Humility is not thinking less of yourself; humility is thinking of yourself less.

In the first Scripture reading from the Book of Sirach, we read:  ‘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.

This Old Testament teaching on humility is a lead-in to today’s Gospel.  From the evangelist Luke,  Jesus’ table fellowship is the context for teaching.  Much of Jesus’ teaching takes place in or around meals.  Jesus also will share table fellowship with anyone from Pharisee to leper.

Jesus is dining at the home of a leading Pharisee.  Jesus has obviously been invited for more than pleasant conversation.  The people at the meal are observing him carefully.  He is known for not following protocol during his table fellowship.  As the story proceeds, the dynamic shifts from the people observing Jesus to Jesus observing them. He is a wisdom teacher offering lessons in humility.

As Jesus observes the how the guests migrate immediately to places of honor, Jesus turns the notions of honor upside down.  Jesus says it is humility that brings honor in the eyes of God.

As we well know in the political arena, in the sports world, and all too often in corporate life, climbing the ladder of success leads us to a self-centeredness that places ourselves at the center of the universe.

The disciples of Jesus are to have a healthy sense of the value and the virtue of humility.  C. S. Lewis says that “humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.”  Humility leads to compassion and leads to be involved in the lives of others.  Humility is not poor self-esteem; it is not a refusal to take any credit; a humble person is not disturbed by praise.  Rather, if we desire to be humble, we need to look into the eyes of people in need and identify with their pain and hurts and to respond with humble love to lift up people in need.

Humility is not just modesty about my talents.  It is about looking into the eyes of another and identifying with their hurts.  Moreover, not just their hurts, we are look in the eyes of another and see God’s beauty deep within their spirit.

And as Jesus indicates in the gospel, without humility we cannot have a relationship with God.  To enter the wedding banquet – and heaven will be a glorious banquet with Jesus as the Bridegroom and the Church as the Bride – to enter the wedding banquet, says Jesus, “take the lowest seat.”

Knowing God makes us humble; knowing ourselves keeps us humble.  All is a gift of God and we are the gracious recipients of God’s merciful love.  The talents we have are God’s gifts to us.  Knowing ourselves and our own limitations keeps us humble.

Pope Francis gives three steps to humility:  First, self-forgiveness.  This is a tricky concept.  It might sound like giving oneself a free pass.  But Pope Francis explains it this way.  We need to learn to pray over our past history, to accept ourselves, to learn how to live with our limitations, and even to forgive ourselves,  Pope   Francis clarifies we need to forgive ourselves in  order to have this same attitude toward others.  Self-forgiveness leads us to forgive others.   That’s the second step in humility.

There’s a third step to humility – courtesy.  Courtesy is a school of sensitivity and disinterestedness, it means to put aside one’s own interests aside and to focus on the other person.  Courtesy means to learn how to listen, to speak and at times to keep quiet.

Can we identify with the host in today’s Gospel parable – the Pharisee who was pre-occupied with the seats of honor at his dinner table.  Jesus was challenging his way of acting and inviting us to take the lowest seat.  Who are the people in your life who have shown you your weaknesses and made you take the lowest seat where you belonged?  At the time, you were angry with them, but today, as you meditate on the passage, you thank God that he sent them to you to help you grow spiritually.  Indeed, this is living out the virtue of humility when we can honor those folks who have challenged when we get carried with our own self-importance. Thank God also for the one who invited to see our greatness and to experience ourselves honored by all those who sit at table with us, our family, and our Church family.  Yes we want to value and treasure our giftedness, but we also want in humility to accept our limitations and to root our giftedness in ways we give thanks to God.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus has a strange way of looking on whom to invite and who are the most important.  The point is everyone is invited to the banquet of Jesus.

As we gather for this Eucharistic meal today, we reflect on how we have gathered for this meal.  Do we see each other as brothers and sisters?   Do we see ourselves as servants of each other?  Do we see ourselves as the servants of all who are poor?

There must be a welcome in our Eucharistic community for the needy signified by the gospel phrase ‘the poor, crippled, lame, and blind.’  What efforts do we make to ensure that no individual or group is excluded from the Lord’s meal?

