I can't help but remember that throughout my life, the happiest people I've encountered have always been the most humble, the ones that were never keen on taking the spotlight, but rather those who were free or the freest from attachments to material things. One of the things that we need to be free from in order to be happy in this life, but also humble, is the honours of the world.
Think about how many people live for being acknowledged, for being praised, for their self-image, hoping for a like on one of their posts on Instagram or Facebook. A lot of times we seek honour and people to look up to us. And it can, if unchecked, become a false god in our lives. In fact, it's one of the false gods that Saint Thomas Aquinas warns against when he says that seeking true happiness must involve detesting the things that Jesus detested while he was on the cross, and loving that one thing that he loved on the cross (the Will of God), even beneath that excruciating pain.
And one of the things that he detested was the false god of honour. The honour that we seek. To have people praise us. To extol ourselves. But Jesus, in today's gospel warns that, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
And the greatest example of this, of course, first and foremost, is our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who though he was God, as Saint Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians, he did not seek to grasp equality with God, but rather he emptied himself and took on the form of a slave. And he learned by obedience and humility what it would mean to save us from our sins.
My brothers and sisters, Saint Francis saw this humility in the Lord. It was something that struck Saint Francis the most. Out of all the beautiful things that we can say about our Lord, his humility is something that leaped out of the pages of the New Testament right into Francis's own heart.
And so he would say things like, “… well, if God in the flesh had nowhere where to lay his head to sleep, than we to my brothers, we will not have a place we can call home. If the Lord God of Hosts wore just sandals, then we too will wear nothing but sandals – No shoes, no socks. Just imitate the Lord as best as we can.
And so, my brothers and sisters, despite poverty and illness, Saint Francis was able to sing with joy because he embraced humility, the humility of the Lord. And he was free from the concern of having people honour him and exalt him. And rather, he lived in order to exalt God and honour the Lord.
So, another very important lesson that we get from today's gospel is how do we approach God? Do we seek the first place always, or do we approach him with our humility? And in the first reading we heard about, how important it is to humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and true greatness is not self-exaltation, but recognizing our dependence on God.
And then, of course, in the second reading we hear from Saint Paul, who describes who it is we approach when we approach God and how we ought to approach him with great respect and humility, but with the freedom in our hearts, of the sons of God.
My dear brothers and sisters, may the Lord this week bless you in a very special way, and remind you always that the more humble you are, the more he will exalt you on your journey. Amen
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