August 29, 2010
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
[C]onduct 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. Sirach 3:17-18
“[W]hen 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.” Luke 14:13-14
Piety
Humility is an elusive virtue at best. The humble person does not know self as humble. We meet person after person in our lives that possessed of wonderful gifts lack confidence in themselves. The pretense of having it all together is what characterizes false humility. Humility is a true self awareness. Recognition of all our gifts as come from God makes genuine humility possible. The humble person knows the truth of self. What you see is what you get. To blow one’s own horn misses the reality of humility. Humility does not need to defend itself. Humility allows a person to be trusted. Humility is the reflection of the truly human in a person. The humble person acknowledges God as the source of the good in one’s life.
Study
We study the environments around us to see what we can do. We know by honest reflection on ourselves what we can best do. Study of the people we work with allows us to see where we best fit in. Self-awareness allows us to offer ourselves for the job that needs doing. The Consciousness Examen helps us to grow in appreciation of what we do best and where the Lord most needs us to work. We learn by praying over our day with the Examen where the Lord was most at work in our lives. Gradually we turn over our lives to the work of God in us. Each morning we make our offering of the day and offer ourselves to the Lord with a clean slate to be used by the Lord for the work of the Kingdom. The greatest possible good, for the greatest number of people in the shortest possible time is a rule of thumb on how to select our work. At the end of the day we give to the Lord credit for the good he has been able to do through us. Humility allows us to tell the Lord he has used us well when we see the good he has accomplished through our efforts.
Action
Actions speak humility louder than words. Doing the best one can does not need explanation. We do not have to defend ourselves when we are trying our best to do the job at hand as well as we can. God sees our intentions more than our performances. We do not have to put on airs when we are doing the job that needs doing. Humility makes us freer to work at our own pace without worrying about what otters might think. Our best needs no defense because humility gives us the pleasure of freedom to work as best we can. We are free to let those who can do the job better have their chance. We do not have to defend our chance to do a job because humility speaks for itself in the way it makes others free about us to do their best also. We see the work we do as a share in God’s work and that makes us free to allow God to work through others when he does not need our contribution. Humility makes us a bigger part of the Bigger Picture of God’s plan for us. Humility gives us our awareness of the job we are meant to do for the Lord. We are able to rejoice in how well the Lord uses us when we give him the credit for the good we do. Humility is God’s truth in us, active in God’s work through us.
