This Sunday, we get a cautionary reminder: It’s not all about us.
The Gospel presents us once more with a central theme of Jesus’s life – a cornerstone of his teaching. Humility.
He can’t say it enough. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus told his followers that the last shall be first and the first shall be last (Matthew 20:16) and in John’s Gospel we have the powerful image of Christ washing the feet of his apostles (John 13: 1-17) and explaining, “I have given you a model to follow.”
And who can forget John the Baptist’s prophetic proclamation, “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30)?
The need for humility, of course, isn’t something unique to the New Testament, as we hear in the first reading from Sirach: “My child, conduct your affairs with humility.”
Humanity has been struggling with this idea from the beginning – ever since pride and the desire for forbidden fruit brought about our exile from Eden. Where has this led us? Today, we compete for the better office, the bigger house, the flashier car, the statements of status that prop up our egos and announce to us (and others), “I’m really something, aren’t I?”
But this week, our Scripture says, “Wait. You’re doing this wrong.”
Humility is such a critical part of the Christian story. Jesus was born in the humblest of circumstances, with a manger for a bed, in a world that literally had no room for him; his father was a modest carpenter; his mother was an anonymous girl who surrendered her will to God’s; his hometown was the subject of dismissive ridicule; he spent his life with almost nothing to his name, not even a permanent home; and after a brutal and degrading death, he was buried in a borrowed tomb.
Yet from all of that came a figure who literally changed the world. From that, came our salvation. He is our ultimate model of humility.
If he is our model, how are we following his example? This Gospel is a call to action. St. Augustine understood. He wrote about how urgently the Christian heart needs to stamp out pride and look lovingly toward caring for and serving others.
“Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues,” he wrote. “Hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.”
Pope Francis echoed that. He once noted that being “poor in spirit,” being humble, is the first of the beatitudes. “It is the first,” he said, “because it underlies those that follow it: meekness, mercy, purity of heart arise from that inner sense of littleness.”
More than recognizing our own littleness, it also involves recognizing the inherent worth, the bigness, of others.
“When you hold a banquet,” Jesus said, “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.”
Okay, maybe a lot of us don’t spend much time hosting banquets.
But consider this: The most important banquet is a feast offering true compassion, mercy and love. It is surrendering ourselves for others.
That means setting the table for those who are often marginalized, rejected, ignored. That might even include, in one way or another, getting down on our knees to wash feet. It means giving to those who are outcast, offering them a place at the table – treating the least as the greatest and bestowing on them the incomparable gift of dignity.
Ultimately, our call as Christians is a call to humility, to step aside and give of ourselves for others. To answer the timeless question, “What would Jesus do?” Exactly that.
Deacon Greg Kandra is an award-winning author and journalist, and creator of the blog “The Deacon’s Bench.”
