“He also had a parable for the guests who were invited, as He observed how they chose the chief places for themselves; He said to them, ‘When any man invites thee to a wedding, do not sit down in the chief place; he may have invited some guest whose rank is greater than thine. If so, his host and thine will come and say to thee, Make room for this man; and so thou wilt find thyself taking, with a blush, the lowest place of all. Rather, when thou art summoned, go straight to the lowest place and sit down there; so, when he who invited thee comes in, he will say, My friend, go higher than this; and then honour shall be thine before all that sit down in thy company. Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.’ He said, moreover, to His host, ‘When thou givest a dinner or a supper, do not ask thy neighbours to come, or thy brethren, or thy kindred, or thy friends who are rich; it may be they will send thee invitations in return, and so thou wilt be recompensed for thy pains. Rather, when thou givest hospitality, invite poor men to come, the cripples, the lame, the blind: so thou shalt win a blessing, for these cannot make thee any return; thy reward will come when the just rise again.”
Gospel of S. Luke, 14: 7-14 [link]
Let’s talk a little about the poor in spirit – the humble – those who are frequently outcasts in their societies, even if they are not necessarily penniless. It is quite clear that our readings at Mass this weekend are all about humility. I shall begin with a quote from S. Basil the Great, the bishop of Caesarea, who treats the gospel story above as referring to social order, but we can address also the particular order within the community of the Church, and we may as well look at that.
“To take then the lowest place at a feast, according to our Lord’s command, is becoming to every man, but again to rush contentiously after this is to be condemned as a breach of order and cause of tumult; and a strife raised about it, will place you on a level with those who dispute concerning the highest place. Wherefore, as our Lord here says, it becomes him who makes the feast to arrange the order of sitting down. Thus in patience and love should we mutually bear ourselves, following all things decently according to order, not for external appearance or public display; nor should we seem to study or affect humility by violent contradiction, but rather gain it by condescension or by patience. For resistance or opposition is a far stronger token of pride than taking the first seat at meat, when we obtain it by authority.”
S. Basil of Caesarea
Basil’s reference to the host at the wedding feast who arranges the seating at table seems to indicate Christ, Who established the seating with the hierarchical constitution of the Church, that is, the grades of clergy and laity, including non-clerical rulers and governors. He says that, in love and patience, we are to mutually live within this structure that is not created by ourselves but established by Christ and received by us. And he says that we should do so integrally, and not only by outward appearances, for any resistance or opposition to the order set before us by the Lord, is a sign of pride.
Therefore, any serious attempt at ‘reform,’ which ends up being a rebellion against the order established by Christ, and every attempt to remake the Church with novelties is an act of pride. All the disturbances and divisions that have afflicted the Church over the centuries and torn her apart have something to do with this type of pride, which seeks to destroy the apostolic structure of the Church, and to somehow seize the authority that was established by Christ. However well-meaning social and religious reformers have been in the last few centuries, the men who have wrenched away from legitimate authority structures have ultimately broken away and led large communities of people into increasing isolation and fragmentation. And so, the root of disunity is usually pride. Pride leads men to take what is not theirs to have, from the moment that our first parents Adam and Eve took of the tree in the Garden, and even until modern governments have tended towards autocracy and dictatorship.
We have numerous stories in the Gospels of how Christ declared that every type of leadership in the Church is given and not taken, that the leaders of the Church are to serve and not be served, that such a gift is not to be sought after for glory and gain. And then, our minds may go over the many instances we may have experienced or heard about of clerics – bishops and priests – who have abused the trust of their Master, who have chased after glory and gain, and even worse have chased after power over other people, either spiritual or physical. And so, we take up the lesson on humility, the original lesson from Lady Wisdom in the book of Ecclesiasticus/Sirach.
“Faithfully it shall be made good to thee, nor shalt thou be forgotten when the time of affliction comes; like ice in summer the record of thy sins shall melt away. Tarnished his name, that leaves his father forsaken; God’s curse rest on him, that earns a mother’s ill-will. My son, do all thou dost in lowly fashion; love thou shalt win, that is worth more than men’s praise. The greater thou art, the more in all things abase thyself; so thou shalt win favour with God … Sovereignty belongs to God and no other; they honour Him most that most keep humility.”
Book of Ecclesiasticus (aka. Sirach), 3: 17-21 [link]
The first reading extols humility – lowliness of heart – even in the great, and there is a line that exalts the willingness to learn. For the humble person is prepared to learn from the wisdom of the past, both family and community tradition, or as the reading says to listen to parables and the dreams of the wise. We live in a time where social pride and the theory of progressivism has all but dismissed the traditions of the past, and we find ourselves constantly remaking and redefining ourselves, while looking down on the ancients, the medievals, and even the early modern philosophers. Universities seek to close philosophy and theology departments, because a modern and progressive society has no use for anything that doesn’t directly benefit the economies of nations, or doesn’t help very much with acquiring power and influence. There is less space these days for humility and benevolence, which are the marks of a Christian past.
But there’s nothing terribly new about any of that, because the human heart is always the same in every era. And whether we look at the modern world or the ancient world or anything in between, pride and the desire for power over other people is commonly found. If our Lord chided the Pharisees and the Temple scribes for their superficiality and their seeking after glory in the way they comported themselves in public, He in our gospel story above addresses their attempt to seize honour for themselves. To take for themselves a religious authority over ordinary Jews that was illegitimate and exacting. As per the parable, in trying to take up seats nearer the host of the wedding feast, they were over-reaching. For glory is not taken for oneself; it is given from above.
This doesn’t only concern the priests and teachers in the Church, of course, but every one of us. Some of us are authority figures in our families and local communities. And it doesn’t only concern honour, which is given from above, but it concerns also power, which is also ultimately God’s. He sets those who rule over us in this world in their place, and asks us to suffer them, if it comes to that. But as in the story we have above, he expects us to take the lowest place, and He will lift us up out of this. When He says that whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted, He is practically reading the Law of Moses out and admonishing the proud Pharisees for failing yet again in their observance of that Law.
I shall end by naming the most humble of the children of men, our blessed Lady, who in her great song the Magnificat says, He Who is mighty has done great things for me, He has put down the mighty and exalted the humble…
“Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord; my spirit has found joy in God, Who is my Saviour, because He has looked graciously upon the lowliness of His handmaid. Behold, from this day forward all generations will count me blessed; because He Who is mighty, He whose name is holy, has wrought for me His wonders. He has mercy upon those who fear Him, from generation to generation; He has done valiantly with the strength of His arm, driving the proud astray in the conceit of their hearts; He has put down the mighty from their seat, and exalted the lowly…”
Gospel of S. Luke, 1: 46-52 [link]
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 
Amen 🙏 🙏
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