Reflection on the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

I start by admitting that I have a mixed relationship with the virtue of humility, which is the main point of the reading for today. When I was a kid, I was often in trouble for being loud and argumentative. I was told to be more humble. Once I questioned the authority of the school principal and was told “you are getting too big for your britches.” Another time I disagreed with my mother about something I was to do and she said, “No back talk.” Yet another time I bragged to a group of friends that I had not missed a spelling word all year. The teacher overheard me and said, “You need to be taken down a peg or two, Missy.”  

In Sunday School Jesus was presented as someone meek and mild, lowly, never loud. Those were the synonyms for humble. As a young child, I could see that Jesus was the opposite of me, and I wondered if I would make it to heaven. 

But once I could read the Bible for myself, I saw a different man and a different definition of humility. In today’s Gospel reading, Luke says that Jesus was invited to a Sabbath dinner at the home of a Pharisee. Pharisees were a sect of Judaism known for being strict and literal in the interpretation of the Torah. Unlike the Sadducees, they believed in angels, in the resurrection of the dead, and other supernatural phenomena. Jesus himself was probably closer to the Pharisees in his theology and they, in turn, were both fascinated and repelled by him. In just the previous chapter of Luke, it is Pharisees that tell Jesus to leave because Herod is trying to kill him. Joseph of Arimathea, who would donate a tomb for Jesus, was probably a Pharisee. In modern times, Pharisee has unfortunately come to describe someone very uptight and probably a hypocrite, but at that time, they would be more similar to Christian Fundamentalists — people trying to live by their reading of the Bible. Luke says “they watched Jesus closely.” He, in turn, watched them as they vied for spots at the dinner and then told a story about the folly of sitting in the front and having to be asked to move to the back. 

This parable has a lot of literal meanings. Wait to be asked. Don’t brag. Don’t be self-seeking. Let others praise you — don’t praise yourself. Invite people who cannot invite you back, entertain people you don’t know. All important lessons. 

But I wonder if we can move away from interpreting the parable so literally? What if Jesus wants us to rethink altogether how we respond to each other? What if true humility means trying to change things so that no one is embarrassed? For example, at a recent church meeting, chairs were lined up in rows. Someone complained they couldn’t hear and was told to move to the front. “But then I can’t see everybody,” she complained. I felt impatient. But the minister said, “We don’t need to sit in rows — let’s sit in a circle so we can all see and hear each other.” A structural approach which solved the problem for everyone. 

Or another example, a widowed neighbor told a couple of us she is often lonely. I immediately tried to think of ways to help and was about to offer my suggestions when my other neighbor said, “That sounds hard. Say more about it.”

“Well, it happens mostly at night when I am watching the news. I’d love to have someone to just say, ‘Can you believe it?’ ”

“I know what you mean,” said my other neighbor.

The widow said, “I feel better just admitting it.”  She didn’t want me or anyone to fix it — she just needed to be heard. 

Over time, I have come to appreciate what a gift humility is. Humility is the ability to “be with” someone. Jesus is described as “being with” tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans, fisherman, Pharisees, leaders of the synagogue, his disciples. He met people where they were. He gave them what they needed, which was often just really seeing them, calling them by name, and in that, healing them and freeing them. We can end with Jesus’ own description of humility, which is in Matthew: “Take my yoke upon your shoulder and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble of heart. Here you will find rest for your soul, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

Humility may, in fact, be the easiest virtue to cultivate and certainly one badly needed in our world today.