Humility isn’t possible in a void; we can only be humble in
relation to other. And it is to humility
that Jesus calls us in this Sunday’s Gospel from Luke.
Invited to dine with a Pharisee, Jesus offers those in attendance a
lesson on the proper conduct at a banquet:
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.’ True,
Jesus is addressing those who were (literally) choosing the places of honor at the table. But the relevance of his message is far
greater, applicable not only to the meal at hand, but also to the marvelously
evocative festal gathering described in the Letter to the Hebrews: the ultimate fulfillment of the covenant God has
long promised to God’s people, and the final banquet with God in the heavenly Jerusalem. In other words, we are called to humility in our relationship with God and other.
Why take the lowest
place? Well, first, humility helps
us to find favor with God, as the
Book of Sirach reminds us, and thus to be
loved more than a giver of gifts. But
the key to being truly humble is to recognize that you are not alone, that you
are part of a greater entity; humility is precisely that capacity within
ourselves that allows us to open our hearts and see others – and to see God –
as necessary to our existence, to acknowledge and appreciate our dependence.
For it is when we recognize our own brokenness that we can be fully open
to God’s loving action – the bountiful
rain of the Psalm – working in our lives, and thus open those very lives to
other, all others -- in fulfillment of the new etiquette that is Jesus' word.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
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