Humility, and the choice of guests at a banquet, are the main topics of our readings for this 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.
To emphasise his teaching, Our Lord Jesus uses the image of a feast, and of guests who are trying to find their proper places at table. There are those guests who are seated at places of honour, at the head table, as we would call it today. Our Lord summarizes his main points in these words: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted”. Our Lord also says, “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled and the lame”.
I’m not sure what experience you have with banquets, but sometimes, priests and religious are invited to places of honour. “Father, Brother, Sister, Bishop, we would be honoured if you could come to the head table”, says the host. Unfortunately, this head table business is usually more of a penance than an honour: after you have said the prayer and blessed the food, the guests at the banquet are free to start enjoying their conversations, around their tables. You, on the other hand, are left sitting at the front of the room with other invited dignitaries, trying to make polite conversation. So, overall, usually first places at banquets are more of a chore than a privilege.
Jesus Christ uses the image of a banquet to remind us of two very important points: the first is, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” The more we have of talents, abilities, gifts, skills, capabilities, or influence – the more we need to become modest, unassuming, and unpretentious. The more we have, the more important we are, the more educated we are, the less we need to draw attention to ourselves. As we heard in the first reading, from the Book of Sirach, “The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself…many are lofty and renowned, but to the humble the Lord reveals his secrets”. We are to be small, like children, infants, with a heart that is simple. In last week’s Gospel, Jesus spoke of the narrow gate, which we will need to get through to enter the eternal banquet. This gate, this door, is so narrow, that only a small person – in effect, a child – will be able to pass through. “Do not exalt yourself” – do not puff yourself up, like a balloon – because then you will not be able to pass through small doors on the marathon to life eternal. Here I think of the Venerable Brother Anthony Kowalczyk, my fellow Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate, who was a blacksmith, a mechanic, driver, and gardener. “As an immigrant, Brother Anthony experienced loneliness, difficulty with language, alienation in a new culture” (https://omiap.org/?page_id=231). He lost his arm in an industrial accident, and then went around with a metal hook, a metal prosthesis. There are photographs of him with a metal hook, instead of an arm. How humbling that must have been to a man who took pride in his work. And yet Brother Anthony humbly persevered.
The second point that Our Lord makes, using the image of a banquet, is the following: when you organize a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; to those we can add the unemployed, the lonely, those from broken families. Two things are important here: first, in our life, there needs to be space for those who can do absolutely nothing to repay us. There needs to be some space for those who – in return for our attention – are not able to give us any benefit. Our Lord makes the promise that if we are charitable towards, and are hospitable to those who are poor, crippled, lame, and blind, then we will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Second, in God’s eyes we are the poor, the lame, the crippled, and the blind. We are the ones crippled by sin, often habitual sin, we are poor because of our imperfections, and we are lame because of our human limitations, and we are the blind because of past mistakes, that we often cannot forgive ourselves for. Yet God invites us to the banquet of the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Holy Mass, and eventually, we hope, to the eternal banquet of heaven.
My brothers and sisters, the more that we have received – talents, gifts, abilities, influence - the more we are to seek to humble ourselves – to become unassuming, unpretentious and simple. We are also to remember the poor, crippled and lame – those who are not able to repay our kindness. If we act in this way, God Himself will acknowledge our good deeds at the resurrection of the righteous.
Finally, let us look at the humility of Our Blessed Mother. She was, and is, the greatest woman in the history of the universe. Still, she was, and is, the humblest woman in the history of the universe. My brothers and sisters, we can call upon her to change our hearts into hearts of meekness and humility. We don’t so much need a dictionary definition of humility or an intellectual portrait of humility as much as a humble heart. Mother Mary can change our hearts into humble hearts. St. Bernardine of Siena says, "after the Son of God, no creature in the world was so exalted as Mary, because no creature in the world ever humbled itself so much as she did." (http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/humility-mary.htm)
Lord, give us the humility that your Mother had, as we persevere through the joys and sorrows of our earthly marathon, a marathon that hopefully will lead to life eternal spent with You.
(Fr. Pawel Ratajczak, OMI, Aug. 28, 2022)