Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
Readings: Sirach 3:17-18,20,28-29
Hebrews 12: 18-19
Luke 14: 1,7-14
Creative with Weakness
“Accepting reality with all its limitations in oneself and others, being creative with weakness and imperfections, knowing how to use them to grow and deepen: this seems to be what humility is all about.” These words of wisdom come from the writings of Sr. Mary David Totah, former prioress of St Cecilia’s Abbey, who returned home to God 5 years ago today, on the Feast of St Augustine. The way home to God is precisely the way constructed by God Himself, wrote St Augustine, God who saw the weakness of our steps. The saint explained that “the first way is humility; the second way is humility, and the third way is humility.” Being creative with weakness and imperfections does require courage and imagination, not to be focussed on oneself but to seek to offer our lives in the service of others. “The greater you are the more you must humble yourself” (Sir. 3:18).
The Gospels and letters of the New Testament are filled with this idea of ‘reversal’: To go up, you must come down. Jesus said in the Gospel of St Luke “let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.” When the disciples argued among themselves as to who was the greatest among them, Jesus took a child and put him by his side and said to them “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me … for he who is least among you is the one who is great” (Lk. 9: 48).
Jesus is invited to dine at the house of a ruler who was a Pharisee. It was a Sabbath. The Pharisees were watching him with their critical eyes. He heals a man suffering from dropsy. This of course perturbs them all greatly, because it was a Sabbath. Then he notices how they are all seeking the highest place of honour at the table. He tells them a parable about guests invited to a wedding banquet. This slightly deflects the view from the present gathering, which is not a wedding, but nevertheless they get the message. At a wedding banquet especially, seating arrangements will be critical with places of honour given to the more privileged or more important. He tells them not to seek the places of honour, but instead go to the lowest place so that you will not be humiliated if the host tells you give up your seat to another. To go up, you must come down. The reason being that we are inclined to the sin of pride, ever since the fall of our first parents. We must be creative in accepting who we are and combating this sin by humility. And it is indeed an ongoing struggle.
St Benedict was very radical for his time in the sixth century. Order in the community is not determined by the rank a newcomer has in the world, but rather by his date of entry into the monastery. This meant that it could happen that older more noble people might have a lower rank to the young if they arrived at a later time. No provision was made for their status in the world prior to entry to the community. Thus it is still today for Benedictine monks and nuns. And so if some great and holy Cardinal wants to join us, he will have a rank in the community below Br Matthew! But the ranks are closed when the brothers exercise humility and fraternal charity to one another with a pure love – a good zeal ferventissimo amore!
St Augustine explained that God had to do two basic things for us for our salvation: Firstly, we had to be persuaded by Him how much He loves us: God so loved the world that he sent His only Son not to condemn but to save the world. And secondly – and this is the hard part – He had to show us what sort of people we are that He loves! He showed us our weakness of pride, as Jesus is doing here today to the Pharisees. “So he dealt with us in such a way that we could progress rather in His Strength; He arranged is so that the power of charity would be brought to perfection in the weakness of humility.” Again we have the ‘reversal’ – and the reversal is nothing other than the undoing of the effects of the sin of pride, the original sin. Power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). We progress in God’s strength, in His Name, not our own. The one who receives the child ‘in My Name’, as Christ said, is the great one. We note too that Jesus placed the child ‘by his side’, signifying the place of honour.
God chose not some high-ranking woman in the world as His Mother, but the lowly handmaid, Mary. He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. As the Church Fathers wrote, He became one with us so that we might, in His Name, become one with Him. Mary too was keenly aware of this ‘reversal’. “He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree” (Lk. 1: 52). Mary, the wise one, became the Seat of Wisdom. God chose her, not just to be in the highest place by His side, but more profoundly for His Holy Dwelling Place in her womb, the New Ark of the Covenant. Here we have the most profound act of God being ‘creative with weakness’, to borrow the phrase from Sr Mary David. Who would ever have thought that God would do such a thing? We cannot fathom the depth of His Mercy and Love for us. But the Mystery of the Incarnation, God becoming man, gives us much to ponder on His Love, His Divine Creativity in forming us anew, providing we assume our place, despite our limitations and weaknesses, with and in Mary, in humility.
Dom Brian Gerard Kelly