Tuesday of the Ninetheenth week in Ordinary Time/Memorial of Saint Clare, virgin
Today's Mass Readings
The theme of humility runs through each of today’s readings. This theme provides an opportunity for reflection on the virtue of humility and its opposing vice, which is pride. We have likely all experienced the difficulty in determining the boundaries between the virtue of humility and the vice of pride. More subtly, we all may have experienced the difficulty in determining whether our desire to nurture our humility has turned into a false humility that is used to rationalize our failure to use the gifts that God has given us. Similarly, when we use those gifts to their full extent, we may experience some guilt when we question whether we deserve the return that we have derived from those gifts. Today’s readings cause us to notice that there is a tension involving humility, pride, false humility and giving our best effort to honor God. At times the boundaries between these concepts are difficult to discern, but to discern the boundaries, we must first have a solid understanding of the core concepts. Today’s reading from the Old Testament focuses on the concluding events in Moses’ life. In the event described to us today, it is with great humility that Moses recognizes and instructs Israel that he will not be able to lead them across the Jordan. Despite suffering through the long journey, Moses accepts God’s will that he will not be the leader for the final phase of Israel’s journey. Instead, it is Joshua that will be commissioned to bring the people of Israel to the land that God promised them. Moses reminds the people that while Joshua will assume this role, it is the Lord that will march before them and lead them.
In our Gospel reading, we find Jesus instructing his disciples on humility. Jesus compares the humility he asks of each of us to that of a child. Jesus states “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18:4) Interestingly, this teaching of Jesus is immediately followed by a parable of a shepherd who takes action to pursue the sheep that has gone astray and concludes that “In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.” (Mt 18:14)
The humility of Moses and the teachings of Jesus in today’s readings assist us in understanding humility and pride. In each of the readings, we either see action or we are directed to take action that is in alignment with God’s will. God provided Joshua with the gifts to lead Israel on the final leg of its journey and he provides us with certain gifts that can be used to help others. While some of us are engaged in this effort directly, all of us are engaged in this effort in some manner. In any occupation that we find ourselves, we are given the opportunity to deploy the gifts that God has provided as a means of honoring God and bringing others to Him. Where we utilize these gifts to feed our own ego, we have slipped into pride. Where we avoid using these gifts to honor God, we run the risk of engaging in a form of false humility or sloth.
Ultimately, developing an understanding of humility forces us to grapple with our motivations. If we are motivated by following God’s will, we find a deep sense of satisfaction that is rooted in humility. If we are motivated by obtaining glory for ourselves, we find perpetual dissatisfaction that flows from pride.
- John Sperino