We have heard in the first reading “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” and Jesus in the Gospel said, “for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." I always say humility is a virtue you can never claim to have. We are asked to be humble. We saw in the gospel that Jesus observed people choosing prominent seats at a dinner. And he started teaching on humility. I think if Jesus came today to our church he would never teach on humility for all of us give up on the front seats. We catholic choose the last seat in the church.
But in our daily life how humble are we? Most of the time we don’t like to be humble even in front of our own loved ones. We hold on to our silly argument and statement until we win over our family or friend. We yell at others, slam the door at others, and raise our voice, verbally and physically abuse others when we are challenged on our pride.
Let’s probe this lack of humility a little more. Why would someone want to exalt himself/herself or, in the language of Jesus’ parable in the Gospel today, want the best place at the table? One reason could be feeling inferior to others or lacking self-confidence. They try to compensate by exalting themselves. There is a proverb in our place which says, “Don’t make yourself so high, you are not so low.” In other words, “Don’t boast or be snobbish, you are not so inferior that you have to compensate by looking down on someone else.” Don’t make yourself so high, you are not so low.
The solution to the problem of feeling inferior to others or lacking in self-confidence or pride is not in boasting or behaving like a snob or demanding the top place at the table or raising our voice. The solution is in recognizing that we receive our value from God and not from others’ opinions of us. Others opinions of us are a factor but do not determine our value. Our value is that we are all equal in dignity before God as his sons and daughters. Those who are proud or boastful or snobs do not realize that everything they have comes from God. None of us has anything that was not given to us by God therefore the only thing each of us can boast of is God. Think about it; we do not have anything that was not given to us by God so why be proud. It is all God’s.
So the problem of pride or lack of humility is not really the problem. The problem is one layer deeper, forgetting that since baptism we are all sons and daughters of God, forgetting that we, by ourselves, are not capable of saving ourselves and are saved only by the death of Jesus. We have all been purchased by Jesus for the Father at the greatest price. We all cost the greatest price; that price is the life and death of Jesus. That is the only thing we can boast of, and nothing else. We are worth the life of Jesus! And so also is the person next to you, behind you, in front of you. So we are all equally precious. In society unfortunately it does not always work like that but that is Jesus’ plan for his kingdom.
The first reading gives us a good antidote to the problem of pride:
“My son be gentle in carrying out your business, and you will be better loved than a lavish giver. The greater you are, the more you should behave humbly, and then you will find favor with the Lord.” (Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 3:17-18)