22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time C.  September 2, 2007.  Our Lady of Grace 7:30, 11:30, 6PM. Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29.   Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a.  Luke 14: 1, 7-14.

A woman noticed an old man sitting on a rocking chair on his front porch as she jogged by each morning.  He looked so content that she stopped to talk to him.  She said, “Please tell me why you look so content.  What is your secret for a long life?”  The man said, “I smoke two packs of cigarettes a day.  I drink a bottle and a half of whiskey a week.  I spend as much time in the bright sun as possible.”   The woman was astonished. She said, “Well then how did you live to be so old?”   “Old?” he said, “I am not old.  I am only 41.”

I am always amazed by the people in medical scrubs suits standing outside the hospital emergency room door smoking because they are not allowed to smoke inside.   You would think that if anyone could see the damage that smoking does to the lungs, hearts and skin of smokers these people who work with the sick and the dying every day would understand.   Maybe these medical professionals have chosen to live outside of the real world, pretending that reality doesn’t exist or doesn’t apply to them.  A well known celebrity said that his father asked him what he wanted for Christmas.  He answered “Dad, I want you to stop smoking.”   His Dad replied, “No, I want to know what you really want for Christmas!”   The celebrity responded, “Dad I am serious.  I want you in my life this Christmas and for many more Christmases.  I want you to stop smoking as your gift to me this Christmas!”   Sometimes those who love us live in our real world better than we do.

Perhaps the clearest and simplest definition of humility is honesty.   Humility is the virtue that empowers us to live humbly and honestly in the real world.  Humility is about seeing ourselves as we really are and approaching life and the people around us without pretending to be someone else and without wearing masks to shield us from the truth.

Recently Time Magazine had an article on Mother Teresa of Calcutta in which parts of her personal letters were quoted.  The article presented Mother Teresa as a very real woman and no plaster saint.   While we are quick to acknowledge that saints suffer physically and emotionally from the persecution of others and the deprivation of the material comforts we cherish, we too easily put them in an unreal spiritual world in which there are no doubts, no fears, no depression, no anxiety, no struggle and even no sin.  Plaster saints living in a spiritual world far from our own experience are of little help to us.

Mother Teresa wrote to a friend, “The silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, - Listen and do not hear – the tongue moves (in prayer) but does not speak…I want you to pray for me-”     There was a time when Mother Teresa had a very deep and mystical experience of God.  Of this time she said, “Jesus gave Himself to me.”   But for much of her life Mother Teresa experienced something very different.  She wrote. “Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me?  The Child of your Love – and now (I) become as the most hated one – the one – You have thrown away as unwanted – unloved.  I call, I cling, I want – and there is no One to answer … Where is my Faith…My God – how painful is this unknown pain – I have no Faith – I dare not utter the words and thoughts that crowd in my heart – and make me suffer untold agony.”

There are Christian traditions in which “true believers” put themselves into a state outside of reality to maintain a spiritual high.  The Jesus we follow sweat blood in the garden on the night before he died and cried out “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” as he hung in agony on the Cross.  Catholic saints live in the real world.  They show their holiness by following Jesus humbly and honestly even when the path ahead is dark and confusing.  True saints remind us that marriage, raising children, friendship and every career and endeavor worth pursuing have dark days, doubts and confusion that last for days or even for years.  Plaster saints do not live well in the real world.  We follow a crucified Jesus, not a plastic unreal one.  We belong to a tradition of humble and honest saints who live in the midst of reality without denying it.

Jesus said, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor…Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place… for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The old Shaker Hymn says it well:  

'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free,

'Tis a gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight

'Till by turning, turning we come round right.

For the gift of honest humility we give God thanks and praise