Mother Church celebrates Sunday, the first day of September 2019 as the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C. In the entrance antiphon we pray, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of mercy to all who call to you. Amen.”
The main theme of this day’s Holy Mass is humility. The wise man, in the first reading from Ecclesiasticus, urges us to behave humbly because it is only a humble and patient man or woman who can receive God’s blessings because the proud are always too self-centered to think of anyone else. In the second reading, from the Letter to the Hebrews, the sacred writer urges his Hebrew converts to seek and to promote peace with all people so they can receive the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord. In Saint Luke’s Gospel, Jesus attacks the arrogance, the haughtiness and the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his time, who always seek the places of honour wherever they go, without caring whether they are suitable for such positions or not. This is a lesson, not only to the religious leaders of Israel but to us as well. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, our Saviour is asking us today, more than ever before, to humble ourselves so as to be exalted in the end. In the course of this Holy Eucharist, therefore, let us pray for the grace of humility without which we cannot receive God’s blessings.
First Reading: Ecclesiasticus 3:17-20.28-29.
My son, be gentle in carrying out your business, and you will be better loved than a lavish giver. The greater you are, the more you should behave humbly, and then you will find favour with the Lord; for great though the power of the Lord is, he accepts the homage of the humble. There is no cure for the proud man’s malady, since an evil growth has taken root in him. The heart of a sensible man will reflect on parables, an attentive ear is the sage’s dream.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
The Book of Ben Sirach is commonly known in Latin as Ecclesiasticus. It was originally written in Hebrew by an experienced Jewish scholar and teacher, who established a rabbinic school in Jerusalem after retiring from his public career as a diplomat. The proper Hebrew name of the book is “Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach”, abbreviated in Greek to “Sirach”. Sirach, son of Eleazar, was a well-educated man from an important family in Jerusalem some forty years prior to the invasion of Palestine by the Greek under Alexander the Great between the years 220 and 116 BC. Like the Book of Wisdom, which comes immediately before it, the book of Ecclesiasticus does not appear in the Hebrew Bible.
Sirach’s disciples were faced with the challenges and dangers of the materialistic Greek culture introduced when Alexander the Great conquered Palestine and introduced many political and cultural changes. Commerce and military establishments were very instrumental in spreading the Greek language and culture throughout the Mediterranean region. This had the effect of opening up channels of dialogue between the new culture and the teachings of the traditions of Israel.
Ben Sira and the other teachers of Israel were alarmed at the rate at which the Jewish tradition was being submerged by the more aggressive Greek culture. Many Jews were turning their backs on the Law of God and the traditional teaching of Israel to follow foreign teachers. Ben Sira therefore strongly urged the Jews to respect their traditional moral values and to have a deep knowledge and love of the scriptures as well as practical wisdom. True wisdom, he teaches, resides in an Israel built around the Torah. Wisdom to him is the “Law of Moses” that humans perceive and experience personally as “The Fear of God.”
In this passage, Ben Sira says that our life should be devoted to the pursuit of wisdom because wisdom is close to God. “The fear of the Lord,” he tells us, “is the beginning of wisdom.” We gain wisdom by adoring and obeying God’s word. The outcome of the fear of God is the virtue of humility. Only humble and patient men and women open themselves up to God’s teaching. It is this lesson of humility that Christ gives the Pharisees in Saint Luke’s Gospel message of this day.
As Africans, we learn from Sirach not to despise the wisdom of our ancestors, especially the respect for the elderly, and the respect for common property. If we were paying heed to our ancestral wisdom, which especially calls for respect for the common good, there would not be so much corruption and embezzlement of public funds as it is the case in our country today. Let us pray for the spirit of humility so we too can acquire wisdom which alone brings us closer to God. Amen.
Second Reading: Hebrews 12: 18-19.22-24
What you have come to is nothing known to the senses: not a blazing fire, or a gloom turning to total darkness, or a storm; or trumpeting thunder or the great voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be said to them. But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a ‘first-born son’ and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with spirits of the saints who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the mediator who brings a new covenant.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
In the final part of the Letter to the Hebrews, the sacred writer urges us to seek peace with all people, so that we can then attain the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord. He exhorts his listeners to learn from him that they do not have to be terrified by the thought of meeting God, as the Israelites were in the desert. The new covenant is one of friendship and love, because Christ, God’s Son and our brother, is our mediator. The place where they will meet God is not on Mount Zion but on the Mountain of Jerusalem, with all their friends and family members who had gone ahead of them marked with a sign of faith.
