31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

“No humility, no holiness.  No holiness, no heaven.”  We will not make it to heaven until we are humble.  It's not an option only for the pious.  We are all called to be humble, just as Jesus humbled himself in the Incarnation and the Crucifixion.  If we are to be genuine followers of Jesus, we need to live and speak humbly. 

In the first reading, the prophet Malachi has a strong word from the Lord for the priests who have not followed the way that had been marked out for them.  With their poor teaching, they have caused others to falter.  They have shown partiality and not recognized others as their equals.  They have failed in humility in every way.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is very critical of the scribes and the Pharisees, who have made life difficult for others.  They have not practiced what they preach.  With their fancy religious garb, seats of honor and titles of respect, they have looked out only for themselves.  They have not been humble, nor have they been servants.   

In the second reading, we hear Paul telling the Thessalonians that when he was with them, he cared for them like a mother with her small children, being careful not to burden them in any way.  He had affection for them and they became dear to him the more he served them.  Paul was humble in word and action and, as a result,  God blessed Paul's work of furthering the gospel.

Humility is the opposite of pride, which always puts oneself first, and then puts everyone else, including God, a distant second place. There's only room for one important person in the mind of the proud.  Humble people, on the other hand, always recognizes that God is first, others are second, and they are third.  Humility has come to see that without God we are nothing and trying to live without God in first place is destined to be a disaster.  But when we are humble, we have peace in our hearts, life has a meaning, eventually we are given a sense of fulfillment. 

What humility requires is that we surrender everything to God. We let God call the shots, set the pace, lead us in the way we should walk.  We have to set aside our will and seek God’s will.  Each and every day, we admit we can’t go it alone and do what needs to be done, but we believe that God can do it, and so we let God do it for us.  We won’t do it well every day, but we start anew each morning trusting our failings to God’s mercy, believing that the Lord always offers a new start.

Humble people approach every situation in life with the spirit of a servant.  As Jesus tells his disciples, if we want to be great, we need to be a servant.  No matter where we are or what we are doing, we ought to ask: What can I do to help? What does this person before me need right now?  How might I be an instrument of God here?

People who are humble focus on others instead of themselves.  They are willing to serve others.  And in doing that, they are imitating Jesus, who came to serve rather than to be served.  As Christians, we are to be servants of the Christ, who is our Master.  We are all children of the Father and as such have a responsibility to care for one another.  The pride of the priests to whom Malachi prophesied and the scribes and Pharisees of whom Jesus spoke blinded them to any sense of responsibility.  We cannot allow ourselves to suffer the same fate. 

God never asks us to do something without promising to give what we need to get it done.  We simply have to ask God with confidence, knowing that the Lord delights in giving us gifts.  In light of today's Scriptures, today we pray for humility and for a deeper understanding that we are all children of the same Father.  We pray that we will have the hearts and the eyes of a servant.  And  then being grateful for what we will be given, we set about our daily work, asking God to keep us from being those who do not practice what they preach.