Father Thomas Welbers' Homily	Jump back to Homily Index
Homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time August 29, 2004 Luke 14:1, 7-14 Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29 Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24	Listen to Audio

When I was meditating on these readings and preparing my homily the first distraction that came to my mind was the old bumper sticker, “It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am.” We know, of course, that self-inflated greatness, for those who are lucky, inevitably leads to humiliating downfall, which in turn, for those who are wise, can lead to true humility. In other words, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Some folks learn from the experience of humiliation, and pick themselves up, sadder and wiser, as they say, but also humble and gracious. Others stay in the pits, sometimes permanently devastated or sometimes carefully shielding themselves from reality in a self-made world of illusion and fantasy.

We readily see self-aggrandizement and posturing in politicians of every stripe. We come to expect blind overweening pride in the obscenely overpaid idols of the media whose antics some people find entertaining. We even find bishops and priests who could benefit by being knocked down a peg or two. The real question, however, is, do we see the need for humility in the person who stares back at us in the mirror?

I said a moment ago that a self-inflated attitude of greatness leads to humiliating downfall if we are lucky. Yet how many of us can view the inevitable humiliations of life as gifts from a loving God? It takes real wisdom to understand and accept that we can turn humiliation into humility if we are willing to set aside our need to control and to “make everything right” – and if we understand the true meaning of humility.

Humility does not mean groveling in the dirt; it does not mean going around telling everybody how wretched I am. It is honesty, pure and simple. Humility is not really the opposite of pride; rather, it is the opposite of falsehood.

The origin of the word humility helps us to understand its true meaning: it comes from the Latin word humus, which means earth, soil, dirt. It is only when we recognize that we are nothing more than the stuff of the earth, into which God has blown the spirit of life thereby making us God’s children, that we can begin to see our deeply rooted oneness with all creation, and especially with all our human sisters and brothers without exception – from the newly conceived baby in the womb to the criminal on death row, from the single parent who works two jobs and still cannot make ends meet to the enemy in another land whose reasons for hatred we fail to understand. Only humility, in the true sense of the word, enables us to see that were are of the same earth and children of the same Father. Political agendas, whether liberal or conservative, and social programs do not have the power to save the world. Only One has that power, and it is only with our feet firmly planted on the ground of humility that we can recognize it. Not the rich and powerful, but the humble servants of our Loving Father can transform the world.

© 2004 Thomas Welbers