Deacon Michael’s Homily for 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time - August 27-28, 2022

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time - August 27-28, 2022

The readings on which the homily is based can be found HERE

It was predicted this summer in southern New England would be hotter than normal and it has been.

When seeing heat in other parts of the country, say the southwest, we think that’s different.

It's really dry there, so 100 degrees it’s really not so bad, right?

You may have had these chats with retired relations in Arizona.

In contrast, when I first came to Connecticut I was surprised to learn that for decades tobacco was the leading cash crop in Hartford County. 

Seems we have a little summer microclimate that often feels like the Carolinas, making 100 degrees here pretty uncomfortable because

…as the philosopher of our times, Yogi Berra, once observed

…”It’s not so much the heat, it’s the humility.”

Yogi’s little pun reminds me that we have a very ambiguous attitude toward humility.

”Humidity” often makes us uncomfortable…and so does “humility”.

Everyone like and admires a “humble” person

…yet when when you mention “humility”, the root of “humble”

…people often react quite differently like it is something to be feared and avoided.

Humility is often interpreted negatively, more associated with “humiliation”

…kind in the same spiritual neighborhood as fear, guilt, and failure.

…and crosswise with notions of “pride” and “self-esteem” which our therapeutic culture particularly values.

Yet today’s readings see humility as valued and important, even central to the way that Christians are to live

…so it’s something that we need to be clear on.

In Western Monasticism, from the 4th Century on, Saint Benedict and his followers developed humility as foundational

…a spiritual habit, disposition or understanding

…without which progress in the spiritual life and a life of virtue is just not possible.

“Humility” has the same root as “humus” or earth

…and implies close to the ground, grounded in reality.

It calls for seeing reality clearly, seeing ourselves as we really are, just not as we imagine or wish.  

It is a derivative of, and closely associated with, the notion of “truth”.

Fr. Michael Casey, a Cisterician monk and wonderful spiritual writer, in his book on humility entitled “Living In The Truth”

…summarizes four fundamental notions, understandings that are key to humility.

The first is that we are not divine.

That we should become “like gods” has been the fundamental temptation of humans from the beginning. 

To be ‘like gods” were the words of the serpent to Eve.

The temptation is to deny our earthly nature and its consequences…”vulnerability, weakness, labor, social constraint, and limitation” and to desire “a high level of pleasure, total freedom, power, a good reputation…and a complete lack of irritants”…and to want it all immediately.

The second is that we are creatures.

So, our relationship with God is one of dependence. We are not the source of our own being. All that we have and are comes from elsewhere, starting with our very lives. We are incomplete, unfulfilled, without God. We can’t fill this void with self-sufficiency or cheap substitute goods. These will always leave us restless.

The third is that we are sinners…all of us…no exceptions.

All have fallen short. All of us at one time or another have been mean, cold, hostile, selfish and self-centered in our dealings with others.

Here Fr. Casey is talking not about attitudes or theories, he is talking about real time “free preference for evil over goodness” 

…our free, sometimes choices to reject what is good and true and beautiful.

Sin isn’t the total truth about who we are but it is a reality that can’t be denied.

The fourth and last is that we are “stalled human beings”.

Fr. Casey offers that we have all “had bad experiences which have led us astray, slowed us down, brought us to a halt, or maybe even sent us tumbling backwards. There are difficulties, mistakes, inconsistencies. Sometimes these are caused by others, sometimes they are aided and abetted by ourselves.”  

So, in summary, we’re not divine, we owe it all, we’re imperfect sinners who are a work in progress, journeying on an often crooked path.

To see the importance of all this imagine a person who lives life contrary to each of these.

Someone…who thinks themselves divine, exempt from the human weaknesses and imperfections

…who believes themselves to the the center of the universe and creator of all that they are and have, owing not to anyone

...who believes that they are without sin in all they do and say

…who believes that they are a finished project with no more room to grow.

All lies, their fruits…a lack of compassion and mercy, ingratitude, narcissism, selfishness and stubborn delusion

…all roadblocks in the spiritual life and in the cultivation of virtue and goodness.  

The hard truth is I’ve seen all of this in myself at one time or another to varying degrees

…way too much, in fact, and it’s pretty uncomfortable to admit it

 …enough to make me sweat.

You see, it’s not the humility that should make us uncomfortable…but the lack of it

…sometimes what makes us sweat is good for us

…because it reveals the truth…and the truth, as we know, sets us free.