[God’s Word] Do everything in humility, you will be loved more than a benefactor

By: Fr. Jean Michel Ntimprirangeza – Burundi

The sacred texts of this Sunday praise humility and show us that it is the way to meet God.

The author of the book of Ben Sira the Wise advises his disciple to practice humility, which is far more important than generosity: “My son, do everything in humility, and you will be loved more than a benefactor.” He is not unaware that doing good is a very good thing and even praiseworthy. He invites his disciple to do more: to do good with humility. Humility consists of a lowering of oneself in order to be able to meet God on his way. By leaving all the space to Him, He takes care of the rest and the disciple receives the grace of contemplating his God.

Jesus Christ, the mediator of a new covenant presented to us in the epistle to the Hebrews, is the One to whom the men and women redeemed by his blood have come. By recognizing themselves as disciples, they accept his word and must imitate his example. He calls them to put themselves in his school of gentleness and humility.

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Having the condition of God, Christ did not claim the right and the rank; He annihilated Himself by taking the condition of a servant; He humbled Himself becoming obedient to the point of death and the death of the cross. From this abasement, God exalted Him by endowing Him with the name that is above every name as Saint Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians. So it is to Him that we too have come.

Saint Luke in the Gospel gives us two parables that Jesus told about humility. First, He instructs the guests who were choosing the first places on humility by exhorting them to take the last place so that afterwards they would receive the invitation to advance higher. Glory, titles and honors weigh less in front of the one who has given an invitation to his guests whom he knows better.

It is up to the one who organized the party to give places to his guests. Jesus wants his listeners to do as He did by reversing the positions and the scale of values: “For which is greater: the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at the table? Well, I am among you as the one who serves” (Lk 22:27). He who chooses the place of a servant like himself will be exalted at the banquet that is being prepared in the Kingdom of God.

After having spoken to the guests like himself, he turns to the one who had invited him to tell him that the people to be invited are those who are not able to do the same in return: the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. The latter, in the Jewish religion, were presented as those who should not be admitted to the temple of the Lord (Lev 21:18; 2 Sam 5:8).

Their condition was a clear sign of their sinfulness and the assembly of the Israelites was to be composed of people of integrity, perfect, pure, without blemish. So he announces that he has come to give birth to a new banquet, a banquet in which the excluded, the rejected, the needy and the destitute become the first guests, those to whom the places of honor are reserved.

These categories of which Jesus speaks represent those who cannot give back the same thing they received. We ask the Lord, who is gentle and humble of heart, to give us a heart like His, so that we may act as He acted.

Lord, give us a wise and good heart to listen to your Word and put it into practice; give us humility so that we may be counted among your beloved ones whom you will receive at the banquet you are preparing for us in your Kingdom. Amen