Homily for September 19, 2021
Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Pride & Humility
Do you
know how the devil became the devil? God did not create him evil.
Rather, according to Scripture, the devil was created as one of the most beautiful
angels. His name was Lucifer, which means the “light-bearer”, testifying to his
glory and majesty. Before the angels were admitted to the Heavenly Realm,
however, they were given a test. God revealed His plan to them – He showed them
that He would take on flesh and be born a human being, to suffer and die for
mankind. To Lucifer, this humility of God was too much. How could he, one of
the most luminous angels, bow down and worship a God who became man? A God who
would be hungry and thirsty, who would have to go to the bathroom, who would
get killed?
So
Lucifer rebelled. His ancient battle cry was “Non Serviam” – I will not serve!
He took a third of the angels with him in the rebellion, and after being cast
out of Heaven, seeks to take his revenge on the ones God loves the most – you and
I. Because we are in the image and likeness of God, Lucifer (now called Satan,
which means “The Accuser”), hates us and seeks our eternal destruction.
In a
word, it was pride that caused the angels to fall. They thought it was
beneath their dignity to worship a God Who became man!
But
pride is not only an angelic problem – it is a problem for us humans, as we see
clearly displayed in today’s Gospel. And, in a sense, it is natural to want to
be the best at what we do. We want to excel in school, at work, on the sports
field, even in the spiritual life. It is natural to “take pride” in our accomplishments.
But pride becomes a vice when we begin thinking that our accomplishments are
all about us – boosts for the ego. How easily we can think we are better than
others, or even better than God!
The
antidote to this vice of pride is humility. Today I want to speak of humility
in our relationship with God, and humility in our relationships with others.
First,
with God. When the Titanic was being launched, an employee of the ocean liner
was questioned about safety precautions on-board, and he famously replied, “Even
God Himself couldn’t sink this ship.” Of course, we know the rest of the story.
But this pride in thinking that we are above God runs very deep in the human
heart. Last year during the pandemic, when the cases began to decline, a Governor
(who shall remain nameless) famously declared on national TV, “God did not do
this. We did this; science did this.” Pride says that humanity can forge their
own path through life; that science and technology will solve all of life’s
problems; that we are “master of our own fate, captains of our own soul” (as
the famous poem says). But this pride towards God is deadly, because it isn’t based
in reality.
The Catholic summer camp I help
at, Camp Veritas, has a motto: “There is a God, and I am not Him!” Humility
recognizes that we are not in charge…of literally anything. Our next
breath is a gift from God. We cannot even control our own heartbeat – if He
decides our time is up, we are powerless to resist. Everything we have and everything
we are is only a gift from Him – and so humility requires us to live our life
in complete and total dependence upon God. This looks like two things.
First,
we must pray like our life depended on it…because it does! Many times we act
like we only need God when something goes wrong: “Oh, I pray when Grandma gets
sick…I pray when I need help in my marriage or on a test…but otherwise I don’t
really think of Him.” But we desperately need His grace at every moment. It’s
all a gift from Him, so a humble prayer thanks Him for everything, from the
roof over our heads to the breath in our lungs…to even the crosses and
sufferings we must carry in our daily life.
Second,
we must humbly conform our lives to His. Every now and then I get a request at
a funeral to play Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” – “I did it MY way” – but in reality
we should be doing things HIS way! We follow His Commandments and His teachings
through the Church, because humility recognizes that His ways are better than
ours.
This
humility before God should lead to humility with others. In 1979 in Oslo,
Norway, Mother Teresa was being honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. The problem
was…no one could find the diminutive nun…she had gone missing a half-hour
before the ceremony! They searched all over the entire convention hall, and
finally with only a few minutes to spare, someone found her in a small closet,
repeating over and over again the words, “Humility…humility…humility.” She did
not want this award to tempt her to think she was greater than others!
Every
human being is loved by God with the exact same love. We may have different
bank accounts, different homes, different jobs, but Jesus died for you just
like He died for Jeff Bezos and the homeless guy in Bridgeport. From the divine
perspective, every human being has equal dignity and worth – in fact, some of
the people we look down upon may have a much greater crown of glory in Heaven!
We
should never look to others to see if we’re better or worse than them. Rather,
humility only considers who we are before God, and nothing more. We are profoundly
loved, sinners redeemed by grace, sons and daughters of the Lord.
To grow
in humility with others, we should follow the example of CS Lewis who said, “Humility
isn’t thinking less of yourself – it is thinking of yourself less.” Speak less
about your accomplishments (and your problems!). Do menial tasks like taking
out the garbage and cleaning your own bathroom. Thank others who have helped
you along the way. Recognize that any accomplishment, gift, or talent you have
is only because the Lord is generous and merciful to you.
Humility
is the core virtue of the spiritual life, because it makes us most like God,
Who humbled Himself to be born into poverty so that He could die, rejected on a
Cross. As St. Padre Pio said, “Humility and purity are the wings which carry us
to God and make us almost divine.”
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