Sir 3:17-18; Heb 12:18-19, 22-24; Luke 14:1,7-14
Highs and lows in the readings today. Humility (Sirach) and Mount Zion (Hebrews) and both in the Gospel of Luke. Whether we are in the lowest place or the highest place, we are the Lord’s.
Being #1 is engrained in American life. Being #1 is to feel powerful, Godlike. In the film Titanic, Jack Dawson mounts the ship’s rail and proclaims: “I’m King of the world!” There is a part of him in all of us. It’s a way of saying: “I am God.” The Greeks called it: hubris, a.k.a. full of oneself. It’s also the original sin. Our native gifts are from God, not from ourselves. If our feet aren’t firmly grounded, we can take a tumble from that ship’s rail. That’s the Gospel message today. (My mother would never get on a ship or a plane. She used to say: “I want to be on terra firma or firm earth.) The clear warning in Sirach and in Luke’s gospel is: not hubris but humility. Humility means “of the earth.” “The smallest stone we pick up randomly from a river bed has long preceded us and will outlive us.” If we are not ‘down to earth’ or have our feet on the ground, we can fall to the lowest place. It’s what we call reversal of fortune. It’s what happens to the tragic heroes in the great dramas we read in high school and college. Even to Jack Dawson in Titanic. At UK, it’s always devastating when a Kentucky team loses — especially in a tournament. We can identify setbacks in our own lives. The job we didn’t get. The job we lost. The exam we failed. Broken health. Broken marriages, broken friendships. All of these are reversals in our lives. They bring us low. BUT Can these low places lead us higher? Can they lead us closer to God? I learn that I am not God; that there is one God and there is no other. We turn to God to lead us higher. That’s humility. From our place on the ground, we learn again how much we need God. That’s having one’s feet on the ground. We learn again we need the community for strength. It’s relationship. It’s therapy. It’s medicine against arrogance and hubris (Costica Bradaton.Aeon.2016).
Part two of today’s Gospel passage is about how we use our gifts. Our gifts are from God. We put them at the service of the community. Garrison Keillor said recently in his Washington Post column: “We are here for a brief time. We would like our stay to mean something.” He advises that we do this by extending ourselves to others. That’s therapeutic, too. Pope Francis has said that when we do so: “your heart will begin to grow bigger, bigger and bigger.” Giving our gifts expands us and extends us. It stretches us to the highest place, to God, who is # 1, in first place, in the highest place. Isn’t that why we sing: “Glory to God in the highest”??