Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

August 31, 2025

Luke 14: 1,7-14

What is the main point of today’s Gospel reading? Is it that we should carefully calculate the social standing of each guest and then sit where we think we fit into line up? Is it to sit in the lowest place so that we will be asked to sit higher and so gain the praise of all present? Not at all, in fact, Jesus is showing us the most powerful tool we have in attaining eternal life, and at the same time building up the kingdom of God: Humility. After all, the image of the wedding feast is one of Jesus’ favorites for the Kingdom of God.

The image that comes more naturally to us in this culture is that of success, where ambition is a good thing to be cultivated to the max. I can be of more use if I put myself out there, be noticed, attract the attention of others. Now, this does not have to be for selfish motives only, in can in fact be for the betterment of the kingdom of God. We first think of how we can be useful and successful in making the kingdom present. Seen in this way, ambition does not seem all bad.

Unfortunately, this is not the way of Jesus. He reminds us of the words of Sirach in the first reading: “Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.” I am successful not when I make myself noticed or great, but when I am unassuming and make myself unnoticed. What a strange way to think! And yet, isn’t that what Jesus did, after all? Though he was God and Creator, he took on human nature as an ordinary man of no status, no wealth, no political or even religious standing. If that is not humility, I don’t know what is. When we make ourselves the center, we are not genuine, rather we are plastic. Thomas Merton puts it this way: “Pride makes us artificial, and humility makes us real.” 

And so the Lord, what are you asking of me? And I answer: What is that, Lord? Forgive and I am forgiven? Don’t judge, and I will not be judged? Do I take the last place and then be worthy of the Kingdom? 

In fact, the more I do all these things, the more, I am used as God’s instrument to bring about His Kingdom. It does continue with me, but not in the way I thought. It’s a paradox: I am important, when I am not important. C. S. Lewis said: Humility is “not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.” I make the focus on Jesus when I do not bring the focus on me.

Mother Teresa was once asked, “How do you measure the success of your work?” She thought about the question and gave her interviewer a puzzled look, and said, “I don’t remember that the Lord ever spoke of success. He spoke only of faithfulness in love. This is the only success that really counts.” It seems that Mother Teresa would point to this story in Luke’s Gospel today to justify that response. Jesus instructs us in today’s Gospel not to do things that bring us the honor of us. Instead, we are to do things for which God will honor us.

The only reward is love in its uncountable forms, some of which may not seem like love at all at the time. And that love may come from people we don’t particularly see as ‘Jesus-like.’ If we surrender enough of ourselves in humility, we will find all of Jesus, not just the aspects of him we find attractive. And then as St. Augustine wrote, “there will be One Christ, loving himself.”

Fr. John Tran