Humility: The Virtue That Surpasses All!

(Homily 22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. C)

     In today’s readings humility seems to be the pivotal message that traverses the three liturgical texts. Humility as exemplified in the first reading is the attitude of man before earthly and heavenly (spiritual) riches: “The greater you are, the more humbly you should behave, and then you will find favor with the Lord” (v.18), this serves as a prelude to the Gospel: “For everyone who raises himself up will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be raised up” (v.11). In the Gospel humility is presented as the best attitude of man, and particularly of a Christian, in his relation with others and in the different situations that life offer. The second reading takes up the theme of the heavenly banquet; the sacred author presents the contraposition between the old revelation on Sinai and the new and definitive one that came through the mediation of Christ (Humility personified) in Zion, where those who possess evangelical humility gather.

     The first reading (Sir. 3:17-18, 20, 28-29) presents a veritable lesson on humility. As a matter of fact, pride is the worst of the seven deadly sins, while humility is the mother of all the Christian virtues. For this a humble person finds favor in the sight of God, though not as a reward or merit for his humility, but because humility like faith entails abandoning oneself before God and allowing God to act where we cannot do anything. The passage presents a wise man in the Old Testament, who attracted God’s favor and the love of the people because of his readiness to help others, indeed humility bears many fruits, and one of them is kindness. In this passage we see the fruit of humility: ‘a humble person is loved by men and finds favor with God’. It is the Lord who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (cf. 1Pt.5:5). Indeed, the Lord gazes at the humble, and the gaze or look of the Lord is life giving, for this Prophet Isaiah puts words in the mouth of the Lord thus: “But my eyes are drawn to the person of humbled and contrite spirit” (Is. 66:2). In the same vein, the verses of today’s psalm, the Psalmist praises God for granting His favor to the poor and the humble.

     The Gospel periscope (Lk. 14:1,7-14) presents the reality of the Kingdom of God in the context of a banquet. The parable is a piece of sapiential and prudential advice on how to comport oneself at the dinner of the Lord, so as to avoid embarrassment. Be that as it may, as a parable, this passage cannot be easily tagged or considered a piece of worldly wisdom or merely a lesson on humility. More than that, it captures more the aspect of man’s relationship with God. For God through His Son, Jesus Christ is inviting men and women to the Messianic feast, the heavenly banquet. The initiative of this banquet is God’s; therefore the way to respond adequately to the invitation is by giving up any form of claim of personal merit or rights. Like the Pharisees that expected the best and privileged seats and positions as a recognition or reward for observing the Torah, instead they have to humble themselves and learn the fact that salvation is an unmerited gift of and from God.

       One of the characteristics of the gospel of St. Luke is the presentation of Jesus as an invited guest in a meal by the Pharisees. For three times we see him as a guest in the house of the Pharisees, and in those three times Luke presented Jesus who was very submissive, accommodating and tolerant before the Pharisees. ●The first time was in the house Simon (Lk. 7:36-50), and while Jesus was there a woman with a bad name came in with an alabaster ointment, she soaked the feet of Jesus with tears, wiped them away with her hair and anointed them with the ointment. Jesus through his presence rehabilitated spiritually that sinful woman. ●The second time was in the house of an anonymous Pharisee (Lk. 11:37-54), he warned the Pharisees of their hypocrisy and exhibitionism. Jesus rebuked them: “You Pharisees! You clean the outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion and wickedness” (v.39). ●The third time is narrated partly by the gospel passage of today, it happened in the house of one of the leading Pharisees, after the healing of a dropsical man. From the foregoing, one notices that each time Jesus honors their invitation he gives them a wonderful lesson for life, he told that man that invited him, “When you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, then you will be blessed, for they have no means to repay you and so you will be repaid when the upright rise again” (vv. 13-14). It is not as if Jesus was trying to abolish the usual sharing and conviviality that exist between friends and families, rather he wanted to admonish them on the need not to do things for egoism and that our gestures of love should have preference (the poor and the needy). The fact that Jesus was going to the houses of the Pharisees at that time, has a big significance for us. And as usual, Jesus grabbed the occasion to rebuke them on their incoherence and presumption. Similarly, this passage reminds us that a person’s acceptance into the Messianic banquet is incumbent upon ones acceptance of the others in the present time. Upon this consideration, humility becomes really an active virtue.

       The teaching on humility is translated in concrete images in the parable of today’s Gospel. It is pertinent to understand the meaning and aim of this parable. At first it does appear, Jesus is giving a set of norms for good table manners or on subtle calculation (of choosing the last place in order to gain the first). This was the meaning the rabbi of his time was giving to the maxim in the book of Proverbs: “do not take a place among the great; better to be invited, ‘Come up here’, than be humiliated in the presence of the prince” (Prov. 25:6-7). But in the mouth of Jesus the prospective changed radically and the words of natural wisdom become words of eternal life. The banquet that Jesus speaks about is the eschatological banquet; between the choice of a place by those invited and the intervention of the head of the house who enjoins to go back or forward, there is in-between a leap from this life to the other life. Therefore, the rapport that Jesus evokes is not between man and man, but between man and God; and this gives the parable a different undertone.

