22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 1, 2013
J.A. Loftus, S.J.
Most conscientious preachers will look at the sacred texts well in
advance of the Sunday on which they are preaching. They will mull them
over, pray with them, research the passages if necessary. It sometimes
requires delving into scripture scholarship, looking for relevant artistic
renditions, exploring some ancient history, etc. Many, like myself, will often
research others’ homilies on the same passages to see what might be
interesting there. Anything to spark some ideas!
Sometimes all that careful preparation helps and produces a better
homily. Sometimes, like today, all that careful preparation leads–nowhere!
Sometimes it all remains, in the words of the King of Siam, “a puzzlement.”
We know from today’s first and third readings that the general topic
sentence is about humility. (Let’s just leave the reading from Hebrews alone
for today.) So I asked myself, why does it seem so complicated to say
something interesting about humility? I may have fallen on an embarrassing
answer. So here’s the question for us to think about today:
Is the message
of today’s readings really that complicated? Or is it just embarrassing to me
and to many of us?
Today’s gospel story is made a little more confusing because six verses
are left out of the original gospel passage. (Don’t ask me why. I haven’t a
clue!) The gospel story actually starts with a strange man who is crippled
wandering into an important dinner party with the Pharisees.
It is the
Sabbath. And everyone watches Jesus very carefully to see if he will heal the
man. (The word “watch” that’s used here really means “to watch with
unfriendly intent.” They are suspicious.) Will he heal on the Sabbath?
He does, of course. And now, in today’s reading, they are all still
“watching” Jesus to see what he’s up to next. And then Jesus starts
“watching” them as they gather for dinner. Everybody is watching each
other.
One commentator (John Shea) suggests that Jesus actually gets quite
comical. He tells the Pharisees to at least “fake” being humble: sit at the
back of the table first and pretend to be unimportant so that the Master will
come in and drag you up higher. And everybody will see how really
important you are.
So Jesus seems to be saying, don’t be so stupid, as to pretend you are
not important.
others:
It’s as if Jesus is coaching the Pharisees in how to deceive
appear humble by being skillful at looking and sounding poor.
But does that message sound like the Jesus of Nazareth most of the rest
of the gospel illumines? I don’t think so. This is why Shea thinks it might
be deliberately comical. So maybe Jesus is presenting a kind of cruel “joke”
to the Pharisees.
But then Jesus continues by reversing the second great pillar of ancient
hospitality. He says not to invite in the first place only those who are your
social equals. But invite the poor, the crippled, the blind. Remember the
cripple at the beginning of the story. He’s still there, at the dinner party, but
not at the head table–at least not yet.
Comical or not, Jesus has now managed to upset everyone, once again!
And on at least three different counts: healing on the Sabbath, telling people
not to take themselves so seriously, and then challenging the images of
self-importance so culturally ingrained in his first listeners–and maybe even
in us.
You know, that voice that whispers: stay with your own kind. Be
careful to preserve at all costs your position in the community!
What on first bounce may have seemed impenetrable to myself and so
many other preachers starts to look embarrassingly clear. In fact, I suspect
we all know exactly what Jesus was trying to say. That may be why it seems
so impenetrable. There is a rather simple one-liner embedded in the gospel:
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Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and vice-versa. What’s so
impenetrable about that? The real problem for me is that I just don’t do it
often enough. How about you?
Sometimes the interpretation of the scriptures is more obvious than we
may allow ourselves to think.
It may not really be that complicated! It’s
just sometimes embarrassing. Think about it!
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