Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
We began this week on Sunday with Jesus telling us the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee proudly bragged about what a good person he was. The tax collector beat his breast and said, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us another parable. This time it is about people taking their places at a wedding banquet. Jesus encourages us always to take the lowest place. We are encouraged to be humble.
What does it mean to be humble? Over the centuries, people have had many different opinions about humility. The 19th-century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, opined that things like humility, selflessness, and respect for others were reasons why humanity didn’t reach its full potential.
St. Benedict is of quite a different opinion. For him, humility is the key to the good life, to beatitude, and to holiness. That is why he devotes the longest chapter of his Rule to humility (chapter 7). He begins this chapter by quoting the last lines of today’s Gospel.
There are 12 steps one must climb if one wants to live as God intends us to live. It all starts by remembering who we are and who God is. Being a Christian means we have “come to know and to believe in the love God has for us” (I John 4:14).
All the steps of humility, including taking the lowest place at a wedding banquet, ultimately lead to that “perfect love of God which casts out fear. Through this love, all that one once performed with dread, one will now begin to observe without effort, as though naturally, from habit, no longer out of fear of hell, but out of love for Christ, good habit and delight in virtue” (Rule of St. Benedict, chapter 7, vv. 67-69).
May Jesus Christ inspire us and enable us to be like him, meek and humble of heart.
Reflection by Archbishop Jerome Hanus, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections