HUMILITY: KNOWING YOUR PLACE

22ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

SIR 3: 17 – 18, 20, 28-29 / PS 68 / HEB 12: 18 – 19, 22 – 24a / LK 14: 1,7-14

What do you usually do during meals? I remember before, when times were much simple, everyone gather around the dining table and enjoy the good food alongside good company of family or friends. Today, while eating, people still enjoy the good food, however, alongside a good television program. The opportunity to enter into dialogue with one another during meals is lost because everyone is busy either with the TV or with their cellphones. Isn’t it?

It was very different during the time of Jesus. If you notice in our Gospels, we see Jesus who is always invited to dine with others in their homes, and it is within these occasions that Jesus would proclaim his teachings. Our Gospel today is no different: Jesus while at meal with friends, is introducing a very important virtue - the gift of humility.

In the Gospel story, Jesus noticed that invited guests were busy trying to occupying the seats of honor, or the front seats. And so, he tells them not to rush to the seats of honor; he suggested that they’d rather prefer the low places so that it will be the master who will bring them to the front seats.

From the parable, we see that humility is all about knowing ones place in the scheme of things. Humility is about knowing our real condition in this world—and accepting it. Looking into our lives now, we shall discover that we are sinners who are in need of His mercy.

This is our problem today: at times we forget that money, power, and influence lead us to sinful lifestyle patterns. And what is true is that, most often than not, money, power, and influence are the very same things that lead us all the more to greater sinful lifestyle patterns. Let us remember that money, power, and influence pass away. Thus, the more we must hold on to something infinite, and that is the mercy of God.

My dear friends, humility becomes faulty when we stop at being aware that we are sinners who are in need of God’s mercy. Let us always remember that it is by accepting that we are sinners that we become humble.  And mind you, humility also reminds us that we are called to be saints.

And so we ask ourselves, how do we become saints?

Towards the end of today’s Gospel, we see that Jesus is suggesting to his audience that they also invite to the banquet people who are unable to repay them for it will be the source of their blessedness. Humility therefore is not just about being aware of our sinfulness; it is also about accepting the challenge to become saints by serving others especially those at the peripheries of society.

My dear friends, every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we are taught of the virtue of humility. Every time we gather for the Mass, we are reminded of our place in salvation history. When we receive the Lord, we are reminded that we are sinners who are in need of his life giving body and blood. And every after Mass, we are sent into the world to become saints through our service.

Mao nga unta kita nga hinimba, mas mapaubsanon unta ta kaysa uban. Usahay man gud kay hinimba lagi ta, mas garboso naman hinoon ta kay sa uban (Hopefully so, we who go to Mass frequently should be more humble. What we notice, however, is that, since we go to Mass frequently, we have become more haughty and proud).

Now, going back to our question: What do you usually do during meals?

But let me ask you a different question now: What do you usually do in the Eucharistic Meal, in the Mass? My friends, let us remind ourselves that our ticket to such a meal is a humble heart - a heart that knows one’s own sinfulness as well as a heart that is aware of a constant invitation from God to become a saint. Amen