22nd SUNDAY
IN ORDINARY TIME
GOSPEL READING: Conduct of Invited Guests and Hosts
On a Sabbath he went to dine at the home of one of the
leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. He told a
parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the
places of honor at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding
banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished
guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to
take the lowest place. Rather, when you are
invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may
say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ Then you will enjoy the esteem
of your companions at the table. For everyone who exalts
himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Then he said to the host who invited him, “When you hold a lunch
or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or
your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have
repayment. Rather, when you hold a
banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to
repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
The
teaching in the Gospel would be more than a practical advice for every gathering. It is more than that; Jesus is trying to
give us an advice. Jesus’ teaching is a
direction for living in His kingdom. The
wedding feast can be likened to God’s Kingdom.
The feast is an apt image of joy and happiness, which God prepares for
those who respond to Jesus’ invitation.
The invitation is indiscriminate and gratuitous. Everyone is called to enter the Kingdom. The wealthy and worthy people had no special
or exclusive claim in the Kingdom. The
guest list also included the marginalized sector of the society...the poor, the
blind, the lame; the outcasts, who cannot return the favor of inviting back the
host or repay debt to the person who invited them.
The
Lord provides a message to all of us who have a tendency to become so locked
into the social status-seeking syndrome of our day that our friends do. Most of
the time, we are too taken up with the scrambling for the first places in all
our undertakings and assume God’s role of determining who will be first and
last at the messianic banquet. We are too busy making friends and influencing
people to realize that God’s banquet invitation includes the poor. We forget
our needy neighbors. The “outcasts” are seldom part of the guest list as they
cannot promote our climb to the social ladder.
In a self-serving
culture, with its me-first mentality, wishing to be the last is not a popular
concept. Some may aim for the most
prominent position, even prominence in the Church. Everybody wants to be first, to lead, no one
wants to be a servant... Even Christians want
to be servant leader and not just plain servants....What an irony! But
to be like Jesus, is to be a servant.... That is what HE called Himself...and
what He is teaching us... the virtue of Humility.
Humility
is the characteristic and distinctive virtue of our Lord Jesus. The virtue He loved above all others and
recommends in His discourses. The virtue
that He supported by His own example, which inspired His friends to practice
and recompense in His saints.
What a
great part, HUMILITY plays in the life of Jesus. It animates His acts, and all His mysteries
are its manifestations. Humility held Him concealed nine (9) months in Mary’s
womb. Humility placed Him to be born in a
stable in swaddling clothes. Humility directs the words and actions of His
public life. So humble was He, that He washed the feet of His apostles. It was the same virtue that put Him on the
cross.
_*/
This is the virtue derived from temperance and it enables us to restrain the
inordinate desire for our own excellence giving us a true evaluation of our
smallness and misery before God.
Humility’s proper function is to moderate the desire for our own
greatness, and all moderation belongs to the virtue of temperance.
_*/ Humility is a fundamental virtue in spiritual life,
because it removes the obstacles to the reception of grace. Scripture expressly states that God resists
the proud and gives His grace to the humble.
(James 4:6).
_*/ Various classification of the degree of humility have
been prepared by saints and spiritual writers, but they all agree on the basic
element. A familiarity with the degree
of humility is of great help in examining oneself in regard to the principal
internal and external manifestations of this virtue. St. Bernard simplifies the degree of humility
as follows:
1)
Sufficient humility – to
subject oneself to superior and not to prefer oneself to one’s equal.
2) Abundant humility – to subject oneself to
one’s equal and not to prefer oneself to one’s inferior.
3) Super
abundant humility – to subject oneself to one’s inferiors.
_*/ The
3 degrees of humility described by St. Ignatius Loyola are not restricted to
the virtue of humility but refer to the self-abnegation required in the
Christian life as follows:
1) Necessary humility – (the
humility necessary for salvation) namely, that in all things, we obey the law
of God and never do anything that would involve the commission of a mortal sin;
2) Perfect
humility – that is we would not care to have riches
rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long life rather than a
short life, so long as we can serve God so faithfully that we would not commit
a deliberate venial sin for the entire world.
3)
The most perfect humility –
that is, in imitation of Christ, we prefer to be poor with Christ, to suffer
opprobrium with Christ and to be considered a poor with Christ, rather than to
be wealthy or honored or considered wise by the world.
(_*/ excerpt from Spiritual Theology J. Aumann,
O.P.)
“Humility does not come upwards by downwards. It does not mean that the lesser one
respectfully acknowledge the greater, BUT that the greater, reverently bends to
the lower one”. (Romano Guardini)
As we follow God’s teachings on humility, one will
increasingly know that God is very much alive in our life. Our activities will begin to reflect our
actions. Our inner life will speak of
humility. Thus, our relationship with
others will become more satisfying....To God be the Glory!!!!
With the Lord’s invitation, let us all come to the feast and
partake the food He has prepared for us at the Table of Plenty.
Come to the feast of
heaven and earth
Come to the table of
plenty
God will provide for all
that we need
Here at the table of
plenty
O come and sit at my
table –
where saints and sinners
are friend
I wait to welcome the
lost and lonely
to share the cup of my
love
O come and eat without
money
come to drink without
price
my feast of gladness
will feed your spirit
with faithfulness of life
my bread will ever
sustain you
my wine will flow like
a sea of gladness
to flood the depth of
your soul.
SR. MARY FAITH OF THE DIVINE MERCY, O.P. is a first year novice of the
Contemplative Dominican Nuns of Perpetual Adoration in Queen of Angels
Monastery in Bocaue, Bulacan.
Ordinary Time, Cycle C, OP Nuns, Humility,
Service
