Humility is the way of God and the way to God.
September 1 2019: Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
An Indonesian proverb says, “To be a smart man you need to
be humble.”
God, our Lord finds his delight in humility. The Holy
Scriptures overflow of passages showing humility as one of the greatest and
divine virtues. The song of Mary, the Magnificat is itself the best-of of
humility. We read on the lips of the Blessed Virgin that God “has scattered the
proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from the thrones, and has
lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:51-52).
Mary, herself, is known as the most humble, the handmaid of
the Lord. God chose this humble daughter of Zion to make of her the most “blessed
among all women”. Humility, actually, is the way of the Lord.
Today’s liturgy, 22nd Sunday in the Ordinary Time
C, is a canticle to the virtue of humility. The wise man, Sirach, in the first
reading exhorts his son, saying, “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.”
Humility, as we read, is not the virtue of the weak, rather,
of the greats. By humility, we grow in the esteem of God and are raised high. The
Kingdom of God, actually, belongs to the humbles. Because, humility is the
invitation card to the Lord’s banquet.
In the Gospel, Jesus uses the image of a banquet and the
parable of the ambitious guests to teach his followers about the cost and the
benefice of humility. We read in substance that, “every one who exalts himself
will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The context of the Gospel passage presents rightly this
reality of humility. It is about an invitation to dinner in the house of a
certain Pharisee. We all like to be invited at a banquet. Moreover, we like the
seats of honor and VIP tables when there is a feast. Imagine how much honor and
how pleasant it is to be at a table of honor at a banquet! When we go for high
class parties or wedding feasts, we naturally or instinctively dream of nice
tables, first positions and most respectable seats. That is all human. Mankind wants
always to appear, to be noticed, to be recognized for what he is, even
sometime, though he is nothing. We are infected by the ‘Have you seen me virus’.
So we, oftentimes, forget that we are nothing and that we can only become
something through humility.
The Gospel parable given by the Lord rightly meets with our
realities. “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… 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.”
As disciples of the Lord, we must constantly keep in mind
the virtue of humility and be ready to serve and take the least important
positions. Through such humility and readiness to serve, instead of being
served, we win God’s favor.
To the banquet of the Lord, the first place is reserved to
the humbles. Jesus in the Gospel gives the list of those humbles God invites at
his banquet: the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; in short, the
outcasts, the marginalized of our societies. These are the guests of honor at the
Lord’s banquet. So, if we wish to be counted among those invited to God’s table
of love, we should make ourselves close and servants of these little ones. It is
a call for a preferential option for the poor.
St. Luigi Orione, the Founder of the Little Work of Divine
Providence rightly understood this fact, so he calls the poor, “our patrons”. The
poor, the disables, the blinds, the forgotten of our societies, are our patrons.
To serve them is to buy for ourselves a VIP card to the Lord’s banquet. And for
sure, it asks for a great sense of humility for one to serve the poor and most
poorest of our brothers and sisters. But in doing so, it is Christ himself we
serve. Thus, Don Orione will call his sons, “Servants of Christ and the poor.”
Don Orione would add, “The poor are the pearls of the Church
of Jesus Christ and Our Lord will reward us according to the charity we have
shown towards the poor... The poor must be our brothers and sisters; in fact,
such must be the poorest and most abandoned. Our little Congregation exists for
the poor!... We must see Jesus Christ in our most unhappy brothers and cover
them as if they were the limbs of Jesus.” (from a speech on Sept. 10, 1938)
A recommendation therefore, humility and service of the poor
and the needy; because, “Through divine grace and in great humility we love and
serve Jesus Christ in the most needy of the poor and we serve the poor with the
greatest gentle spirit of charity.”
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