22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time; 9-1-2019

Sir 3:17-18,20,28-29   Ps 68   Heb 12:18-19,22-24a   Lk 14:1,7-14

Deacon Jim McFadden; (New) Folsom Prison

 

At the mid-point of the 90’s blockbuster film Titanic, the Leonardi DiCaprio character, spread-eagled with his arms extended on the stern of the ship, boasts loudly, “I am the King of the World!”   Contrast that egoic sentiment with what St. Bernard of Clairvaux said when asked what the fundamental virtues were for the spiritual life. He said there were three: “Humility, humility, and humility!” In a similar vein, St. Catherine of Siena wrote in her spiritual classic, The Ecstasy of Prayer: “Remember that I am and you are not.” God is the one who is. He is the great ‘I AM.’ So, everything is contingent for its existence upon God.  That means everything we are and everything we have is a gift from God. St. Paul summed it up by stating that “What do you have that you have not received? So, why do you boast? (1 Cor 4:7).

Expressed in these theological precise terms, it’s hard to argue against these straight-forward basic truths. But, oh, how hard they are to live out. While the majority of people believe in God, behaviorally, it seems we function as baptized pagans. We act as if we are a god to ourselves in which we believe that the world should revolve around us or, by extension, our group, such as our country. Forgetting our metaphysical status—we are contingent beings, whereas God is the Necessary Being—we become overtime “skin-encapsulated egos.” And, here’s where the spiritual struggle kicks in. I expect, I demand that life should meet my agenda. Our rich Catholic Tradition, however, strives to knock these attitudes down, but to die to our False Self is a messy, on-going struggle.

With that in mind, let’s look at today’s reading from Luke’s Gospel, which deals with honor at a banquet. Jesus has been invited to the home of a prominent person, one of the leading Pharisees. We notice that people were doing what they do today: they’re jockeying for position, grasping for status, prestige, and prominence. Attending this big-deal affair, surrounded by all the cool people, someone is going to be honored and we want to be that guy. So, what are we going to do? We’re going to make sure we get noticed and that we end up sitting next to the right people so that we can be properly recognized.

So, we become preoccupied with how I can impress. What will the glitterati think of me? Am I on proper display? How am I doing? We’ve all been to public gatherings like this. And, it’s such a drag because we’re not really enjoying the dinner for its own sake, we’re not enjoying the company of those around us, but we’re jockeying for position feeding our voracious ego.

Jesus puts his finger on the worse-case scenario for an egotist. While he’s trying to get recognized for all the wrong reasons, he puts himself in a high place, but then someone more important comes along, and then the host has to take this guy with his inflated ego to a lower place in front of everybody! His egoic games have backfired dreadfully.

So, what’s the solution to all of this? If Jesus is the center of our lives, we simply STOP PLAYING THE GAME! We opt out of it on purpose, See what Jesus recommends: take the lowest place on purpose.   Yeah, people will be still jockeying around you—that’s how it goes when competing egos congregate. But, you, on the other hand, opt out of the ego-game; you’re no longer going to play it. You’re actually going to take the lowest place, enjoy the dinner, and the company around you.

Jesus is not finished as he takes the deconstruction of honor to a deeper level. We tend to put a premium on reciprocity. I’ll invite the glitterati, the rich and famous, so that they just might invite me back. What’s going on here is ego-stroking. Even if I’m invited to their party, I’m not really going to enjoy it because now I’m thinking, “Geez, I’ve got to invite them back.” I have to pay them back, tit for tat, or otherwise I’m going to look bad. At the end of the day, no one is enjoying this dinner either.

So, the Lord is saying, “OPT OUT” of this game too. Don’t play it. Instead, only invite those who have no capacity to invite you in return. Listen to what Jesus says: “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when 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” (Lk 14:12-14).

Happy will you be because they can’t repay you. Happy will you be when you are freed from this goofy rhythm of the ego. You’ve opted out of the game because you’re now living the Truth, who is Jesus the Christ. But, this is the hardest thing to do in the spiritual order—to die to our False Self. That’s why every spiritual Master, from Jesus on, emphasizes the primary of humility. Remember what St. Catherine of Siena said, “I AM and you are not.” That’s the key to our existential identity. That’s why humility will make us happy. Amen.