       Jesus concluded the parable with the words: “who humbles himself will be raised up”. But what does it mean to humble oneself? If this question is posed to a group of Christians, certainly we will get many answers. However, to discover what true humility is, we need to interrogate Jesus. As Jesus would always say: “learn from me, for I am gentle and humbler in heart” (Mt. 11:29). Where does the humility of Jesus reside? The humility of Jesus resides in the heart, and in deed connecting his humility to the heart entails that the humility of Jesus is a holistic and integral humility. In the whole Gospel Jesus did not admit of any fault whatsoever, not because of pride, but because that is the fact. Little wonder, he says with his head high: “Can any of you convict me of sin?” (Jn. 8:46). This is indeed a proof of his unified divinity-humanity. Not only that, he says learn from me for I am humble. Therefore, humility in the dictionary of Jesus is deep rooted in his being and mission. What did Jesus do in order to show that he is humble? He stooped low; he lowered himself, not in words or with sentiments, but with facts and in deed.  The humility of Jesus began when even though he was “in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6-8). In all his life, Jesus remained coherent with this choice: he is the Master that lowers himself to wash the feet of his disciples, he comports himself as the one who serves. His was a humble existence, of descending and descending till the point of the tomb. And the Father raised him up above all, “for this God raised him high” (Phil. 2:9).  This is how his (Jesus) parable was realized in his words: Who humbles himself will be exalted. As such, to be humble means to “make your own the mind of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5), to comport oneself as he comported himself.

     The central theme of today’s message offers us the opportunity to understand in a new way, what evangelical humility means. Humility is first of all, a question of fact, choice and concrete attitude, not mere sentiments. The Greek word used in the New Testament to indicate the act of humbling oneself is tapeinoo, which literally means to lower oneself, to stoop low. Humility is the readiness to come down from ourselves, and to lower oneself towards the brothers and sisters, it is the will to serve, to serve for love and not for advantages. This introduces an important perspective in connection to humility as gratuity, but in relation to the second part of today’s Gospel , which talks about a different thing altogether. Jesus says, when you prepare a meal do not invite the rich, the handsome and the beautiful, the powerful, those who can pay you back; instead invite the poor who have nothing to give you in return. Here, we see that evangelical humility is closely knit with love; it is indeed, a manifestation of agape. That is the love that St. Paul talked about in his famous hymn on love, to say that “love is always patient and kind, love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited” (1Cor. 13:4), entails that love is humble and humility is love. Jesus takes the virtue of humility to a higher level, to an agapic level. To be humble in Jesus’ parlance entails to loss oneself, to spend oneself gratuitously, it means to live for others and not for oneself. Little wonder, boast, pride and self-seeking are opposed to humility. In the words of St. Paul: “Someone who thinks himself important, when he is not, only deceives himself” (Gal. 6:3). St. Paul at times presents humility as a balanced and realistic view or presentation of oneself with sobriety, “never pride yourself on being better than you really are…Do not congratulate yourself on your own wisdom” (Rm. 12:3.16).

     In the second reading (Heb. 12:18-19, 22-24a) the author makes a sort of comparison between the law, the old revelation on mount Sinai and the new and definitive revelation through the mediation of Christ on Mount Zion. The author says that we are on mount Zion, the city of the living God. The mount on which Christians gather is not an inhospitable mount, but a place of the gracious presence of God, a place of salvation (cf. Is. 2). The images of both the mount and the city are symbols of salvation that comes from on high, from God (cf. Gal. 4:26). The new mount (Zion) will not be inaccessible like the old one (Sinai), for Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant. However, the hit-track of this contrast in relation to the central theme of this Sunday is the fact that coming to the mountain is the favor that God grants to the “humble”.

     Be that as it may, upon a deeper reflection on our theme today, we cannot but say that true humility is revealed in the equilibrium in the rapport with God (humility of the heart) and the way of relating with the others (humility of fact). Humility, like love, has to be expressed towards God and towards the neighbor. To be humble in our world today requires the courage of swimming against the current, for we live in a world that exhorts pride, self-centeredness and the philosophy of climbing at the detriment of others. Therefore, dear friends, what we should be aiming at, striving for, are summed up in the words of sacred scripture (Ps. 51): "A new heart create for me, Oh God, and put a steadfast spirit within me." This is God's work, not something we can achieve of ourselves. "Without me," Christ told his disciples, "you can do nothing" (Jn. 15:5). But with him, we are assured, all things are possible for those who love him. O Lord give us the enabling grace to emulate your humility, for “You save a people that is humble and humiliate those with haughty looks” (Ps. 18:27).

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)