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Gospel Reflection 20070902

God is big enough to deal with your questions.
Be open with God! Questions can shake us up, especially when they concern things that are important to us. In the end, faith is about your relationship with God. If you can't take your questions to God in prayer, then you may be avoiding the one experience of dialogue that can be the most fruitful.
Sometimes it may be difficult to find God in prayer, but the effort is worth it. God is there and wants to find you.

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Christ, the Demanding Guest
September 2, 2007


Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time


Gospel
Lk 14:1, 7-14

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.”



Christianity isn’t comfortable. We have to be ready to discover that we are not as holy and good as we thought we were. Humility is an essential virtue for any true Christian.

What if Jesus was to come back today? Think about it. What an impact it would have? If you could, wouldn’t you want to be there? To sit at his right or his left. To dine with him. Or perhaps you would want to be furthest away from him because you don’t think you are worthy. Because you are a sinner.
Well, I must confess that I am a sinner too.
Today we see that Jesus loves those who are lowly. That is those who are low because of their sin, not because society says they are not worthy. Jesus has come to invite all those who are willing to truly examine themselves and to know who they are to join him at a wonderful banquet.



A story is told of an event that happened in a church that was located right off the entrance to a small college. The pastor and elders of the congregation seemed to lament the fact that with all of the students, the faculty and even visitors to the campus, participation at Sunday worship never varied, actually there seemed to be a decline. A study was commissioned and revealed that people not attending the church viewed the congregation as “stuffy” and uninviting.
One Sunday the service was well underway when the door opened with a loud creak. Everyone’s head turned to see a young man enter who obviously did not belong. His hair was long and stringy…he wore cut-offs and a short-sleeved shirt…he had multiple tattoos on his arms and legs…he looked rough and unkempt. He was obviously a student at the school. His presence in the church caused a great amount of tension.
He walked slowly, hesitantly down the center aisle looking for a place to sit but no one would move over to make room in a pew. His presence interrupted the service. He completed his walk not finding a place to sit, so he sat down on the floor at the foot of the sanctuary.
People were shocked. Won’t someone do something? Certainly this person should be dealt with immediately. Then the congregation heard the familiar sound of an elder walking slowly down the aisle toward the miscreant. He was the most respected person in the congregation; he was dressed in his dark blue three-piece suit, he walked with a slight limp and had to use a cane. He slowly made his way down the aisle, each step punctuated with the faint click of the cane tapping the marble floor.
He finally got to where the young man was sitting and everyone thought now this individual will get what he deserves. The Elder handed his cane to someone in the front pew and leaned over grasping the shoulder of the man sitting on the floor, he eased himself down next to him to join him in worship.
The minister regaining his composure, commented that they just witnessed the gospel alive in their midst.
There is an immediate tension in today’s gospel. On the surface invitations like the one Jesus received are typically given to equals, people of the same status or position in the community. The obvious meaning is that all whom the host has invited will certainly return the invitation. Jesus presence then indicates that he is highly regarded in this circle of professionals.
As our gospel begins though, there is a direct reference that all things are not as they appear. The host and guests were “watching” Jesus closely. The implication used in the text is one of hostility. They hoped to catch him in a shortcoming of some sort. After all Jesus did have a reputation of not following accepted practices while dining. What would he do to shock them today?
Jesus is watching as well. He is observant of who has been invited. And he is watching their behavior as they try to position themselves for a better seat at the table. It should come as no surprise that he would comment on what he sees. Yet, it is in his comments that he becomes the host inviting everyone into his Father’s kingdom.
On the surface it appears that Jesus’ comments suggest that guests should be shrewd in positioning themselves at a dinner. He tells them; Always take the lower seat…and don’t sit at the appropriate place…always sit in the lesser place…otherwise how will you be honored when you are invited to a greater position. It’s almost as if he is inviting the guests to fake humility.
Perhaps for some this is exactly what they wanted to hear. But in reality is he is talking about changing a way of living. Everyone who heard him (including us) are invited to sit with people who are on the margins of society…be willing to listen to them…to feel what they are experiencing…defend…or…assist where possible. Isn’t this what Jesus did?
Jesus also challenges the host to invite those who cannot possibly repay the kindness. Throw open the doors to your home…invite impartially and your feast will be wonderful. If you only invite those who can repay, they will say to each other… “He only invited us because we are to return the gesture,” in this manner there is no feast…there is no celebration. After all, who among us are worthy of the Father’s invitation? We can do nothing to deserve or repay his invitation. Yet it is through God’s love that we are always invited…always welcomed.
Jesus challenges us:
· Do we judge those who we come in contact?
· Do we place restrictions on who is welcomed?
· Do we act in calculating ways in order to gain some advantage later?
Our response is to take the time necessary to walk the “aisles” of our life and be willing to sit on the floor to worship…to praise God.
And then, we can look at our actions and joyfully witness the gospel alive in our midst.



