When running for re-election in 1954, Governor Christian Herter of Massachusetts arrived late one evening for a barbeque fundraiser. He had eaten very little that day and was famished. When he was being served, the woman serving the chicken gave him one piece. He said, “Excuse me, but I’m starving. May I have another piece?”
The woman explained that she was sorry, but her orders were to give each person only one piece of chicken. The governor replied, “But I’m starved!” The woman said, “Sorry, only one piece of chicken per person!”
Christian Herter was usually a rather humble politician, but his hunger and the woman’s uncompromising stance led him to decide that this situation warranted the full weight of his office. He said, “Ma’am, do you know who I am? I am the governor of this state!” Without missing a beat and waving her fork, she replied, “Do you know who I am? I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Now move along, mister!”
There’s nothing like a little humility to put us in our place. In the first reading, Sirach advises us to conduct our affairs with humility. Yet this trait is not always highly admired in our competitive society. We tend to equate humility with the award winner who says, “I really don’t deserve this,” or the habitual drunk who laments, “I’m no good.” As we learn in these readings, putting ourselves down is not what humility is about.
Jesus uses the setting of a banquet not to provide us with a biblical version of Miss Manners but to remind us that humility is an essential quality for being one of his disciples. If we care to spend eternity in the kingdom of heaven what matters is not our status in the sight of others, but our status in the sight of God.
As diligent followers of the law, the Pharisees viewed themselves as the holiest people in Israel. They expected to be seated as guests of honor at the heavenly banquet and were quick to dismiss many others as totally unworthy of even being invited. Are we any different? Perhaps we don’t consciously think of ourselves as “being holier than thou,” but are we inclined to act as though we are already assured a seat at the heavenly banquet, convinced that we have already been saved?
More than once, I have read surveys that highlight such an attitude. Last June, I heard that 75% of Catholic youth stop practicing the faith by the time they turn 20. They don’t attend Sunday Mass nor in any visible way do they celebrate their faith. They still believe, but they feel that how they live their faith doesn’t matter. Many young adults conclude, “God will accept me no matter what I do, so what difference does it make if I ignore the commandments or skip Mass? Why worry if everyone goes to heaven?” Even many older adults think likewise but Jesus cautions us that anyone with such an attitude may find himself or herself being humbled, rather than exalted.
Someday, God will host a heavenly banquet to which all humanity has been invited but when that time comes, will we be seated? Like the presumptuous guest who dared to sit at the place of honor only to be told that he had to move, we may also be told that our seat is intended for a more worthy guest.
And who might this more distinguished guest be? Because Jews believed that sickness was a consequence of sin, Jesus used the example of the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind to show that God will welcome to the banquet the contrite sinner who humbly recognizes his or her dependence on God.
When we are hungry, we look for something to eat. If we are really hungry we know a single piece of chicken won’t be enough. To stay physically healthy, we must eat well. The same holds true for our spiritual well being. What we presently know isn’t enough to continually enrich our awareness of Christ and our Catholic faith. To stay spiritually healthy, we need a constant diet of God and prayer in our lives, more than a weekly homily can provide. Those who humbly recognize their dependence on God can absorb the message of God’s love for each of us. Knowing that they are made in the image of God, they feel okay about who they are: namely a much-loved child of God.
Think of children and how open they are to new ideas and always wanting to learn more. That is a lovely illustration of humility in that despite what we already know, we can still learn more and we want to. When it comes to our faith and relationship with God, we are on a life long journey to know more fully what it means to follow Jesus. That means we always need to be open to learning more. Learning can be both a fun adventure and a challenge for us to admit that our learning is still incomplete. Let’s open ourselves here and now to the possibility of learning more from reading, from our fellow travelers on this faith journey and from the beautiful creation God has given us.
Despite what our culture may think, humility isn’t a trait to be avoided; it is God’s uncanny way to remind us that from the moment we are conceived we have been unconditionally loved. Humility is also a way for us to express our dependence on God for all that we are and for all that we have, including that second piece of chicken when we are hungry.