22nd Sunday 2013
Robert VerEecke, S.J.
Question: When you come to Mass at St. Ignatius, do you always sit in the
same seat? In other words, do you have a special place at the table of the
Lord? From my vantage point, I would answer yes to that question for you.
When I look out and see you who come here every week or even most
weeks, I see you sitting in the same seat, same pew, certainly the same
section. I’m not sure what it is in us that makes us gravitate to the same
place but something in us says: This is my place. This is where I belong.
This is where I am most comfortable, where I am most myself.
I begin this homily asking you to reflect on something as simple as
“knowing your place” and “being in the right place” because the scriptures
today invite us to think about our place in the universe, our place at the
banquet table of the Lord and who is there with us.
I recently returned from my eight day silent retreat at Eastern Point in
Gloucester where every year at this time I come to know my place and know
that I am in the right place with God.
There is something about eight days of silence, seeking what is sublime, but
not too sublime, searching into things that are beyond one’s strength but not
too far beyond, that gives you a sense of your place in the universe. Rising
before dawn each day I would behold the majesty and beauty of creation in
the morning sunrise. And in the evening the reflection of the moon on the
sea would almost take your breath away with its beauty. Even holding a bit
of earth in your hand can prompt you to remember who you are before the
Eternal mystery. You know your place. You are humbled in the most
authentic sense of that word. Humbled from humus, of the earth. You know
your place in the midst of the mystery. There is no need to humble yourself,
as we hear in the book of Sirach. You are by your very being before the
presence of the Holy One, humbled. You know who you are. You know
your place in the universe. To be genuinely humbled can be one of the most
profound human experiences that we can know. When someone tells you
that they trust you and believe in you, it can move you to tears because there
is someone who knows who you are. When God says: I know who you are.
I trust you. I believe in you. I love you. How humbling is that!
In the Gospel, however, Jesus speaks to those who think more of themselves
than they really are. Their egos are inflated. They are so full of themselves
that they cannot see the humiliation that is in store for them. They jockey for
place and position at the banquet table only to be told that they are much less
than they think they are. There is a difference between Humbled and being
Humiliated. When you are humbled, you are where you should be, in a very
good place, where you don’t need to draw attention to yourself. Rather you
can just be yourself. Your genuine humanity can shine forth without
pretension. When you are humiliated, you are demeaned in such a way that
you are dehumanized. To humiliate someone is to make them “nothing”, as
insignificant as a speck of dust, or a piece of dirt. Jesus reminds his listeners
of the risk they run of this kind of humiliation when they think that they are
better than, more important than others. When you are humbled, you know
you are “of the earth”. When humiliated, you would rather be “in the earth”,
out of sight.
I am always so grateful for those eight days which remind me and all those
who are there that each and every one of us is known and loved by God as
we are. We are called to walk with Jesus as he walks with us. There is no
place for an inflated self since we walk with the one who “emptied himself
and became a slave and a servant in our midst.” With Christ we come to
know our place among our brothers and sisters, none of whom is any more
or less than you. You know your place at the table. At the banquet. There are
no higher or lower places at the round table of the Lord, for all are one in
Christ. Each of us at the table has learned again from our gentle and loving
God how we are all beggars at the table. But there is a place for all of us. We
don’t need a false humility because at the table of the Lord we are in the
right place. For in Christ there is a table set for all.
So as you are here today sitting where you always sit (or wherever) let
yourself be genuinely humbled, hearing the voice of God saying “you are
precious in my sight, and honored and I love you.” How humbling is that!