Just a word before we go…Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time…August 27, 2022

Both Sirach in our first reading, and Jesus in our Gospel today, are concerned with the idea of humility as a virtue in the living of our lives.  Sirach entreats his contemporary listeners to be gentle and courteous, not over-reaching, and concentrating on God’s wisdom, not that of the Greek intellectuals.  Jesus holds up a mirror to those gathered at the dinner, and in much the same way as Flannery O’Connor would do much later, uses outsized caricatures to get people to look at themselves and examine their presuppositions about life and their place in society.

Jesus often used the occasion of a meal to teach about living the gospel.  He emphasized, sometimes explicitly but often implicitly, that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a banquet.  The very act of eating together is a sharing in our common humanity, and provides an opportunity for us to become more fully human by engaging with others, widening our circles and expanding our horizons.  We feed one another, not only with food and drink, but by helping one another to grow.  And for Jesus, this growth into recognizing our interdependence as well as our dependence on the God who loves each of us incredibly, is an essential step on The Way.  Is it any wonder the celebration of the Eucharist is modeled on the idea of a shared meal?

Neither Sirach nor Jesus advocates the false humility of Dicken’s character Uriah Heep, but rather, being humble as meaning “grounded, in touch with reality and living without illusions...to live in awareness of the truth...in gratitude, being cognizant that all is gift,” as Chicago theologian Fr. Donald Senior writes.  Recognizing that God loves us as we are, warts and all, can open us up and allow us to grow, no longer needing any false self to protect the real person behind the mask. We can abandon the perfectionism that can stifle us and our potential for growth, and rest easy in the confidence that being loved evokes.

What happens when we really look at ourselves and our underlying assumptions in that mirror of Jesus?  The spoonful of sugar that sweetens the revelation of reality is another gift, that of the ability to laugh at ourselves as we accept who we are and move forward on The Way.  As with Sirach and Jesus, and from Julian of Norwich to the Beatles, love is the answer...love for God, love for one another, love for ourselves.