Jesus, the Teacher of Humility

Homily

Saturday, September 1, and Sunday, September 2, 2007, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, C

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, Emmett; Sacred Heart Parish, Yale

Today’s passages of the scriptures propose to us an important topic. In Sirach we read, “My child, conduct your affairs with humility… humble yourself the more.”[1] And then Jesus the Lord told us to never search for places of honor at table. And so, we need to discuss humility. The normal response of the listener is not, “Oh great, Father is going to talk about humility!” Rather, it is generally, “Uh oh, he’s going to talk about humility!” And a small fringe will surely say, “I can exempt myself from listening to any of this, for Father is not a humble man.”

Therefore I think the best route for us to follow is this one: first, to examine pride; then to try to understand humility more deeply; and eventually contemplate the example of Jesus, who is humble and shows us all how to be humble.

I begin examining pride so we can exclude any false ideas about humility, false ideas which would impede us from knowing and loving our ideal. If pride were a person, what sort of things would Pride say? I think Pride would say things such as, “I know something you don’t know.” I think Pride would say, “Who are you to correct me?” Pride says, “I’m always right, you’re always wrong.” Pride says, “Everyone be quiet and listen to me, for what I have to say is always more important than what you have to say.” Pride says, “Did you see so and so? He’s such a bad person.” Pride says, “I hate so and so, because he is always in the limelight instead of me.” Pride says, “I’m so beautiful.” And, “I should be President of the United States.” And, “Listen to me speak well of myself.” And, “See how smart I am.” And, “Look at all the good things I do.” And all of this is vanity.

Pride starts fights in the home, works with lies, devours the goods of others, fathers slander, and places himself at the center of his lonely, pathetic and very tiny universe.

The opposite of pride, indeed its remedy, is humility. Humility is the virtue by which we abase ourselves, bending towards the ground as it were – for the word for “dirt” it “humus” in Latin – abase ourselves before God and angels and man. Therefore unless a person grasps that he is infinitely smaller and less than God, he will remain proud. How important it is, therefore, to meditate in prayer upon the mystery of God who is the Creator, to see how perfect and excessively perfect He is in every way! God is the Creator, I am a creature, nothing before him, a sinful nothing at that, with no rights to snatch from the hand of God. And so St. Peter writes, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.”[2]

St. Anselm speaks of degrees of Humility. He says there are seven, to which I will add an eighth. “(1) to acknowledge ourselves contemptible; (2) to grieve on account of this; (3) to admit that we are so; (4) to wish our neighbor to believe it; (5) patiently to endure people’s saying it; (6) willingly to be treated as a person worthy of contempt; (7) to love to be treated in this faschion.”[3] We could add an eighth degree, of which St. Francis of Assisi gave us an example, that of finding holy joy in such treatment.

Jesus Christ is the example of humility. Now, if a man were to walk by and say, “Here, buy my book. I just wrote the greatest book ever: it is about humility. I have sold six million copies already, and it is the best treatment any mind could give to the question of humility.” We’d all laugh at him, for his arrogance in peddling humility. And if a woman were to dress in the morning saying, “I want everyone to see how I dress, for by my manner of dressing I will teach everyone what humility is,” we again would reduce her to ridicule, for her humility is false. But here comes Jesus, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” And suddenly we’re less ready to ridicule. Jesus is not afraid of our ridicule, for he is truly humble; and, by the way, therefore Christians are not afraid of the ridicule of the pagans.

No one could ever be humble like Jesus; for he is God, and was punished by sinful man, unto dying on a cross. St. Paul writes of the humility of Jesus, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, having God’s form, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross!”[4]

And so why so many fights at home? Why the arguments? Why the vanity of appearances? Why the cut-throat competitiveness? Why the incorrigibility? Why so much concern about what others think? Why the sacrificing of our Catholic principles on the altar of our neighbor’s ridicule? Whence the bitterness, the anger, the hardness of judgment and slander? These things are not the way of Jesus, and they are roads which do not lead to heaven.

Always be a beginner, and you can always advance in the spiritual life. Empty yourself like Jesus, and do not be afraid of the consequences. Remember that you can’t be humble, at least not like God wants, without God’s help. Let us, each of us, crucify our pride, break the shackles of our hardness of heart, abase ourselves, and live with the humility proper of one who follows the God who was crucified. Amen.