practical one.
At the level of spirituality, we can also begin to think that God must make all things wonderful for us and do as we ask Him in prayer. Life is not that way. God wants to form us so that we truly love and serve others. In order to do that, we must experience our own smallness and come to value our smallness and nothingness. We have numerous examples in the Scripture of those who were humble and were then lifted up—but spiritually. Chief among such people is always Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
If only we will undertake this journey to humility, we will come to know the joys of serving others, of helping others towards God, or being able to see reality with the eyes of God’s love. If it looks a bit scary at first, we must not run away. As we persevere in humility we come to know the deepest love of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip