Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
All week long Jesus has called us to come to Him, begged us to have the courage and strength to endure every trial, overcome every obstacle that stands between our hearts and His. But how do we approach Him? How do we come to Jesus, here and now? What is the primary disposition of one who turns to Him, who moves toward Him and answers His call?
Humility.
We cannot climb to Heaven on our own efforts and merits. Even Jesus “who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself…because of this, God greatly exalted him…” (Philippians 2:6-9). We do not know the way to Heaven unless we know Jesus, and the way Jesus shows us is the way of humility. Why is this? Why is it that the blind Bartimaeus is able to come to Jesus and find healing, why the crippled woman? Why are mustard seeds and yeast held up as examples of God’s glorious Kingdom, rather than mountains and stars? Why saints like St. Francis and St. Thérèse and not great men and women of history like Julius Caesar and Queen Elizabeth I? Because, as Jesus said on the Feast of All Saints, it is the meek that inherit the land.
Consider this: what was the first sin, the sin committed by Satan and his angels? Pride. Pride is absolutely antithetical to God and the values of Heaven. Even within the Trinity we see the Divine Persons bowing to one another; we see this most vividly in Jesus’ relationship with His Father. Jesus did not regard equality with God something to be grasped; the second sin, that of Adam and Eve, was precisely that. By their own pride, their own desire to exalt themselves, they grasped hold of the fruit Satan said would make them like gods (Genesis 3:4-5). It was the sin of pride that destroyed our union with God in the beginning; it therefore shall be the virtue of humility that restores that relationship, beginning with the humility of Christ.
When the Son of God came to earth, to sit at the table of men, He chose the lowest seat: born of a low-born woman, grew up in a town of no consequence (John 1:46), the son of a carpenter (Matthew 13:55), and nothing in His bearing indicated He was anything other than perfectly normal (Isaiah 53:2, Matthew 16:17). Yet because of His humility, God the Father has exalted Him above all thrones and powers, all angels, seating Him at His right hand: it is there Jesus calls us to be (Ephesians 2:6).
In all humility, therefore, looking to God not as someone optional in our lives but Someone we desperately need, let us come to Jesus. Let us, in our blindness, in our oppressed and crippled state, approach Him for healing and mercy. Let us see our true and miniscule selves and realize the tremendous work we can accomplish for the glory of God, if only we would have the humility to let Him accomplish it in us. Let us walk in the company of the saints; let us take the lowest seat and await Our Lord’s invitation to enter through that narrow gate, taking our seat next to Him, in glory, for eternity.