Dear Parish Family,
One of the curious teaching in the Old Testament especially in the wisdom literature, is the irony of inverted expectations. Thus, Sirach’s sage in today’s first reading teaches that love is experienced in giving, rather than receiving; that greatness is revealed in humility; that wisdom is a better listener than talker. The Psalms tell us that God becomes the dwelling of the homeless, the liberty of prisoners, and refreshing rain for dry hearts. Luke’s Jesus is fully a child of this oral tradition of paradoxical reversals. His own wisdom teaching, offered at a banquet of elite lawyers and Pharisees, actually draws upon the advice in wisdom literature that it is “better to be invited, ‘Come up here,’ than be humiliated in the presence of the prince.”
When Jesus is speaking at the dinner of a Pharisee in Luke 14, he addresses the issue of those who are nearly void of humility. Here the crux of the matter is not seeing one’s self as worthless, but instead seeing one’s self as exalted above all others. Jesus watched as those present at a dinner party jostling for positions at the table. Choosing a high place could lead one to embarrassment when asked to move down to make place for an important invitee. Before Jesus completes his lesson for those present, he suggests that future dinner parties should include those who have no means of paying back the favor: the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. These are the ones who God favors for they have no earthly status. For them, humility is a natural byproduct of their position in life. For those who are currently at the party, humility is a virtue they must learn and cultivate in their lives.
A popular social media quote says, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” We would do well to add, “and think of God more.” In this life, we are not to hold our heads down in false humility. At our Baptism we are anointed Priest, Prophet and King. We have been created uniquely and been given many gifts so we may honor our Creator. However, it is when we forget that all we are and will be, is tied to the One who created us, we place ourselves into the position of becoming our own little god. We become like those at the dinner party, comparing ourselves to others and strategizing how to rise higher in standing.
When we are considering where we stand in this world, perhaps we would do well to heed some wise parental advice: “Be sure to choose your friends wisely.” We can spend time with those who bring us down and make us feel worthless. We can spend time with those who prop us up and inflate our egos, making us in greater need of humility. Or we can spend time with “the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” God has already chosen to offer them the seat of honor at the table. Gospel messages are best understood in paradoxes and lived on the opposite orbit from our secularized world.