Christ The Servant
Catholic Church
Cold Springs, Ontario
Homily Selections
HUMILITY
Over the past year and a half I have learned that it is always wise to listen to what Germain has to say. So when he suggested that the homilists review the readings of the day before committing to do a homily, I did that.
I chose to speak on Humility....mostly because I have so much trouble with it . I can clearly see the beauty and strength of humility.. In people like Germain, Gary ,Margaret and of course Lawrence, in so many of you, but I somehow couldn’t find the words to define, describe and honor humility. Like so many others, I have tended to equate humility with being a doormat, with self effacement, self depreciation , even self loathing.
So , for help in my understanding, I turned to my friend Google and was soon buried in paper. The writings ranged from extremes that humanity was bereft of any positive character whatsoever without the direct intervention of and infusion by God, to feminist warnings that humility was simply yet another patriarchal tool designed to suppress and oppress women
I have always had a lot of difficulty accepting the human condition as being without merit. I believe in the inate dignity of humanity. I believe that within the human condition lies the potential for great magnificence and great depravity.
Thinking there must be other people who have struggled with the concept of humlity, I turned to our friend and mentor Bishop Rose Tressel of the United Catholic Church for guidance. Bishop Rose referred me to Louis Armstrong!!!!!!!................specifically to his song “What a wonderful world” This really blew me away because that is my favorite song of all time and in fact I have already told my children that I want it sung at my funeral.Bishop Rose referred me to a monologue Louis has in the front of his song. It goes like this: “Some of you young folks been saying to me, ‘Hey Pops, what you mean, what a wonderful world? How about all them wars all over the place. You call them wonderful? And how about hunger and pollution? That ain’t so wonderful either.’ Well, how about listening to old Pops for a minute. Seems to me it ain’t the world that's so bad, but what we’re doing to it. And all I am saying, is see what a wonderful world it would be if only we’d give it a chance. Love, baby, lov-ve, that’s the secret! Yeahhh! If lots more of us loved each other, it would solve lots more problems, and man-n, this world would be a gass-ser.”
Bishop Rose also had some clarifying thoughts on this Pharisee dude in this morning's gospel ( I can call him Dude because it's our youth Mass!) He was really just a product of his times. Bishop Rose let me know that there was a morning prayer that was said daily by the Pharisee's and which is still said by some ultra -Orthadox today. "Thank God, I wasn't born a gentlile, thank God I wasn't born a slave , thank God I wasn't born a woman." Gentiles slaves and women all had about the same value and it wasn't good In truth, our Pharisee in Lk 18:11 probably wasn't such a bad guy, just ordinary. Probably a fellow we would like if we knew him. Pharisees were Jews who lived by the rulees, went to synagogue and knew and did all the things laid out in the law. What he didn't do was live the law of love , in fact he didn't even think about it as indicated by his prayer. He just accepted the status quo and dealt out treatment accordingly, while being glad he was not on the receiving end of low caste and all its problems--problems he and all the other good people helped create . The "I'm OK, you're not OK" stance in psychological terms. And who of us hasn't been guilty of that one?
So there it is...the first ingredient of Humility is Love.and you can’t love and respect others until you love and respect yourself......You can't see the beauty in life and in the world until you see and accept the beauty in yourself.so no self loathing doormats live here.
In my previous life as a social worker, I specialized my work with people who had suffered abuse as children. Constantly I saw the effects of soul crushing abuse of the spirit as well as the body that left the victim convinced that they were infinitly unworthy, infinitly unlovable, useful only to serve the needs of other people, This is not humility.It is self abuse In my office there was a drawing of a small child obviously physically abused . Underneath the picture was the caption " I know I'm somebody because God don't make no junk.".
God expects us to love and respect ourself. We exist therefore we are lovable. In Mark Chapter 12\when Jesus is asked what the greatest commandments are he replies. "The first commandment of all is " Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one God; and thou shalt love the Lord thy god with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind. and with thy whole strength.This is the first commandment and the second is like it "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.Jesus didn't say Love others instead of yourself or love others more than yourself He said "love others as yourself" And he equated the importance of loving others and ourselves with the importance of Loving God.We exist therefore we are lovable.
When Spiritus Christi Church in Rodchester, New York reached out to the homeless, they were told by that community, " We came because of the food, we stayed because of the love. When they reached out to persons dying of aids they were told by that community that Spiritus Christi had become known as a good place to die, and now they saw that it's a good place to live. It's all about Love. So when Lawrence tells us we have created God's little love factory at Christ the Servant, we know we are on the right track.
And the second ingredient is truth. Simple truth. We can claim the gifts we all have, those that have been given to us and those we have created ourselves by just accepting them for what they are... In the same way we can own our defecits. They too are part of our truth .Remembering always that God loves us just the way we are and understands that we will sometimes fail to be all that we want to be.
There is a cherokee legend that explains this so well. It is about an elder Cherokee teaching his grandson about life."A fight is going on inside me" he said to the boy.
It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil==he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. He continued "The other is good--he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The same fight is going on inside you==and inside every other person too.
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather "Which wolf will win?" The elder simply replied "The one you feed".
We all have a dark side and when we acknowledge that we can begin to deal effectively with it. It also frees us to celebrate the beauty of the human condition and the world with soul warming quiet and not arrogance born out of fear ...that's the arrogance we see in the Pharisee of today's gospel. And, remember, God loved him just as much as he loves us.
Let's listen to Satchmo.
MORE RECENT HOMILIES
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