If there was
one single thing you could point to about Jesus’ personality or that which he
thought was the greatest trait we could have, it would be humility. I heard Scott Hahn in a talk once say, “God
hates the proud, even when they are right.”
Today’s
Gospel was all about taking seats of honor in order to be recognized as being
someone important. The question to ask
is, “why would we do that?” I understand
that it is a nice thing to be recognized once in a while just to know you are
appreciated and doing a good job in life.
All of us need that, the occasional pat on the back, but what Jesus is
talking about is something more than the occasional pat on the back, this is
about one’s pride and selfishness.
It is easy
to get caught up in life with recognition it usually stems from ambition, an
ambition to be something more, not out of a sense of service but to show others
how far you have come and even worse to parade it and flaunt it. We all have to admit that at least in some
way we have fallen into this sin from time to time, be it at school when we
wanted recognition when in reality we did not deserve it or even if we did, did
we humble ourselves when someone else received the recognition. This may have also happened to us at work
when someone else got promoted and we did not.
The examples could go on and on.
Being humble
is not an easy thing, actually it is quite difficult. How do I feel when someone is put in the
limelight or put up on a pedestal? Do I
rejoice that the Lord gave such to that person or do I become jealous and
envious? The Lord asks me to take the
last seat and the one all the way in the back.
What will I do? Will I go up
front so that everyone can see me up there and recognize me? If so, the Lord will move me to the back, He
has a way of making that happen. Rather
I should go to the back and let the Lord move me up front if He wills
such. That takes trust, faith and great
humility. I pray that all of us will
have those virtues, God bless you, Fr. John
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