Imagine the meal at this leading Pharisee's house being televised. Already there has been a build up in press reports that Jesus, the central character of this TV program, may say something controversial or do something extraordinary. Any would-be audience will be in a position "having watched him closely" to give their considered opinion on how Jesus performed. Well, we don't happen to have any TV footage of the occasion, slides or sound recordings. What we have is a record of the event given us by Luke in his Gospel today.

For all we know Jesus could have been a regular visitor to this Pharisee's house. Was this just another visit, another simple meal managed without too much controversy? No. Jesus was going to be watched closely. Before ever he talked about people putting themselves second, lowering themselves, he had just done that very thing already, by becoming like one of us human beings. God's Son will cause something of a religious earthquake; any dormant plates on which traditional religions rested upon until now would experience a series of shock waves. Christ's words and actions while touching the core of established religion and new religion alike would not end there: His mission on earth would now run its course effecting a change in every human heart. He will be God-with-us; He will not judge by appearances instead He will see into people's hearts (1 Samuel 16: 7).

During the visit to the home of this leading Pharisee He will point out to all present how their lives are to be truly disposed to God. Jesus will be grateful to be entertained by His host and fellow guests if only all kinds of people are made welcome and they are not selective in their choice of seating. By now, perhaps, certain members of that TV audience, if they have not already switched channels, may very well be ready to do so; the holy one of God is beginning to look into their hearts, and they can feel it. It is becoming a little disturbing; there may be murmurings from certain folk: like, 'I will invite whom I like,' or, 'I will sit wherever I like at my friend's house; after all I am as good as the next person.'

Of course we are all equal in God's sight. It is always good to know that I am loved by God and so are all people irrespective of who they are. It is also good to know that God creates no barriers between Himself and people; it is people who create obstacles between themselves and God. Our words and actions can include or exclude at a whim people we meet in our everyday life. We even do that in our thoughts by thinking bad or good of certain people.

Often we can think of people in terms of cost and reward: can I afford to spend my time and energy on people whom I am in a position to help? There is a reward for caring about other people; this is something that Jesus makes very clear: those who care for the least thought of in our community will join the virtuous when the resurrection of the dead happens (v. 14).


Have you ever had to eat humble pie? We usually have to do that when we have acted as if we know something, or led people to believe that we were capable of something, only to find out later, in the sight of many others, that we could not live up to our billing. Eating humble pie is forced on us by being humiliated in public and living with the consequences. The humility that is spoken of in the scriptures this weekend is voluntarily taken on by one who follows in the footsteps of Jesus.

Imagine the daily task of a mother or father who is raising children. They are constantly faced with decisions about the maturity of their children. How can they as parents give life day by day to their sons and daughters? Letting their children shine, many times brighter than the parents, and rejoicing in the success and taking a back seat. Humbly accepting a lower place in the attention of others for the sake of building up their children.

Imagine the daily task of the married couple who tries each day to keep their commitment fresh and alive. With the daily hurts and loneliness, even in the midst of marriage, each partner has to choose to set aside some of his or her immediate wants for the sake of the other partner. When life doesn't come up with the same results as what they had dreamed the future would be like. Chosen humility calls the partners to set aside their own wants for the sake of the other.

Chosen humility is a great thought but do we ever really choose it freely? Is humility one of those "religious" terms that we say is great but the living out is so much more difficult to choose? The specific gospel example is one that most of us would never choose. Plan a banquet and then invite those you do not know? Throw a party for those who are poor and downtrodden? Pick out the people in your life with whom you have the greatest distance and invite them to your house for a good time? If we are honest, most of us have never done that and never would! When we have a party, we invite our friends. When we plan a dinner, we are hospitable to those who are the same to us or who can make a connection in business for us. Why would we waste our time with those who have no connection, with the poor, with the sick and suffering? Wouldn't it take the fun out of the evening? Wouldn't it be more trouble than it was worth?

