22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C); August 28, 2022                  

Sir 3:17-18, 20,28-29. Ps 68. Heb 12:18-19,22-24a. Lk 14:1.7-14

Deacon Jim McFadden

         At the mid-point of the ‘90s blockbuster film Titanic, the Leonardo 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’re 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).

        To believe in God is to know these truths. To live out of them is to live what the Church calls ‘humility.’ That’s why St. Thomas Aquinas would say that “Humilitas es Veritas, Truth is humility. It’s living out the deepest truth of God and ourselves. God is God and we are not. So, the right attitude is humility.

        It’s hard to argue against these straight-forward basic truths. But, oh how hard they are to live out. We see this being on display in today’s Gospel from Luke, which deals with honor and prestige at a banquet. Jesus has been invited to the home of a prominent person, one of the leading Pharisees. We notice that people are doing then what they do today: they’re jockeying for position, trying to get noticed, grasping for status and prestige. You’ve been invited to this very big deal dinner, where someone important is being honored. And, with all the cool people, the in-group whose approval you crave, what are you going to do? You’re going to make sure that you get noticed and that you sit with the right people so that the most important people are going to notice you.

        Why do we do that? Again back to Aquinas who said that If we don’t surrender ourselves to God alone, we will seek carnal delight—that is, God- substitutes, false idols, the goods of the world that take the form of wealth, pleasure, power, and, for our purposes, prestige, exhibited by our penchant for honor, glory, and praise. If we acquire honor, then we’ve obtained value. My self-worth is gauged by the approval I acquire from others.

       The problem with being preoccupied with honor is it puts our life utterly in the hands of other people. When we’re addicted to honor, we’re tacitly saying that our joy is going to depend upon someone’s else; so, I have to learn what they prefer and I’ll act accordingly in order to satisfy their desire. Only when they approve of me, will I be happy. My sense of self-worth will be conditioned by how successful and how much prestige I acquire.

        So, what’s the solution to all of this? If Jesus is the center of our lives and not the approval of others, we simply STOP PLAYING THE GAME! We opt out of it on purpose. We do what Jesus recommends who exhorts the person not to “sit down in a place of honor, lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him; and he who invited you both will come, and say to you, ‘Please move back, give place to this man” (Lk 14: vs. 8-9). Jesus is inviting the man, he’s inviting us to opt out of the ego-game; we no longer have to play it. Go take the lower place, embrace the way of humility in which we can be truly present to God and, in so doing, to others in genuine fellowship.

         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 rich and famous so that they might invite me back. It’s all about transaction: you do this for me and I’ll do this for you. It’s all about ego-stroking and has nothing to do with genuine relationships.

        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. Jesus says to him, “when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you” (vs. 13-14). Happy will you be when people can’t repay you. Happy will you be when you are freed from the goofy rhythm of the Ego-drama. You’re out of the game because you are now living in the Truth, who is Jesus. And, when that happens, you “will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (v. 14). That means you will receive divine compensation that is far superior to the shallow and ephemeral approval of others. You will receive divine life here and how, which will endure for eternity.

        You see, brothers and sisters, by breaking our addiction to honor and prestige, Jesus is moving us towards selfless generosity, which is at the heart of who God is. He is paving our way toward a much greater joy, the joy of partaking in the very love of God who awaits us, all of us, so that we can enter the heavenly banquet, That’s what God wants for us. So, let us let go of our obsession with honor so that we can give God all praise and glory. Amen.