Humble yourselves before the Lord

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

The scene described by the Lord in the Gospel parable today is very easy to imagine. The Pharisee is so self-satisfied and complacent in fulfilling his religious duties. He expects to be rewarded by God for his efforts and proudly presents himself before the Lord.

On the other hand, the tax collector is only too aware of his failures and shortcomings. He beats his breast in humble repentance asking only for mercy.

The Lord then draws his lesson from this story: the person who exalts himself will be humbled and the person who humbles himself will be exalted.

It is worth noting that the parable concerns being humble before God. This theme is reflected in the Apostolic teaching in the New Testament.

St James, for instance, echoes this parable when he says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10).

Similarly, St Peter says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).

We are to humble ourselves before the Lord. One area in which this can apply is our willingness to be humble before the Lord in respect of our approach to his Word in Sacred Scripture.

It is not unusual for the teaching of Sacred Scripture to be at variance with the attitudes and ethos of the age.

The Old Testament prophets often found themselves having to say things that were offensive to the ears of the people of their time.

We now find ourselves as Catholics, as Christians, being criticised and persecuted because we believe what Scripture teaches and desire to live by its imperatives, even when they are at variance with the ethos of the times.

The recent case of Andrew Thorburn being forced to choose between his Christian faith and the new role as chair of the Board of Essendon football club is a case in point.

It was because his church stood by scriptural teaching about abortion and marriage that he was considered not suitable as chair of the board. It was by inference, as Andrew himself had not made any public statements on these moral issues.

This tells us that our society is becoming increasingly hostile to Christian beliefs found in Sacred Scripture and demand that people abandon their Christian faith if they wish to exercise public office. This is a most dangerous development.

The recent case where parents protested about the use of a text from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians because it offended their understanding about the role of women in marriage reflects a similar situation.

In this case a single verse from a New Testament writing is taken out of its full context. Paul’s statement about women being subject to their wives reflects the culture of his day. But he then presents a radical vision of marriage inspired by Christian belief in the equal dignity of men and women. He calls on husbands to sacrifice themselves for their wives as Christ sacrificed himself for the Church.

This teaching of St Paul would have been an extraordinary challenge to the pagan world of his time where women were readily discarded by their husbands. Marital fidelity was debased in pagan society. Christianity proposed a revolutionary view and elevated the status of women and stressed the sanctity of the marriage bond.

When St Paul proposed that marriage should be compared to the union between Christ and his Church, he is proposing a real revolution in how the marriage union is to be viewed.

There were two dogmatic constitutions produced by the Second Vatican Council, the others were pastoral constitutions. One was on the nature of the Church, Lumen Gentium, and the other on the nature of divine revelation, Dei Verbum.

The document on divine revelation is very important as it outlines how the Church understands Sacred Scripture and its relationship to Tradition and Church teaching.

Dei Verbum begins with the words, “Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith”. The Council Fathers taught that the Scriptures are first and foremost the source of God’s revelation about himself. Here the Council Fathers make the point that Sacred Scripture is not just revelation about God, but it is, in fact, God revealing his very self. So, the document says, “It pleased God in his goodness and wisdom to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will” (DV 2).

The Council Fathers taught,

“The obedience of faith” (Romans 16:26) must be given to God as he reveals himself. By faith man freely commits his entire self to God, making “the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals” and willingly assenting to the Revelation given by him. (DV 5)

The Christian humbles himself before the Word of God and offers the obedience of faith.

One of the important points made by the Council Fathers was that Scripture needs to be read from “the heart of the Church”. Thus, it is to be read within the total understanding of the faith.

Dei Verbum says that in order to interpret the Scriptures correctly we should carefully search out the meaning that God had in mind through the medium of the words of the writer of the text.

Taking one sentence in isolation fails to do this.

Thus, as people of faith, we read the Scriptures with a humility of mind and a desire to seek divine truth and divine wisdom. In other words, we do what St James and St Peter urged us to do: we humble ourselves before the Lord.

Archbishop Julian Porteous

Sunday, 23 October 2022