In our first reading this weekend from Sirach, we hear about that favorite virtue – humility. Well,

maybe it’s not our favorite! At least it isn’t mine. “Conduct your affairs with humility… the

greater you are, the more you must humble yourself; so you will find favor with God.”

Humility is often misunderstood as denigrating ourselves. Rather, humility is understanding our

true place within the universe and with respect to God. It means knowing that everything we

have—our life, our talents, our blessings—are gifts from God, not something we earned by

ourselves.

In the Gospel, Jesus is invited to a meal and sees people trying to get the best seats. He tells

them, “Don’t push your way to the place of honor. Sit in the lower place, and let the host invite

you up.” Then He says something even more surprising: When you have a meal, invite those who

cannot pay you back—the poor, the sick, the lonely. In other words, invite those to whom you

might (wrongly) feel superior.

The two readings fit together like two sides of a coin. Sirach teaches humility as the posture of

the wise; Jesus shows us how that humility is to be lived—in where and how we place ourselves

and whom we choose to honor. And in this gospel passage, Jesus broadens the notion of

humility. True humility is not just a private virtue; it is a social one. It changes how we see

others, especially those who cannot “advance” us in worldly terms.

The opposite of humility, of course, is pride. Pride makes its appearance in the early chapters of

Genesis. It is the “original” sin! Adam and Eve refuse to recognize their proper place in relation

to God. That’s a lesson that will always be timely, because pride is still very much with us, isn’t

it? Pride wants recognition and honor, and who among us doesn’t? Pride seeks superiority over

others, sometimes in subtle or even unconscious ways. Humility isn’t thinking less of ourselves,

as it is honoring the presence of Christ in the other person.

Scripture has some wonderful verses to reflect upon with respect to humility. Some of my

favorites are:

• “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8, NIV)
• “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment…” (Romans 12:3)
• “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:3–4)
• “He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:8)
• “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5)

We might summarize these in this way: Humility is knowing who I am before God.

Pope Francis spoke about humility in this way: “Whereas pride and arrogance swell the human

heart, making us appear to be more than we are, humility restores everything to its correct

dimension. ....Humility is the gateway to all the virtues." [Pope Francis, general audience, May 22, 2024]

What a very powerful idea: that humility restores everything to its correct dimension. It puts

everything in its proper place. Including us! Sounds like we (and the world) could all use a bit

more humility in our lives, don’t you think? Let’s do it!!