Before we dismiss the gospel teaching on chosen humility as crazy or out-dated, let's reflect about some of our own experiences. If you take some time and sort through your memories, you can come up with a time when you did do what the gospel is suggesting. There has been a time when you did choose humility! There are those who pull on our time and energy all the time. Sometimes we keep them at bay and sometimes we say yes to their requests. When we have said yes and decided to embrace them with our time and presence, we have been surprised.

I think we all know that we can help people. We all know that you kind of feel good after you have done something like that. But what about the hidden gift? That gift is the growing awareness that poverty, hunger, disease or any other circumstance in life does not have the power to make us different than others. We are all one. We are all brothers and sisters. This hidden gift of ministry, the one that each of us receives when we choose to love and be humble, is stored in our hearts. It is especially helpful when we battle our own loneliness. And each of us does battle loneliness! When we are sick and feeling alone, when we are misunderstood and feeling alone, when we are made fun of or abused and feeling alone, this hidden gift of ministry becomes our saving grace. It reminds us that we are not alone. No matter what seems to separate us from others, the real truth is that we are one. We are the hands and the heart and the face of God to each other. Why not choose humility if it has such long lasting grace?


The theme and lesson of the Gospel is obvious. We are to be humble. But if we stop there, it is like eating our dinner in one bite. We may get some nourishment but the shock to our system or its inability to digest so much at once will minimize the full effect that a good meal can have upon us. So let us take a few moments to chew on this lesson one bite at a time and savor each one. Let us take the time so each morsel can have its full effect on our system.
The word “humility” comes from the Latin word “humus” which means ground. So one who is humble is grounded. Specifically, they are grounded in reality. That is why we must be careful and avoid false humility – of being falsely grounded in perceived reality. This is really not as easy as it might seem. Even if we are open to knowing true reality, and pursue it, we can be led astray by others, our culture, or history in believing a less than true or accurate or honest reality. This is the third time Jesus has been invited to dinner in Luke’s gospel, and it is the third time he has taken the opportunity to challenge, or correct the host, their guests, or both. This time he cautions the guests about their jockeying for a “place of honor”. His warning is clearly aimed at preventing them from buying into a false perception of their honor or position. Humility here would be the awareness of who they really are in relationship with the other guests. His caution includes the condition that one may not always know the true reality and it would be wiser to not assume you know it. His warning to the host is aimed at helping the host see that to invite only those who can help you or do something for you is also a false perception of reality. Here Jesus is calling the host, and us, to put everything into its proper context. As the gospel ended several weeks ago, “thus it will be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God:” If we are truly seeing things as they really are, including ourselves and our place in things, we would be acting very differently. Can we be humble enough to accept our error, or misconceptions of reality, and be open to letting Jesus show us the Way, the Truth, and the Life that will lead us to happiness, fulfillment, joy, and eternal life?
In truth, most if not all the problems of our lives, and our times, can be traced to our misperceptions of reality. From our earliest days of consciousness, our mind is trying to perceive reality. We misread, misjudge, or are just misinformed about so many things. Yet this is what we use to make our conscious and subconscious decisions about everything in life. Now here you might start thinking you are an exception. But - IN REALITY – we all suffer from this problem because its part of the human condition. The core attitudes or perspective of the world, and ourselves were formed before we turned seven years old. Therefore they were developed when we didn’t have the full and refined use of our reasoning. We developed an immature and unreasoned outlook toward things that we carried with us as we matured, and this is where the virtue of Humility is critical. Without humility we cannot be open to change, or to learning the full reality around us. Without humility we will use the immature attitudes and outlooks we developed in early childhood. This is what many spiritual writers refer to as the false self. It is the self we have created. It is the self we believe ourselves to be and how we try to make the world fit to our perception of this false reality. This is what Paul refers to as the “old self” that dies when we unite with Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus tries to teach and show his disciples and us in the Gospels.
To be humble is to recognize reality, acknowledge reality, accept reality, and live in accordance with that reality. It is reality- that we can’t do that without God’s help.



