Aug 31st, 2025: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 14:1,7-14
My child, conduct your affairs with humility. Humble yourself the more…the greater you are, and in doing so you will find favor with God. From today’s first reading.
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Today’s Gospel is from Chapter 14 of Luke’s Gospel: walking into the wedding banquet and, without being asked, assuming the place of highest honor. It speaks directly to the first and the most serious of the Seven Deadly Sins, – the capital of the capital of the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride! It is the first for a reason, and if you think about it, Pride can play a role in each of the other six of the deadly sins. Because with it as a foundation, we can easily position ourselves in a place of “deserving” the ability to have the other sinful feelings or desires.
Bishop Barron quotes Thomas Acquinas’ definition of Pride as: “inordinate or excessive self-love”. There is healthy self-love. Jesus even says that the second of the two greatest commandments is “love your neighbor as yourself”. So, yes, there is healthy self-love. But pride is – as Acquinas tells us – inordinate or excessive self-love. When we want to take in/receive an overabundance of things. Things like recognition, esteem of others, pats on the shoulder…all for ourselves. Like the person in the Gospel who walks into the wedding feast…and immediately sits in the place of highest honor. In Jesus’ time, that place was the place closest to the host.
So, when we find ourselves in that mindset; and we all do it. Consider this: This example of the Jordan River. Now we’ve all heard of the Jordan River. It runs North to South along the eastern border of Israel. It begins on the slopes of Mt. Hermon in northern Israel and flows 200 miles south to the Dead Sea. On its journey, the Jordan River passes through the Sea of Galilee, about 11 miles long – in through the top/north and out through the bottom/south; all the while gathering minerals as it enters, while it’s in the Sea of Galilee, and carries those minerals with it when it leaves the Sea of Galilee. But then, the Jordan River flows into the Dead Sea. The lowest point on the planet. And like a great funnel with no outlet…the Dead Sea has no outlet. It collects everything into itself.
It is the richest body of water – in terms of mineral and salt content, at the lowest point on the planet – so everything flows into it, and unlike the Sea of Galilee just 70 miles north – which has an inlet and an outlet – and is teaming with life, in the Dead Sea virtually nothing can live. That’s why it’s called the Dead Sea. It’s so dense with minerals and salt, with its own richness that almost nothing can live with it. Because it takes in everything and gives away nothing. ME, ME, ME! It’s all about me. Give me the recognition, give me the place of power, give me your esteem and place of honor!
But isn’t that just the opposite of what Jesus teaches?
Let’s go back to today’s Gospel: It says “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. And everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. Isn’t that exactly what Jesus did on the cross? He humbled himself to become the savior of the world. And now, he is exalted as the Son of God. He lived out what he taught.
And another line from today’s Gospel: “When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. For blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. Again, is this not exactly what Jesus did on the cross. He invited us to his banquet knowing he was going to the cross and that we would never be able to repay him. He lived and died what he taught!
Conduct your affairs with humility. Humble yourself the more……the greater you are.
In last week’s Gospel we heard Jesus say, “Some who are first will be last, and some who are last will be first.” This goes to the Pharisees, those to whom Jesus was talking when he told this parable today. You see, the Pharisees were Jews. And as Pharisees, they thought they knew the Law of Moses better than anyone, even better than Jesus, or so they thought. They had gone to the best schools, had the highest ranked Rabis, the highest GPA’s, had the greatest pedigrees, hung out with all the right people, and generally had a very high opinion of themselves.
So, when they walked into a wedding banquet, or what today would be a business or medical conference or a restaurant; they went immediately to the place of highest honor. They were brushing their shoulders off…constantly. And all of that notoriety, that high regard, that esteem got them…what? It got them dismissed from the place of honor in today’s Gospel. It got them displaced – if you listen to Jesus – maybe even from the whole banquet. In fact, some of them, as we’ll hear in next week’s Gospel, thought so much of themselves that they didn’t even show up to the feast when they were invited. And as we’ll hear next week, they were replaced with the blind, the lame, the even Gentiles, the lowest class citizens in the Jewish world in Jesus’ time…
To live as Jesus taught, and as he lived and died, is to humble ourselves, to serve those who are unable to repay us. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. And everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.