Posted by The WORD in other words (2021) Fr. Sonny de Rivera, SVD (Rome)
Saturday 30th Week in Ordinary Time
The parable about the guest taking the place of honor at the wedding reminds me of a priest friend who always shields himself from places of honor. When he became Regional Superior, he struggled to be in the limelight on account of his role.
We are all equal on this earth in God’s eyes. Sometimes those who seem humble are very powerful. Today’s Gospel reminds us that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
We can be celebrities, elected officials, prominent teachers, moneyed parents, religious leaders, professional athletes. The bottom line is, we are all merely human beings in the eyes of God.
The real lesson in this parable is that we are nothing without God. We accomplish nothing of real importance without Him. Everything that we are and do stems from our total dependence on God. In this knowledge, we learn about His loving patience and forgiveness. Through God, we learn to truly love all that he has created, even ourselves. God reminds us that every one of us is, indeed, unique, not because of anything we have done, but because He loves us.
In this sense, we seek that kind of humility that will lead us to sit at the far end of the table without waiting for the invitation to move forward. Do we truly value being humble? Do we pay attention to those who serve us?
Humility is an attitude that we must work on each day and for which we must ask God’s help in our daily prayers. In addition to our prayers, each day, we can best practice humility by asking how we have humbled ourselves in the face of those who believe they are lesser than us.
One comment