Of the virtues of the Christian life, humility is certainly among the most difficult for our human nature to accept. Charity, hope and faith, even forgiveness and patience, are all virtues for which we can more or less see good reason. They all somehow leave us in control of things. But humility just rubs us up the wrong way – when, that is, we are the ones who must be humble. It’s all right, indeed it is expected, that others be humble in our presence! To be humble is effectively to lose control; it lets others be, it cherishes that others be better, be more and have more than ourselves. Being humble can thus appear to be a kind of weakness; some might even perceive it as a lack of true self-respect or personal dignity. In a world where self-assertion and self-exaltation are expected, humility disconcerts. In a vision in which the vindication of “my rights and freedoms” seems at times to ignore the fulfillment of duty and the utter gratuity of God’s gifts, humility might even be perceived as counter-cultural and as resignation to man’s tendency to exploit the weak.
Yet, it was in humility that Christ came to us; it is still in humility that He comes to us on the pages of a book we call the Bible, or in the least of our brethren. The fact that God is humble illustrates why religious living and social living cannot be artificially separated, for the humility of God judges the arrogance, both subtle and blatant, present in human society. As Jesus signals to us in the Gospel, humility is a basic ground-rule of how we compare ourselves to others, and of how we are to relate to one another, for it is fundamental to God’s way of dealing with us. Both the guest and the host are admonished to be humble. One might extend this image and say: the one who takes social initiatives (the host) and the one who is the object of them (the guest) must be humble. We can then apply humility to almost any category of life: the one who sells and the one who buys; the one who governs and the one who is governed; the one who makes the laws, and the one who keeps them; the one who judges and the one who is judged; the parent and the child; the doctor and the patient; the teacher and the pupil. Had Jesus found Himself in any situation other than a dinner, He would undoubtedly have applied His teaching on humility to that situation, because humility is a Christian universal, transcendent as a virtue, yet immanent and particular in every circumstance. If denied in one circumstance, it obscures the transcendent virtue; if present in any circumstance, the light of the transcendent shines through it. That is why the truly humble will be loved more than the giver of many gifts. As was the case with Mary, the dignity of the humble will be magnified eternally. The mighty of this world will be scattered in the conceit of their heart.
Humility comes from the Latin word “humus” meaning “earth”. The humble in this sense is then said to mean the one who is the lowest because they put themselves under the feet of everyone else. This notion is certainly not pleasing; it may also not be the most accurate. Humility is not about demeaning oneself; it is not the baptism of the inferiority complex. Nor is it therefore a question of denying one’s own dignity, giftedness or accomplishments. Humility is more aptly interpreted as “being grounded”, “being earthed”, having a firm foundation in the truth, living and thinking, not in arrogant fantasy, but in the beauty of the truth. Far from denying who one really is, humility is the virtue which expresses and strengthens who one really is, who others really are, who God really is. Again, however, who one is, is not something conferred upon one by the fashions and fads of the time. Clearly, we live in time and space, and so we become aware of ourselves through the places we go and have been, as well as in the times and seasons in which we have lived. But both time and space are passing, from our perspective and from God’s. If we are who we are only because of the time we live and the places we have been, then we too are passing, and so is God. But that contradicts our deepest human experience, and it contradicts the Word of God. It is not so much that we pass through time as that time passes through us. We come from eternity and we are destined for it. In the midst of time and space, we are the living signs of God’s own eternity. Indeed, He gives us time and space so that we can discover the eternal dignity of who we are, thank Him for it and return ourselves to Him. Death itself, because of Christ, is only a step from time to eternity, from space to heaven, and it too will pass. Who we now are, therefore, cannot be explained fully by the circumstances of our lives, but by the inner truth of our relationship to God and to one another. That is why the denial of God is such a tragedy: the one who truly believes that he or she finds their final value in mundane activities or in themselves as they are in this world, is living a very deep crisis of identity, no matter how well they cover it up, in good faith or in bad. They do not really know who they are or who anyone else is. The truth of human existence, the ground of human existence, the humility of human existence is that we are living gifts of the eternal power and love of the Trinity; humble living is to accept that truth and to live all things, times, seasons and places in the power and in the love of God.
