by Father Richard G. Cipolla
Parish of St. Mary
Norwalk, Connecticut
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| Humilitas |
From the Gospel: “For he who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”
Is it not a non sequitur? The first part of the gospel is about Jesus’ eating with the Pharisees, the pious Jews who knew the Law. Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees react: is it lawful to heal a man on the Sabbath, since one cannot work on the Sabbath? So Jesus heals the man. And then he tells a parable about humility. Is this a nonsequitur? The first part of the gospel is about the relationship between the Law and the demands of love. The healing of the paralytic is an act of love on Jesus’ part. We remember how the Pharisees asked Jesus which is the greatest commandment. And Jesus’ answer is swift: You shall love the Lord your God with all you mind, heart, body and your neighbor as yourself. Then there comes the parable about humility in the form of the man invited to dinner. You say: this is Jesus’ commentary on what he saw at the Pharisees dinner, elbowing themselves to get the best seat. Perhaps. But I suggest that our Lord told this parable about humility for a deeper reason.
Another Latin term like virtus. This time it is humilitas. The root of this word is the Latin word for ground, earth, humus. This is humus with one m, no chick peas involved here. No. Humilitas is the quality of living close to the ground. Now there are those who fake humility, those who pretend that the live close to the ground and have no aspirations to rise higher, no aspirations to get the best seats at the banquet. Literature is full of these phony people, from Dickens’ Uriah Heep to Moliere’s Tartuffe. Frauds, But Jesus says: blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth, one of Newman’s favorite saying of our Lord. The man who is truly humble knows himself so deeply that he assumes naturally that he has no business sitting at the head of the table anywhere and anytime. And this has nothing to do with accepting the natural pecking order of things. The man who is humble genuinely rejoices that someone else is chosen to sit in the place of honor, that others are held in great esteem, that others have worldly success, makes him happy. The humble man is a happy man.
