Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
At first read, today’s scripture readings are about humility. But before they are about humility they are about hypocrisy. A caveat: The gospel reading for the liturgy is from Luke chapter 17, verse 1 and verses 7-14. It omits verses 2-6. My reflection includes the omitted verses because Luke wrote it as one event.
Luke provides us with some very important details. First, Jesus was a dinner-guest of not just another Pharisee, but as Luke puts it, “one of the leading Pharisees” (Lk 14:1). Commentators say that he was the chief Pharisee. The fellow guests were lawyers and other Pharisees. Second, the meal takes place on a Sabbath. Third, Luke tells us that “the people over there were observing him carefully.” This means that the invitation given to Jesus was a not a friendly invitation. It was a hostile invitation. In Luke’s context, it was a hypocritical invitation.
The verses omitted from today’s gospel reading tells us about a man ill with dropsy who shows up at this Sabbath dinner. His disease made him impure because dropsy related swellings were associated with leprosy. Luke does not tell us how this man found his way into this elite dinner. Perhaps his appearance shows Jesus’ popularity among the sick, the poor, and the alienated. His presence at the house of the chief Pharisee, on a Sabbath, presents Jesus with a dilemma. Should he heal the ill man on a Sabbath or not? Recall that Luke has already told us that people around him were observing him carefully.
Knowing that the law allowed people to save their own child or their own cattle in peril, the Pharisees should have encouraged Jesus to heal the man. Jesus even asked them if this man should be healed on a Sabbath. They kept quiet. Jesus had turned the table on the Pharisees. Instead of them trapping Jesus, Jesus had trapped them. Jesus had exposed the hypocrisy of the hypocrites. Jesus had laid bare the fact that the entire dinner was a sham, a hypocritical exercise. This is the moment when Jesus shared the ‘Parable of the Invited Guests and Hosts’, which is our gospel reading for today. The parable is about humility.
I am proposing that the antidote to hypocrisy is humility. I am going to reflect on the “Parable of the Invited Guests and Hosts” as a lesson in humility – the kind of humility that overcomes hypocrisy. Here are my three practical implications.
A Little Bit of Hypocrisy in All
I am not sure about you, but when I think about hypocrisy, my instinctive response is to think of someone else. Today, Christ challenges me to think about me. Perhaps, there is a little hypocrisy in all of us. Think of the times we walk into the confessional, have our sins forgiven, but then refuse to extend that forgiveness to others. Think about the times we ask children to be honest, to be kind, to pray, to not use cuss words, to be respectful, but do not do it ourselves. Think about the times we offer advice and correction to friends and colleagues but do not practice it ourselves. As a priest and pastor, I have to ensure that what I preach from the pulpit is what the parish staff and parishioners see lived out. I confess, there are times I have failed.
Today, may the gospel inspire us to examine our own lives. Let us become aware of any hypocrisy in our lives and try to root it out.
Humility: The Antidote to Hypocrisy
In the Parable of the Invited Guests and Hosts, Jesus offers humility as an antidote to hypocrisy. What is humility? Humility is not demeaning oneself, but rather, it is the ability to see oneself clearly. Humility is the ability to see ourselves as neither more nor less important than we really are. Humility is the ability to recognize one’s own sins and flaws. Humility is the ability to learn from others who have differing opinions. Humility is ability to understand that we’re all in this together. Humility is the ability to understand that in God’s eyes, we are all equal. Humility is authenticity.
The Pharisees of Jesus’ times saw themselves as more important than others, especially, the kind of people with whom Jesus associated himself. Jesus was pointing out to his hosts that their elevated position in society and the demeaning position they assign to the ill, the poor, and the sinners is not how God views the world. It was inauthentic.
Today, Jesus is inviting us to set aside our hypocrisy, our ideas of self-importance, and our inability to see our own faults. Rather, he is inviting us to see ourselves and others as God sees us. He is inviting us to authenticity. He is inviting us to live humble lives.
Divine Reversal
Finally, we have to talk about Luke concept of ‘divine reversal’. There was a commonsense etiquette in the ancient world. Proverbs 25:6-7 advises, “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here’ than to be put lower in the presence of the prince.” In the parable where Jesus asks people to take places of less honor, Jesus was not merely talking about commonsense etiquette. Rather, he was talking about a new and deeper divine realty: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted" (Lk 14:11). This is the Biblical principle of “divine reversal”.
In Luke’s recounting of the events, the ill man had found favor with God whereas the religious and social elite of the time were reduced to silence. The important thing for us to consider is that Jesus was not only giving a religious lesson though the parable. Rather, by healing the man on a Sabbath in the house of the chief Pharisee, Jesus was revealing God. God is God of the humble.
In today’s first reading from Sirach says, “My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God” (Sir 3:17-18). In other words, hypocrisy and humility have implications for eternity. Jesus reminds us today that, “Every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 14:11).
Let me conclude. Jesus was God, yet he occupied the lowest place. As he says in today’s gospel, he often found himself at dinner with “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” (Lk 14:13); people who could repay him back (Lk 14:14). There was no hypocrisy in Him, only humility. Hence, he was exalted. Let us imitate Jesus Christ. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph