Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 126
Reading 1
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.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (cf. 11b) God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.
The just rejoice and exult before God;
they are glad and rejoice.
Sing to God, chant praise to his name;
whose name is the LORD.
R. God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.
The father of orphans and the defender of widows
is God in his holy dwelling.
God gives a home to the forsaken;
he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.
R. God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.
A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;
you restored the land when it languished;
your flock settled in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.
R. God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.
Reading 2
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.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Take my yoke upon you, says the Lord,
and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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 BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
It is better to be humble than to be humiliated. Pride is the gateway to all other sin, for sin can be defined as a, “turning away from God,” and the act of turning away indicates that one has put their will before that of God’s. Doing so reveals a presence of pride. If God is all knowing and all powerful, then those of us choosing to sin are in more danger than we realize. If anything in our lives is done without first contemplating God’s reaction, we are at risk of causing great harm to ourselves and those people whom we interact with. Putting God first is key to a richer experience and a life with less burden. Humbling ourselves means we are voluntarily lowering our stature in the eyes of others. To do so means acting and speaking as if one was in lower esteem and importance than they are. There is a lack of ego and self-importance. When we do this, we are more apt to make decisions rightly and not act in an ill-begotten manner. There is also a lesser chance of sinning and disappointing God, for we see more clearly what He wants from us and can more readily be at service to Him. In comparison, humiliation is brought upon my having one’s status involuntarily lowered. In other words, one’s actions and speech lead oneself into a bad situation. Self-will and self-idealization play a central role in this outcome, where all calamities brought down on an individual is a creation of oneself, one’s actions, and one’s speech.
In the First Reading today, we are taught that humility is the key to love. It is through humility that we can forgive and not judge. We can also have empathy for other people whose situation might be worse off than ours. Individuals in need are the ones who God wants us to be in service to and help. Doing so puts our faith into action, and we are able to do the works of Jesus Christ. We are called to help the suffering and to experience our own suffering in the process, for Jesus suffered for us. This is part of the Christ Experience. We cannot fully encounter Jesus unless we too suffer. To suffer properly there can be no defiance and no rebuke against it. This indicates the presence of pride and the feeling that our suffering is undeserved. Acceptance is key. Acceptance opens the door to humility and an understanding that all have the potential to suffer and no one is exempt. It should be welcomed and celebrated. The feeling of exemption and unfairness leads to the inflation of one’s social status or state in comparison to another. Being humble prepares us for any impending suffering to a point of almost expecting it.
There is a natural inclination in society to seek recognition and honor. To be seen is to be recognized. To be recognized indicates some sort of importance. The statement, “Do you know who I am?” rings true in many circumstances. This leads to a feeling of greatness and a self-inflated stature, something that God wants us to avoid. Never has anything been the opposite of the example of Jesus Christ than this. The Incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, holds the key. In Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, he addresses this point:
“ Who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness, and found human appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”
This was the example Jesus Christ set for us to follow. Anything contradictory to that is unacceptable in the eyes of God. There is no room for misconstruing what is being said. Saint Paul accepted torture, imprisonment, shipwrecks, and complete failure in the name of Jesus Christ. To follow Jesus, we must experience things of that nature in order to rise above them through the presence of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ tells us that this will happen. Choosing the lesser seat at table, the one that holds no honor, or prestige will give God the opportunity to raise us up in His name. There is no reason for us to do the raising, for if we do, we have built our foundation on sand. Building our own foundation means it is already flawed because we are flawed. Faith and trust in God guarantee a strong foundation, if we choose to build on it.
A very powerful and short prayer is the Jesus Prayer,
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner".
It is simple and effective. It was designed specifically for that purpose. It recognizes who Jesus is while, at the same time, allows us to humble ourselves by admitting to Him that we are nothing more than sinners in His eyes. We are no more important than anyone else and are undeserving in all respects to whatever He chooses to give us. The definition of mercy is, “ compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.” It is undeserved. There are no preconditions for giving or showing mercy. Jesus’ Divine Mercy continuously pours out onto the world and throughout God’s creation. To receive it, takes being humble. Not being humble indicates a presence of pride. Pride is a sin and means that we are unable to receive that mercy since we have turned away from it. We have refused it by not recognizing it, nor the source which it came from. When we give mercy, we receive mercy because we are in a condition to recognize it, ask for it, and receive it.
King David proclaimed in Psalm 25,
“Remember your compassion and your mercy, O Lord,
for they are ages old.
Remember no more the sins of my youth,
remember me according to your mercy,
because of your goodness, Lord.”
A king and prophet before his God, He lowered himself before God and begged for something he did not deserve. This put him in the position to be given what was asked for. Us doing the same thing in our lives, enables us to receive all the benefits of a right relationship with God. A right relationship leads to a journey through the suffering to the joys that are always present at the end of it. All this made possible through acts of humility and a rejection of pride. It sets up for success through God instead of failure through our own thoughts in actions.
Deacon Tom
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