As C. S.  Lewis has rightly said,  humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.  It is focusing our lives in the service of one other.  When we gather at the table of the Lord, we are to take the lower seat and to be sure that all are welcome at this table of the Lord,

Jesus has come to afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted.

Jesus said to his disciples:  “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.”...  Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.”

This Gospel imperative runs in the face of a more compassionate pastoral approach to ministry.  To become a member of the Church of the Holy Spirit, you simply need to be breathing and fill out a census card.  It is very, very easy.  I try to short circuit the hoops that people sometimes need to go through in the Catholic Church.  My mother taught me always to be kind and trust that God’s love will be revealed.

However, today’s Gospel invites to reflect on both disturbing love and the warmth of love.  Jesus has come to set the earth on fire.  Fire is frightening; it can burn up a city.  But controlled fire can warm the human heart.  Jesus offers the warmth of love and companionship.  The warmth of Jesus brings comfort and hope to the world when we live in isolation from each other.  The warmth of God’s love can inflame and heal our coldness.

There is also the fire that disturbs; love challenges as well as comforts.  The flame of God can be frightening in that it demands a world of justice, peace, and reconciliation.  The fire of this love is the fire that also warms and comforts.  The truth is:  Jesus has come to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

If your body is in the Church today, you get a gold star from me as being a very active member of Holy Spirit.  After all, there are many parishioners who are not here today.  Its still summer.  So, congratulations.

However, however, I am not the final word on discipleship of the Lord Jesus.   Jesus is!  Jesus, of course, is the Savior and Lord of our lives.  For Jesus, being here on Sunday is just the beginning of our discipleship.  There is much more expected of me and much more to be expected of you.   Jesus expected the same prophetic fire that burned in him to burn also in the hearts of his followers.

In answering the call to follow Jesus, we are in for rude awakening as to the cost of discipleship.  We need to look no further than the crucifix to witness the extent of the giving love of Jesus.  He gave us His life.  The cost of discipleship for us is the kind of giving love that Jesus has given us.

It can be hard to tell the truth about what it means to be Catholic, to be a follower of Jesus, to be a disciple.  After all, we want people to feel good about being spiritual.

Sometimes we deny what is demanded of us because it embarrasses us or challenges us to change our way of thinking?  If we are serious about wanting to experience conversion in our lives, conversion can disrupt what we are used to.

The truth is we are all sinners.  Imagine yourself in conversation with Jesus, what truths do you need to share with Jesus about your need for God’s forgiveness – what about our failure to share more fully with those who are in need; how much of our income do we tithe; do we have time for God in our prayer life or are too busy; what kind of judgments or gossip are hurtful to others; how selfish are we in using our God-given gift of sexuality?

In truth, we are all great sinners.   Divisions in sin break apart the fundamental structure of human relationship.  As long as there is sin in human hearts, there will be attempts to turn aside from the truth, to deny the truth and even to deny that there is truth.

Thanks be to God, the truth of our life is also that God forgives any and all of our sinfulness and invites to rejoice and trust in God’s healing love for us.

 

What does discipleship of the Lord Jesus look like?  The center of our life is no longer our self; rather, Jesus is at the center of our life.  We acknowledge our sinfulness and, with God’s grace, we wish to do something about it.  Finally, we recognize and embrace that we are missioned to witness to the love of Jesus in all we say and do.

The truth is to belong to the faith community of Holy Spirit demands much more that filling out a registration card.  It is the commitment to make Jesus the center of our life and to be sent forth to proclaim the love of Jesus in all we say and do.

May we pray:  Holy Spirit, flame of God, hover over each of us as you did for the followers of Jesus at the first Pentecost.  Amen.

Faith is the willingness to risk, to jump when we are not in control and to trust that we are in the hands of God.

One night a house caught fire and a young little boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, "Daddy, I can't see you." The father replied, "But I can see you and that's all that matters." Hearing this, the boy jumped. He jumped, because he trusted his father.

