13 July 2021
Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, take heart!” (Ps 69:33)
To be lowly is not widely regarded as a desirable position. The lowly are looked down upon by others. The lowly are not self-sufficient. The lowly are in need, they know it, and others know it. And yet, these are the ones whom the psalmist singles out as those who should be glad; these are the ones who seek God because their need is so clear. Our first reading gives us the portrait of Moses. The lowliness of this child, newly born and left in a basket that has washed up beside the river, makes his neediness clear, and it is this very state that provokes such pity in the heart of Pharaoh’s daughter that she adopts him. Yet, in the first reading we also hear of Moses, once grown, feigning self-sufficiency, presuming to take justice into his own hands and killing the Egyptian whom he found beating a fellow Hebrew. That act puts his own life at risk and he must flee. Only later as a refugee outside of Pharaoh’s domain would Moses again realize his lowliness.
In the Gospel, Our Lord rebukes the cities where He has preached repentance and worked miracles, and yet they refuse to acknowledge their lowliness and their need. He even compares them to Gentile cities which would have recognized their dependence upon God far more quickly than places like the Capharnaum of Jesus’ day. The cities which He visits are not seeking God, are not acknowledging their need for God, and so are not experiencing the gladness of the lowly ones who are coming to meet Our Lord in droves. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to acknowledge our lowliness and our need, so that we too may rejoice in seeking God and finding that He does answer our needs when we humbly present them to Him.