"Those Who Humble Themselves will be Exalted"

Sunday Mass Readings

The last issue of Time magazine dedicated its cover story to Mother Teresa. This rather well written article is a commentary on the latest book about her titled, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. Compiled and edited by Fr. Kolodiejchuk, the book contains Mother Teresa’s correspondence with her confessors and superiors over sixty-six years. Whereas most people expected her correspondence to be warm and fuzzy about her spiritual life, in reality, they express her feelings of abandonment at God’s hands.

Let me read just one of her entries. Lord my God, who am I that you should forsake me? The Child of your Love—and now become as the most hated one—the one—You have thrown away as unwanted—unloved. I call, I cling, I want—and there is no One to answer—no one on whom I can cling—no, Non One.—Alone… Where is my faith—even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness and darkness—My God—how painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith—I dare not utter the words and thoughts that crowd in my heart—and make me suffer untold agony. So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them—because of the blasphemy—If there be God—please forgive me—When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven—there is such convicting emptiness that those every thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul.—I am told God loves me—and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Did I make a mistake in surrendering blindly to the Call of the Sacred Heart? The question really is, how do we interpret her constant feeling of abandonment and yet her undaunted commitment to God and to the poor? For, in spite of these feelings, she sat in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament everyday from 4:30 in the morning and in every poor person she continued to see Christ. Some, Time magazine says, interpret this as “cognitive dissonance,” meaning that Mother Teresa was afraid to surrender to her feeling of abandonment because if she did then that would mean accepting the fact that her life was meaningless. On the contrary, the church interprets her darkness and her commitment as sure sign of her holiness. For the church, her abandonment is no different than the feeling of abandonment felt by Jesus on the cross. Mother Teresa, herself, did not want her letter to be made public, not because she was afraid to expose her crisis of faith, but as she said, “I want the work to remain only His. If the letters become public,” she explained, “people will think more of me—less of Jesus.” In fact, 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 was closest to her in her humility.

I have often proposed in my homilies earlier, that unless one understands the paradox in Christ’s message 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 neighbourhoods 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, 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.

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.

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 advise 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 don not know if we get it or not but our salvation depended on Christ’s humble obedience. The salvation of millions of poor people in India 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 in humbly come before him and receive him so that we can share in his humility.

Fr. Satish Joseph