360. Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)
Meditations no. 326 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Seeking the last place with true humility.
Jesus went to the home of a Pharisee to dine. Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he marked how they chose the places of honour, saying to them, âWhen you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honourâŚâ
On several occasions our Lord used the widespread custom of dinner banquets as a setting for his teaching, speaking about the host who invited only distinguished people to his table; or the discourteous guests who made excuses for turning down their invitation⌠Now he uses the occasion to speak to us about humility.
Instead of directly reproaching the dinner guests for their eagerness to take the first places, Jesus tactfully proposes a parable to them: when a meal is about to begin, an important person enters the room, who can allow himself the freedom of being a few minutes late. The host greets him with a smile and escorts him to the place of honour at his right hand. There is no time now for all the guests to change place. So the person who, on his own initiative, had taken the first place, is now obliged to take the last. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.
Jesus reminds us in this way of the need to stay in our place, to shun vanity and not aspire to places of honour. Whatever our own tasks and talents may be, without humility we would only get in the way. Without humility we cannot be effective. If someone who is extraordinarily gifted gets out of place, he ruins his own effectiveness and diminishes that of others. Humble people, on the other hand, though they may not be brilliant humanly speaking, know their role and are effective wherever they are placed. They know their own limitations and capabilities. They know how to do and disappear. Their good qualities are always a help, never a hindrance. But above all, in Godâs eyes, there are no great or small jobs: they are all great if they are done for Love. Things which are seemingly small become great through the prism of our vocation of service.
To become humble, we have to engrave on our hearts what our Father wrote: your aim should be this: among your brothers, to be the last. We all tend to overestimate ourselves. If you knew yourself, our Founder wrote, you would rejoice in being despised, and your heart would weep at honour and praised. A Father of the Church said: The first degree of humility is to consider your brethren better than you and ahead of you in everything. With that attitude, our talents will never go to waste. And in the end, our Lord himself will say to us: Friend, go up higher.
Working unnoticed, like the donkey at the waterwheel.
Truly humble people, in the words of St Gregory the Great, are happy to be little esteemed, since they see their lowly opinion of themselves confirmed by others. They do not need much attention, they do not like to show off, they do not lay claim to ârightsâ. They fulfil their duty, and play the part that corresponds to them, without attracting attention to themselves. In the Work, we each have to be a reliable instrument, not requiring special care in order to function: an instrument that is always useful, come rain or shine, when things are easy or when things are hard. And we will be reliable if we donât think about ourselves.
Our Father liked the example of the donkey at the waterwheel. I donât know about you, he told us, but I donât find it humiliating to admit that in Godâs eyes I resemble a beast of burden. Ut iumentum factus sum apud te, âIâm like a little donkey before you. Et ego semper tecum: but You are always with me. Thatâs presence of God. Tenuisti manum dexteram meam. As I usually tell him: you have taken me by the halter. Et in voluntate tua deduxisti me: and you have led me to carry out your will, that is, you have made me faithful to my vocation. Et cum gloria suscepisti me: and then youâll give me a really big hug.
The donkey, so highly praised in Sacred Scripture, has a lot of meaning for us. I am very fond of donkeys. And I would like you to consider them, if you will, like small cars made of flesh and bone, in need of very little. A donkey needs little âfuelâ - donât you agree? Just a little straw. Heâs happy with whatever he gets.â That is how we should be. Then we wonât worry about looking important in other peopleâs eyes. We will fulfil our duty well because we are humble. We will realize that only one thing matters: to serve God and his Church by doing Opus Dei. Ours is to disappear behind the task we are carrying out, whose value lies in its being operatio Dei, a work of God.
Our efforts are divinely effective when we work and pass unnoticed like a little donkey who pulls his cart faithfully and perseveringly, ever docile to his masterâs instructions: guided by God, subject to our Lordâs gentle yoke, which makes our burden light and the way sure. Then the most ordinary things are filled with unsuspected colour and meaning and value: O blessed perseverance of the donkey that turns the water-wheel! -Always the same pace. Always the same circles. -One day after another: all of them the same.
Without that, there would be no ripening in the fruit, no blossoming in the orchard, nor the scent of flowers in the garden.
Love of God, combined with forgetfulness of ourselves, will make what seemed small and apparently worthless into something truly great and fruitful.
To be humble we have to look out for opportunities to serve others.
We find another lesson on humility and wisdom in the Book of Sirach: My son, perform your tasks in meekness; then you will be loved by those whom God accepts. The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself; so you will find favour in the sight of the Lord.
Sanctity in the Work doesnât consist of being great or small, our Father insisted. It consists of keeping our supernatural life enkindled, letting ourselves burn right down to the last ember, serving God in the last place, or in the first, wherever our Lord calls us. And in the end, weâll all be equal, since we will have burnt ourselves completely, with the same spirit, cum odore suavitatis (with a sweet fragrance). Those who were great, by giving what they had. And the little ones, likewise. He who has much gives much, because much is demanded of him. And he who has little gives little, because less is demanded of him. But from both, what is demanded is everything.
Our Lord himself set us an eloquent example at the Last Supper when once again he showed us in deeds what he had taught with words. Look how by kissing the feet of the first twelve, Christ kissed our feet. And he is who he is, and we are who we are: poor creatures.
If we are faithful and humble, we will be pure, mortified, obedient; we will be effective everywhere; and the humbler we are, the more effective we will be. We havenât come to command, but to obey. We have come to serve as Jesus Christ did: non venit ministrari, sed ministrare (he did not come to be served, but to serve).
In order to be useful, serve, our Father always said. My pride is to serve! Like our Lord at the Last Supper, we will undertake even the most unpleasant tasks. We will tackle difficulties without fuss, so that others donât have to face them. Taking the âlast placeâ should not be a disagreeable imposition, but the fruit of our self-denial, our holiness. We need to look for opportunities to serve others, thinking about what they need and finding ways to be useful to them. This has to be our ambition, stemming from our identification with Christ.
For us, any activity, even if it seems very important from a human point of view, is no more than a means to serve our Lord and to serve our fellow men: this is its true importance. Our working day has to be centred on others, not on ourselves, so that we can say each night in the examination of conscience: Dear Lord, I havenât thought about myself; Iâve only worried about making life pleasant for the others!
Let us seriously engage not only our hands, but also our heads and hearts. If I were living with the Blessed Virgin, St Joseph and Jesus, how would I do things for them? This applies to intellectual things, the highest things of the spirit, as well as to our most down-to-earth duties. Everything for Love. This is the path to holiness, to happiness.
This was our Ladyâs way: Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae - because he has looked graciously upon the lowliness of his handmaidâŚ
I am more convinced every day that authentic humility is the supernatural basis for all virtues!
Talk to our Lady, so that she may train us to walk along that path.