The humble exalted

Sirach 35.15b-17, 20-22b ‘The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds.’

2 Timothy 4.6-8, 16-18 ‘There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.’

Luke 18.9-14 ‘The tax collector went down to his house justified, rather than the Pharisee.’

‘For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,

but he who humbles himself will be exalted’

(Luke 18.14).

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It has been rightly said that the sin of pride is the most fundamental and dangerous of the seven deadly sins.

The spiritual masters identify pride as the root of all spiritual dysfunction; it’s a barrier to grace.

I have described before the idea of the ego-drama and the theo-drama.

The ego-drama is about control and self-glorification; the theodrama is about surrender, mission, and grace.

So as the American Bishop, Robert Barron, has said, the ego-drama is a performance where, ‘I am the star, the director, the writer, and the producer.’

Perhaps you recognise that in the words and action of the Pharisee in the parable,

‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ (Luke 18.11-12)

If the ego-drama is about a life focused on personal ambition, control, and self-glorification, then that Pharisee is a fine example.

Disconnected from truth and grace such a person resists the ways of God and it’s all about me.

Personal and collective pride is the barrier to God’s grace because pride isolates the soul – how lonely that Pharisee is in his ego-drama – he’s turned devotion into self-congratulation.

But there’s a better story, a better offer:

The theodrama is about living in God’s story.

In God’s story we all have a part to play, rather than being prima donnas this is shown by a life of graciousness, listening attentively to God and to one another, preferring nothing to Christ because that is how we love our neighbour.

Entry into God’s life and God’s story is the way of the tax collector in the parable, the way of humility: ‘For everyone’ says Jesus, ‘who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.’ (Luke 18.14b)

This is an insistent theme through the scriptures.

Approach the Lord with humility, with reverence and awe.

It is the way of Moses who, hiding his face, takes the sandals from his feet to walk on holy ground as he encounters the presence of God in the Burning Bush (Exodus 3.5,6)

It is the way of Isaiah who cries out in the holiness of the Temple:

“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6.5)

It is the way of Mary who says to the archangel:

‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ (Luke 1.38)

It is the way of the tax collector who keeps his eyes down and whispers:

‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ (Luke 14.13)

And you know, that’s not a weak way, a cop out way, a doormat way; it is a strong way, a virtuous way, a noble way.

That is the way that St Paul describes in our second reading, as he pours himself out for the Lord: pouring out self, that he may be filled with God’s power to take up the fight, finish the race, keep the faith. (cf 2 Timothy 4.6,7).

That’s not weakness, or fake, that is strong; indeed the Lord said clearly to him in prayer:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

And Paul reflects:

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12.9)

So, as our first reading from the Book of Sirach, part of the Wisdom literature of scripture, puts it, in a  wonderful phrase, ‘The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds.’ (Sirach 35.21).

We see time and again that the voice of the poor person - the one who is wronged, the orphan and the widow - will be heard, when they pour out their story. (Sirach 35.17)

The voice of the so-called ‘little person’ is the voice the Lord hears, because it is a voice that finds its place in God’s story: as our psalm response said, ‘The lowly one called, and the LORD heard him.’

What a psalm! ‘The LORD is close to the broken hearted; those whose spirit is crushed he will save.’

Why?

‘For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted’ (Luke 18.14).

Humility, rooted in Christ, allows us entry into God’s life: as we believe, Christ humbled himself to share our humanity so that through him we could share in his divine life in which true joy, fulfilment is found.

Jesus’ parable holds a mirror up to each of us.

What do you see reflected back? Is there a whiff of the Pharisee, or the look of the tax collector?

In an age of fragility about who we are, may we see the face of Christ.

Each of us - and, fellow sinners, I don’t for a minute excuse myself – each of us has to account before God for our inner disposition and outward action.

Coming before the Lord, and preparing now to receive him in Holy Communion, Christ commends to us the way of that tax collector, who trusts wholly in the mercy and loving kindness of God, before he trusts in himself.

He is not timid; he is powerfully humble.

Humility, which is of Christ, is the quiet and strong way into God’s presence; pride is the brittle, self-justifying and noisy way out of it:

‘For everyone’ the Lord says, ‘who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted’