Meditation for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time C: “To be humble in the image of Christ” – Vatican News

First lecture: If 3, 17-18.20.28-29

Psalm: Ps 67 (68), 4-5ac, 6-7ab, 10-11

Second reading: Heb 12, 18-19.22-24a

gospel: Lk 10, 38-42

Dear brothers and sisters,

This Sunday’s Gospel parable may sound like a strategy for life in public or, at the very least, like a set of rules of etiquette. “When someone invites you to a wedding, don’t go to the first place…» ; “When you give lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends or your brothers…Is Jesus’ teaching only meant to save us from public ridicule?

To understand this parable in this way is to miss the essential message of this Sunday’s readings. Indeed, the key to reading these texts is given to us in the verse of the acclamation which precedes the reading of the Gospel:become my disciples, for I am meek and humble in heart“. Becoming a disciple of Jesus is not only about listening to his word; to be a Christian is to model one’s own life on that of Jesus. In a word, to be a Christian is to become another Christ.

And the essential mystery of Jesus is his incarnation and his coming into the world, to share our human condition. Thereby, “having the condition of God (…), he annihilated himself, taking the condition of a servant (…) He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, and the death of the cross(Phil. 2, 6-8). We see it: humility is essential in the saving mission of Christ for the world; humility is the way by which Christ raises us to God; humility is the door to paradise.

If humility is the door to paradise, it is because it makes us recognize God as creator and as Father; it enables us to recognize our creature nature, which receives everything from God. Humility is the sign that we do not expect our recognition or our elevation from men, but from God alone, who recognizes us as his creatures, and who raises us to the rank of sons in the only Son. This is why the parable ends in these terms:whoever rises will be humbled; and who humbles himself will be exalted“. In other words, the true elevation is not that which comes from our own efforts, or from the looks of others on us; true elevation comes to us from God who alone can give meaning to our lives and our labors. This is what today’s first reading teaches us precisely:the greater you are, the more you must lower yourself: you will find favor before the Lord“.

In the same line of ideas, the generosity without calculation to which the second part of today’s Gospel invites us, when Jesus addresses his guest, is a way of reminding us that our reward and our recognition come from God alone. Thus, when we are generous towards those who cannot reciprocate, we recognize that the ultimate meaning of his life is in heaven, where all the good we do will be returned to us.

The grace we have to ask the Lord on this Sunday is to make the Christ virtue of humility grow in each of us. May this virtue become the hallmark of our Christian life, so that we may be true disciples of him who is meek and humble of heart. Amen!