When an athlete prepares to perform, he knows he must develop attitude and focus; without these, his performance will be poor. Humility is like the attitude and the focus we need to perform. What is it we perform? The only actions we can perform that are ultimately worth anything, that will lead us along the race-track to God, that will win us the prize of the Resurrection, are the actions of true charity. We live to love with the love of God; at the end of the day, we will be judged on and by charity. Humility enables us to live in charity, because it enables us to be grounded in the truth, to remember whence we have come and whither we run. As focus and attitude are for the athlete, so humility will energize us; it will render us agile in love; humility frees us from the encumbrances of a false understanding of self, of others, of God; it calls the bluff of deceptive and arrogant living. Some people, also, alas, in public discourse, speak as if their very limited perspective on things is the key to the understanding of history. Others will deny in good faith that they do any such thing, but then will proceed to live as though they do. Despite the lessons of history, we are continually reinventing the wheel. Of course, we must invent new things, foster progress in respect for human dignity, justice and peace, and also in science and technology. But we need to keep our sense of perspective! What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet to lose his real self? All our efforts and progress, in whatever field, require the humility, the attitude and the focus, the perspective of the final destiny of the world. To say this is neither idealistic, nor impractical nor “Neanderthal”; it is the very essence of realism and practicality to keep in mind the purpose of what one is doing in the context of the whole. If God is our destiny, then how can we keep a straight face and proceed in the opposite direction by undertaking projects and initiatives which fly in the face of the will of God, that is, the humility of the truth? People say they want to see ahead, prepare for future generations. Yes, of course, those are splendid statements of principle and every human being should embrace them; but is it not shortsighted, or even blind, then to enact programs which are incompatible with the final end of mankind and thus prejudicial to those same future generations? Surely, it is this which is not realistic! It is immaterial who would lead us down the blind path, and under what banner or label they stand. Christ pleads with us to keep our eyes open to the horizon of God’s humility, to the perspective which must ultimately give direction to all other directions, unless we want them to end in ruin.
In all of his parables on virtue, Jesus is ultimately speaking about Himself. As a guest, He came to the table of humanity, and took the lowest seat, the Cross, from which no man invited Him to take a higher seat. Only the Father did that when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right-hand. As host, Jesus now invites, not those who think they can pay Him back (astonishing though it may be, some people do actually think this way), but the poor, the crippled, the lame … And who are these people? We are - if we have the humility to admit it! We all limp our way in the life of virtue, for who can say he is without sin? We are all poor, for who will not see the grave and return naked to the earth from which he came? If we do not want to accept these burning, indeed humiliating, truths, then we will never know humility, we will never have the right attitude and focus to run the race of charity. We will live an illusion and die in our own arrogance. Without humility, we cannot be pleasing to God. Without charity we cannot live with God.
Humility brings us peace, for it teaches us not to pretend anything, but to welcome and cherish everything we have been given. Applying to humility what someone once said about joy, it is not so much a question of having or being what you want, as it is of wanting what you have and who you are. The more humble one is, the greater confidence and peace one will have in oneself; such a one is not afraid of being stolen from himself, and so can freely give himself. That is why the Son of God could empty Himself and humble Himself to the point of accepting death on a Cross. He humbled Himself, but the Father exalted Him, exalted His humility, as He did Mary’s. Our life is not about clinging to things; it is not even about clinging to who we are. If self-emptying is God’s way for Himself, then it cannot be any different for us. We will find ourselves only when we let ourselves go, give up our own personal version of fascism towards ourselves. For when we surrender all, then we are free to receive all; when we die, then we live; when we are truly humble, then we are truly great, not in the eyes of any man, but in the eyes of God. To paraphrase the words of the Scottish poet, Rabbie Burns, “Oh that we could see ourselves as God sees us!” Therein lies true humility.

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Sts. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus


The actions of these two influential Jewish leaders give insight into the charismatic power of Jesus and his teachings—and the risks that could be involved in following him.
Joseph was a respected, wealthy civic leader who had become a disciple of Jesus. Following the death of Jesus, Joseph obtained Jesus' body from Pilate, wrapped it in fine linen and buried it. For these reasons Joseph is considered the patron saint of funeral directors and pallbearers. More important is the courage Joseph showed in asking Pilate for Jesus' body. Jesus was a condemned criminal who had been publicly executed. According to some legends, Joseph was punished and imprisoned for such a bold act.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee and, like Joseph, an important first-century Jew. We know from John's Gospel that Nicodemus went to Jesus at night—secretly—to better understand his teachings about the kingdom. Later, Nicodemus spoke up for Jesus at the time of his arrest and assisted in Jesus' burial. We know little else about Nicodemus.

posted by Mike Young @ 6:12 AM