Humility Together
Nov. 4: Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop
St. Charles Borromeo was the Archbishop of Milan when a plague broke out, killing 30% of the population. Civil authorities fled the city, while Borromeo and his clergy stayed to serve the sick physically and spiritually. While the mayor and his cronies all died in the surrounding hillside, not one of Borromeo’s priests even got sick.
You can read the whole story here.
Reading 1
Phil 2:1-4
Brothers and sisters: If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others.
God is a community of three persons, the Holy Trinity. It’s a really hard concept to wrap our minds around, but on the plus side, it makes passages like this easy to understand. God is love, and we should love one another. That’s how true communities work.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 131:1bcde, 2, 3
R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
O LORD, my heart is not proud,
nor are my eyes haughty;
I busy not myself with great things,
nor with things too sublime for me.
R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child on its mother's lap,
so is my soul within me.
R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
O Israel, hope in the LORD,
both now and forever.
R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
We can’t find peace in our possessions, or Earthly honors. Eventually, we’ll find pride tarnishes and someone will always have more than us.
Instead, we should look to God. A child in her mother’s lap isn’t jealous of any other child, nor does the mother feel inferior to anyone in that moment. It’s that kind of peace God offers us, by looking beyond this world to eternal one.
Alleluia
Jn 8:31b-32
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus is saying this to Jews who were coming to believe in Him. They have been given a partial revelation, but listening to Jesus means they’ll know the whole truth.
Gospel
Lk 14:12-14
On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. He said to the host who invited him, "When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
Just before this, Jesus told a parable about wedding part, warning guests not to exalt themselves by taking the seat of honor.1 Now he’s telling us to not even invite our friends over for dinner! He’s obviously exaggerating, or at least saying we shouldn’t exclusively be hospitable to people who can pay us back.
We’re meant to give from our blessings regardless of whether or not someone can pay us back. If they can, then it’s just a free exchange, commerce. When we give, we should give, the way God does. We can never pay God back, either, so there’s no harm in not being paid back ourselves.
God’s mercy and charity are beyond justice—“How inscrutable are his judgments.”2 We shouldn’t calculate what we’re owed, because what we owe is incalculable.