Can we place ourselves in the mind and heart of this young boy as his dad is telling him to jump?  What about when we face life situations of sickness, death, brokenness in relationships, and we are gripped by fear, are we able to trust in God as a loving Father?  Faith is the willingness to risk, to jump when we are not in control and to trust that we are in the hands of God and thus we are not to be afraid.

For myself, my desire to control and figure things out blind me from trusting in God’s plan for my life.   Letting go of my plans and trusting in God’s plan for me is a challenge to my prayer life each and every day.

Our Catholic faith enables us to face life or meet death, not because we can see, but with the certainty that we are seen; not that we know all the answers, but that we are known. Faith is not merely us holding on to God - it is God holding on to us. And He will never let us go!

In the Second Reading of today, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews speaks about two faith-filled people, Abraham and Sarah. He recalls how our early faith ancestors placed their trust in God. Abraham and Sarah left their comfortable home and set out for an unknown land because God called them. When God promised them that their 'descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea,' they were old enough to be great-grandparents and Sarah too was sterile. Even though for so long they saw no fulfillment of the promise, they believed. They had the virtue of faith, a lasting confidence that God's word would be fulfilled someday.

And when God finally granted them a son, He asked Abraham to sacrifice him and still continue to believe, to trust, and to hope that the promise would still somehow be accomplished. Abraham, faithfully listening to the word of God, 'hoped against hope' that his son would be restored to him, even as he was willing to sacrifice him. It is shocking to think that somebody was willing to sacrifice his own son to God. Essentially, Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son is an act of trust, of faith, in which he was proved right. We consider Abraham our father in faith, and he is a model for our own times – he took great risks; he had no agenda other than his faithful obedience to the God in whom he trusted completely. We might ask whether we are models of faith in light of this passage.

Hopefully we can follow the example of Abraham, leaving behind our fears and allow God to act through us to become a more recognizable presence in our world.  Abraham and Sarah were like the young boy on the roof and left everything they had known and journeyed in trust in following God’s plan for them.

In the Gospel Jesus says:  “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.  Sell your belongings and give alms.  Provide money bags for yourself that do not wear out…For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”

This passage is concluding the teaching of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.  They neither sow nor reap and yet they are cared by our heavenly Father.  How much more so are we valued by our loving God.  God desires to share his kingdom with us.  All is a gift of God.  All is given to us so that we may share what we have with others.

It is worth reflecting on the truth that ultimately that eventually all of our possessions will be given away or taken from us. When we go home to the Lord, we can’t take our possessions with us. Jesus challenges us to give and share what we have.  It is in giving that we receive; it is in sharing that we get in touch with our better angels.

Jesus warns us that material possessions can capture our heart, not allowing us to be free to follow him.  Jesus challenges us to reveal what it is we truly value, following Him or being caught in a cycle of material wealth.

Our true wealth is to be found in our human and spiritual possessions rather than our material possessions.  Our human possessions are the people of our life – the people we love and the people who love us.  With our human possessions, we are challenged to welcome the stranger and the foreigner and the person in need.  Our deepest treasure is in knowing that our spiritual possessions and our human possessions are one and the same.  We show our love for God in the ways we love one another.  Jesus says:  “By this all shall know that you are my disciples, by the love you love for one another.”

All three readings today call for a faith-filled vigilance, a holy patience, a focused waiting.  Jesus is calling for an attitude of vigilance.  This is a challenge for us.  Whatever our differences as Republicans or Democrats, as men or women, we all dread delay.  We hate to wait.  This week gong to NYC, there were flight delays going and coming to Rochester.  These delays caused considerable agita for those traveling, including myself.  We hate to wait.

Mothers know a little bit about waiting -- waiting nine months for the birth of their child.

In the spiritual life, we need to develop a holy patience.  Growth in the spiritual usually takes place in bite-size pieces.  The way we discern God’s plan for our lives requires a holy patience.  St. Paul in describing the mystery of love begins with the words”  “Love is patient.”  Thanks be to God that God is patient with us.  God is a God of second chances.  We too are to be patient in the ways we love on another.

In summarizing the power of today’s Scripture readings, life is a gift of God, and that gift is to be given away.  Life is for the giving and the sharing. When we recognize God’s desire to give His life for us, we then are motivated to give our lives to others.