22nd Sunday – August 29 2010
Cycle -C "Those Who Humble themselves will be Exalted"
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each Other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, He would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight.
Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, 'Please wake me at 5:00 AM.' He left it where he knew she would find it.
The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and See why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, 'It is 5:00 AM. Wake up.' If the husband was humble enough, he would not have missed his flight.
Perhaps, men are not equipped for this kind of contest.
We have the stories of many people who have humbled themselves and were exalted by God. For example, Mother Teresa always struggled against pride; not because she was proud, but because she was afraid that her popularity would take her away from being a humble servant. So she constantly fought against it. May be it was her answer to her prayers, but the way I understand it, her sense of abandonment was the key to her humility just as her humility was the key to her work. In my opinion, she was closest to God in her abandonment and God exalted her to a favored person.
Christ’s message is full paradoxes. If one does not understand this, one can miss the entire message of Christianity. If one wants to be a genuine Christian one has to live the Christian paradox. The Webster dictionary defines paradox as “a seemingly contradictory or absurd statement that expresses a possible truth,” or again, “an opinion or statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion.” There are many paradoxical statements in Christ’s teachings. For example, “If you save your life you will lose it; if you lose your life for the sake of the kingdom you will find it.” This statement of Christ goes against common sense and it goes against everything we are taught. In fact, it goes against our very instinct for survival. Today’s gospel reading presents yet another paradox: “The one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Mother Teresa’s story is a testimony to her understanding the paradox of Christ’s life.
Let me offer three practical implications for today:
1. People do many things to exalt themselves. From wearing branded clothes, to owning particular types of cars, from eating at particular restaurants to consuming certain types of wines, from living in certain neighborhoods to becoming members of a certain parish, the choices we have to climb the social ladder are many. Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong in these acts by themselves. But I think Christ is warning us that if our self-image, our dignity, our relationship with God and with others is determined by these things, and then we have not understood the Christian paradox. Because, “one who exalts himself will be humbled….” Such a person has placed his or her security in things other than God. And that is the opposite of humility. That is pride. Humility, on the other hand comes from the realization that our basic dignity comes from God. In the story the pride of the man did not permit to request his wife to wake him up.
2. How can we know if we are humble people or not? Jesus offers a clue for us in today’s gospel reading. He says, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors…. Rather, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and blind.” Mother Teresa made a definite choice in her life. She decided to step outside her comfort zone and associate with the poor, the crippled, the lame and blind. Jesus made a definite choice in his life. He stepped out of his comfort zone and decided to associate with the sinner, the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Who do we associate with? This is a true test of humility. Do we have sensitivity and sensibility to see what others need?
3. The first reading today says to us, “My child… Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.” Jesus took that advice to heart and lived it. As the letter to the Philippians tells us, “He humbled himself, taking the form of a slave…” and again, “… humbled himself becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” I do not know if we get it or not but our redemption depended on Christ’s humble obedience. The saving experience of millions of poor and less fortunate people depended on the humble obedience of Mother Teresa. A humble person understands the paradox that in his humility he or she saves others. In saving others, he or she finds her own salvation. The proud and arrogant person, on the other hand, destroys others and in the process, destroys himself.
In this Eucharist, Christ the humble servant of God shared with us his body and blood. Let us humbly ask God to bless us so that we can share in his humility.
