22nd Sunday of the Year C 2016

May the good Lord grant you the graces of humility and the generous heart to be bounteous in your help to the needy. Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH 
(Sirach 3, 17-18. 20. 28-29; Hebrew 12, 18-19.22-24; Luke 14, 1. 7-14 22nd Sunday of the Year C 2016)

   

In today’s gospel reading Jesus, exhorts us to imbibe two important attitudes in life: humility and disinterested generosity. The circumstances of this exhortation was during a sabbath meal in the home of one of the leading Pharisees. Jesus was startled as he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour. He took advantage of the situation to give advice: When some one invites you to a wedding feast, do not take your seat in the place of honour. The reason for this, based on human psychology, is that someone higher in honour might have been invited and leaving the honoured place for a higher guest and taking a lower place could be humiliating for someone’s ego. To avoid such a situation is to follow Jesus’ advice: He would have people humble themselves and refrain from self exaltation and so they can be exalted by God rather than man. It is difficult for us to follow the advice of Jesus. This is because we always seek when possible, to occupy the place of honour and we do not willingly accept to be modest in taking the least one. However, this attitude of humility is very important. It is all about giving up our initiative in seeking honour and glory for ourselves rather than accepting others to give us honour and glory. There is an innate thirst for honour and glory and if we want to obtain it for ourselves, it would land us to attitude of selfishness and pride, which degrades. Jesus adviced that we assume humble attitude, because humility manifests a disposition favourable for the practice of charity. The worst enemies of charity are pride and arrogance. Humility helps the advancement of charity. That is why Jesus wishes that we renounce all direct search for honour because it manifests a negative possessive attitude. 

    Pride is what can, fundamentally, block the action of God’s grace. He who is proud and presumptuous believes he is auto-sufficient and keeps his mind impenetrable from God’s influence. God would have no other choice than to abandon him to himself and when one is so abandoned, he falls to the lowest level of existence and remains degraded. To practice humility is to live in truth; that is to be aware of the gifts and blessings which are bestowed on someone, without boasting of them and aware that they come from God. Practicing humility also means being conscious of one’s limits and defects, but without getting disheartened on account of them because one’s confidence should be firmly reposed in God. Practicing the virtue of humility and modesty is necessary not only for the perfection of our Christian life, but also for our civil life in the society. It is therefore necessary to pray to the Lord that he may concede us the spirit of humility because pride, its opposite, is a capital vice that is very insidious, not easily recognizable, does infiltrate in everything even in good things we do and is extremely difficult to eradicate totally.

Jesus then takes up the theme of disinterested generosity which he wishes us to imbibe. He exhorts the host: When you give a lunch or a dinner do not invite your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbours…on the other hand invite the  poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. One will be blessed in doing this for there is no expectation of being paid back. Jesus does not prohibit any convivial meeting of relations or friends. He himself participated in some of such festive meetings. He wishes to teach two lessons.  The first is that we should never do anything for selfish purposes, to have an advantage or for personal profit, if one hopes to be eventually rewarded by God. The second is that our gesture of love, (charity) and altruism should have preference for the poor, the needy in body and in the spirit. One should not expect any repayment from these categories of people. Rather, repayment for such disinterested charity will be rewarded at the resurrection of the just. This in effect means that there will be a divine payback which will be completely different from the usual repayment we do expect and have, and which often are vitiated.

    The psalm and the second reading from the letter to the Hebrews invite us to reflect on the bounteous generosity of God. In the psalm, the rain that falls on the entire landscape indicates the blessings of God that are showered on all. The chief recipients are the needy who cannot in any stretch of imagination pay back. For them the blessings are true gifts. They have not been earned, nor can they be repaid. Such is the nature of God’s giving. God’s openness to include all, is also seen in the letter to the Hebrews. All are invited to approach the heavenly city; the heavenly banquet will be open to the poor and those who have no way of repayment. No type of worldly possessions or accomplishment is needed for recompense. The only coin acceptable is a heart open to receive.

    Only God can give gifts in this way, because only God has an infinite supply of blessings to give and has no need to receive in return. Yet we are admonished to be generous in this way. In the gospel we are told to open our tables and our hearts to those who are not able to respond in kind. There should be no restrictions on our openness to others, on our generosity with which we give of ourselves and our possessions. We must be as prodigal in our generosity as God has been towards us. As we have received from the bounty of God, so we are called to give to others. Only those who have received with a humble spirit can give with the generosity of God, for they know that they do not deserve God’s goodness, so they do not require anything from those to whom they give. There is no quid pro quo, no this for that. Everything is freely given and humbly received. The blessings of God are given to us so we in turn can give them to others. It is like love that is not really love until is given to another. We live in this paradox of receiving and giving and we are transformed as the process unfolds. May we, therefore, pray that  Christ Jesus, who gave himself up completely for our sake bless us abundantly in today’s Eucharistic celebration and make us practice disinterested generosity from humble hearts. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye