In our reading from the Book of Sirach, we are encouraged to
seek humility, knowing that it is not the judgment of the world that ultimately
matters so much as the approbation of God in our lives, and the generosity of
heart God’s love engenders: Humble yourself the more, Sirach says, and you will find favor with God. We are to act humbly as God acts, on God’s
behalf, in all that we do, comfortable where we are and ready to live out God’s
truth.
Likewise, when, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of
the invited guests and hosts, he reminds his disciples that it is God’s prerogative
to decide where we rank in the grand
scheme of things; we human beings don’t decide our own greatness, we simply
need to embrace the path God set for us:
Go and take the lowest place, Jesus admonishes his disciples, so that any
elevation they experience is not a product of their actions, but a revelation
of the judgment of God: For everyone who
exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be
exalted… It is in this way that we can attain the spiritual Zion of which the Letter to the Hebrews
speaks, the city of the living God,
wherein God cares for all, where God’s mercy reaches out to all people, the bountiful rain referenced in Psalm 68.
We are defined, in sum, by God’s love that perfects us; we
hope to be counted among the spirits of
the just made perfect, an identity offered to us all by a God who saves,
who judges all, yet who repays the righteous, recognizing the humility
of those who understand that theirs is the
lowest place. Our identity in Christ
is one of humble acceptance, a place wherein we acknowledge that God has made a home for us, the poor, that we
might know Jesus, the mediator of a new
covenant, and rejoice in the identity that God represents for us, among the
humble and forsaken. Such is the identity God has given each of us; such is
the identity we are called to embrace in all humility, a gift of the goodness of God, a blessing.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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