The sacred writer contrasts two scenes – that of the establishment of the Covenant on Sinai, and the vision of the heavenly city, the heavenly Jerusalem, the dwelling place of the angels and saints. The Old Covenant of Moses was nothing compared to the New Covenant of Christ that brings us the joy and splendour of the heavenly city. For the Jews, Mount Sinai was the most important symbol of their special attachment to God, the Supreme Judge, to whom they owed total allegiance. Another mountain, the Sinai on which the Temple was built, represented God’s protective presence in the midst of his people. However, both Sinai and Zion prefigured the mountain from which the Messiah-King, Christ Jesus, would reign and towards which all peoples would flock to worship the true God. As the Psalmist says, “I myself have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain” (Ps 2:6; Is 2:2).
The new Jerusalem is not only the holy mountain, the source of light and glory of Yahweh and the city of peace that the prophets of old sang about (Is 8:18, Joel 3:17), it is now the city where the angels and saints dwell and rejoice. It is the heavenly and everlasting Jerusalem that Saint John sings about in Revelation (21: 15-17; 22: 1-5).
What does this passage tell me as a Christian living in Cameroon today? It reminds me that, as a Christian, I am also making my way on this pilgrimage to heaven, my lasting homeland, a true place of peace. I therefore pray that the Holy Spirit should strengthen my faith so that I can continue to march to the heavenly Jerusalem, my eyes permanently fixed on the crucified Lord. Lord, come to my assistance. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia! If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him. Alleluia!”
Gospel: Luke 14:1.7-14
On a Sabbath day Jesus had gone for a meal to the house of one of the leading Pharisees; and they watched him closely. He then told the guests a parable, because he had noticed how they picked the places of honour. He said this, “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take your seat in the place of honour. A more distinguished person than you may have been invited, and the person who invited you both may come and say, ‘Give up your place to this man’. And then, to your embarrassment, you would have to go and take the lowest place. No; when you are a guest, make your way to the lowest place and sit there, so that, when your host comes, he may say, ‘My friend, move up higher’. In that way, everyone with you at the table will see you honoured. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles himself will be exalted.” Then he said to his host, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not ask your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbours, for fear they repay your courtesy by inviting you in return. No; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; that they cannot pay you back means that you are fortunate, because repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise again.”
V/ The Gospel of the Lord.
R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is a guest at the home of a leading Pharisee. He notices how the invited guests are all scrambling for places of honour. This provides him with a good opportunity for a lesson on humility. He tells them that a guest who arrives early for an event and immediately goes for the seat of honour will have the greatest shock of his life when someone more important arrives later and the host asks the already seated guest to cede his seat to the one who has more claim to it. Then the humiliated guest will have to walk past all the other seats that have been occupied and shamefully retreat to the back of the room.
Jesus therefore insists that we go for the lowest place – the place of humility – and be pleasantly surprised when the host elevates us to a much higher place of honour, probably taken from the arrogant man, who had sat there without being properly ushered in.
Humility is so necessary for salvation that Jesus uses every opportunity to stress its importance. Here he uses the attitude of people at a banquet to remind us that it is God who assigns places at the heavenly banquet. As Saint Jose Maria Escriva de Ballaguer, the founder of the Opus Dei says “It is not our own efforts that save us and give us life; it is the grace of God. This is the truth which must never be forgotten” (Christ is passing by, 133).
To choose the right place at the right time is a true sign of wisdom. This is what the Pharisees never realise being people who are fond of rank and honour. Those of them who arrive first immediately look for the first places at the table. Jesus teaches them, and us, another understanding of the concept of feeling important. One cannot confer honour on oneself, one can only receive the honour. Only the poor and the humble can be raised. “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God” (Mt 5:3).
Human understanding of importance is not valid before God. Jesus tells his disciples: “Let the greatest among you be your servant, for whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Mt 23:11-12). God exalts the lowly. After all, he humbled himself and became one of us in Jesus Christ.
As Christians, let us therefore learn to be humble in all that we do. Our priority should be the first place to God, the second to our neighbour and the last to us. Christ can only show his love for us when we show love for the least of our brethren (Mt 25:40). Amen.
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