Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Scripture

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

In St. Luke’s Gospel, our Lord asks us to consider humility and it’s opposite – pride, the deadliest of the seven deadly sins. Why is it that we are called to humility? Isn’t pride a good thing? It seems that in all places we see pride held up as the ideal – pride in one’s country, pride in one’s achievements, pride in one’s work, pride in one’s children, pride in one’s status. What’s do deadly about pride? In terms of the sin, we’re not talking about caring much about people, work…etc. We’re talking about a focus on the self. The be proud is to be satisfied with oneself, to put oneself first. When one is completely satisfied with oneself, one does not need salvation, one does not see sin. Indeed, St. Augustine described sin as to be “caved in on oneself.”

Does this mean that we are called to fly under the radar? To not be noticed? In a certain sense, yes. But, as we learn in the gospel today, when the time is right, we will be called forward. To respond to God’s call is not to be prideful, but rather to be truly humble. It is to recognize God as more important than oneself.

We see St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, chastise the Romans for being prideful, placing themselves in a higher, more exalted place than the Jews, God’s chosen people. Christ has sealed a New Covenant with His blood, but “The Lord will not abandon His people,” as we learn in today’s Psalm. Instead of graciously responding to the example of Jesus, the Romans were denigrating the Jews. Paul reminds them of God’s promise to the Jews, which is not broken.

The difference is one of direction. If I repeatedly give myself the credit for my achievements or my place in life, I direct the attention on me. But if I respond to God’s call, then it is God who has done the work. We are His humble instruments.

Our goal, then, is to let God to the work, trying not to let ourselves get in the way. This is humility. Recall Peter’s prideful refusal to accept the Lord’s washing of his feet in St. John’s Gospel. Jesus told him that he could not enter the kingdom without humbly submitting. Our world would tell us that’s it’s survival of the fittest; that allowing ourselves to be helped and served by others is a sign of our weakness and the beginning of our downfall. “Make as much money as you can and store it up!” “Beat out your peers at whatever the cost!”  But we know better. We have Jesus’ selfless love all the way to the cross as a model.

Let us pray for the humility to be instruments of God, responding selflessly to His call.

- Tim Gabrielli