22nd Sunday 2025
Sirach 3:17f, 20,28f; Hebrews 12:18f, 22-24; Luke14:1, 7-14.
If you were looking for a key word from today’s readings, what might it be? I would plump for the word “humble”. Does that seem reasonable? Then we have to ask “What does it mean?”
Even if you haven’t read “David Copperfield”, which I thoroughly recommend, you may be familiar with Uriah Heep, a horribly unpleasant and conniving character, who misses no opportunity of claiming that he is “ ‘umble, Master Copperfield” and that his mother, another unlikeable character is equally “ ‘umble”. Inevitably, people who claim to be humble are self-centred, or they wouldn’t be seeking to draw attention to their supposed qualities.
What then is the true meaning of the word, and of its noun “humility”? To learn the real significance of any word, it helps to trace its roots. The word “humble” comes from the Latin word “humus” which means “ground”, “soil”, “earth”. Consequently, to be humble is to be earthy, to have one’s feet on the ground, to be well grounded, and therefore to have a true self-understanding.
It does not mean that you turn yourself into a doormat, or that you despise yourself. Doormats may be laid on the ground, but they are not OF the ground, OF the earth, and they have no self-awareness. In the Letter to the Philippians, we are told that Christ humbled Himself in becoming human, and that He was “humbler yet” in accepting death on the Cross, yet He was always conscious of His true identity. He allowed Himself to be lowly among the lowly, but He never forgot that He was the Son of the Father. His awareness of His true identity, of His true worth, was always present.
When Sirach tells the great that they must humble themselves, he makes it clear that they are aware of their greatness. They ae intelligent, as he goes on to say, and their self-humbling is a conscious act.
Where, in our recent past, do we find an example of such humility? Is it not in Pope Francis’ actions in going into prison and washing the feet of criminals? We find it also in his injunction to pastors to live with the smell of the sheep, to know, love, and serve the people. All of this is in imitation of His Lord and master, Jesus, who associated with the poor and the lowly, and who washed the feet of the apostles.
This reminds us that our humility is to bear fruit in positive action. At the end of today’s Gospel passage, Our Lord tells His host to invite “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” to his feasts. I have mentioned previously the Irish priest, based in London who, when someone knocked at his door asking for money, would instead take them around the corner to a café and sit down to a meal with them.
I recall something similar from St. Mary’s, Morecambe, forty years ago. As the congregation emerged from Sunday Mass, a mentally disturbed man appeared and started begging. A parishioner took him home and shared her dinner with him, an action as brave as it was generous, as it became known that he had the potential to be violent. On this occasion, overcome by her kindness, he was as meek as a lamb.
Where does, or may, OUR humility manifest itself? That passage from the Letter to the Philippians which I mentioned earlier begins “In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus. Humility begins in the mind. It is an attitude which some people possess naturally, and which the rest of us must cultivate.
It entails recognising out true worth as children of God, and the equal worth of every other person, like us created in the image and likeness of God. It involves remembering Jesus’ own words “Whatever you did to the least of mine you did to me”, and so realising that every face that we see is the face of Christ.
Anther story which I recall came from a parishioner of St. Gregory’s, Preston. This lady’s elderly father-in-law had come to live with them. He insisted on wearing his bed-socks, and sometimes, when approaching the toilet, he would miss the target, soaking the aforementioned item of clothing. Clare then had the unenviable task of peeling off the saturated bed-socks, and washing father-in-law’s feet. She told me “I managed to do it by telling myself “These are Our Lord’s feet that I am washing”. There, I think, were encapsulated humility, faith, and wisdom.
