Fr Jack SJ MD: My Heart is not Proud_Homily for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mal 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10

Ps 131

1 Thes 2:7b-9, 13

Mt 23:1-12

Time is passing quickly. Three weeks from today we will celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. It is the last Sunday of Ordinary Time before the calendar flips to a new liturgical year on the First Sunday of Advent.

But last night time passed a little more slowly with annual do-over between 1:00 and 2:00 AM as the clocks were set back. For many the earlier onset of darkness that begins this afternoon makes time seem to pass very slowly. As will the cold, snow, and wind. Welcome to New England.

The first reading comes from Malachi one of the Minor Prophets, a designation that does not indicate lack of importance. The twelve books making up the minor prophets are very short compared with books such as Isaiah, from which we will hear a great deal during Advent.

These twelve short books are contained on one scroll whereas the other prophets were long enough to fill an entire scroll. Malachi was composed 500 years before Jesus’ birth. In its introduction to the book the Jewish Study Bible notes that the temple had been rebuilt only recently allowing the resumption of sacrificial worship. Something like the U.S. government allowing churches to reopen after covid. But all was not entirely well.

The reading today criticizes both improper temple sacrifice on the part of the people as well as improper behavior of priests who are reminded that they are the Lord’s messengers who are expected to perform their duties as the Lord expects rather than being the equivalent of lone rangers, adapting their role and preaching to what society wants to hear no matter how contrary to God’s law.

“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.”

The psalmist begins his plea with a confession of humility, denying that his heart is proud or, in another translation, that his heart is not lifted too high. Nor is his gaze.

Pride may be the most deadly of the seven deadly sins. It is the driver of many other sins. In Vermont’s Charterhouse of the Transfiguration the penitential rite is worded differently from the Roman rite. Same sentiments of contrition but one hears an important reminder, “I confess to God and to you . . .that I have sinned exceedingly through pride. “

Pride is not invariably dangerous. There are some whose ‘humility’ and professed self-abasement is a form of pride meant to seek further accolades and reassurance of one’s value. Taking pride in one’s work is a virtue that moves the artist, the worker, the teacher, and all other professions to doing more than the bare minimum. But pride can quickly degenerate into haughtiness or vainglory. At the best of times pride is akin to walking tightrope without a net an appropriate degree can become overweening very easily.

In his commentary on the responsorial psalm Jesuit Father Dick Clifford writes, “raising one’s eyes is a sign of pride as one surveys the world as if one owned it.” It is looking down one’s nose at another whom one considers an inferior. Pride at its worst. Becoming occupied with things beyond one’s capacity, training, or ability is an act of arrogance.

Fr. Clifford notes that the psalm is modern—though we don’t hear that part— in its encouragement to surrender to a higher power and to urge others to do the same. It tells us that peace descends like the dewfall, quietly and imperceptibly, once we accept our dependence on God’s grace.

Echoing the reading from Malachi and the psalm, Jesus warns against abuses of power of the type that demands others do as one says while excusing oneself from the same command. Thus, it was amusing to see photos of the Washington elite partying without masks during the height of covid while most of the rest of us had to be content with a beer and reruns of Gilligan’s Island. Apparently banquets were permitted the elite but the Eucharistic banquet was off limits to those who were once referred to as a “basket of deplorables.”

Jesus warns against the pride that degenerates into the haughtiness and arrogance that burdens others while driving public actions performed only so that they can be seen. Does a president really need to be seen spending a total of 12 minutes on a UAW picket line?

The warning at the end of the gospel repeats a theme that recurs in the gospels. “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Thus we say with the psalmist

“O Israel, hope in the LORD,
both now and forever.”

___________________________________________

Clocks go back tonight. Lots of people getting cranky about it. The photos below reflect a bout of insomnia in Ljubljana. Woke at 4 AM in the early spring. Knew sleep was going to be impossible. So I grabbed a camera with only one lens and wandered Ljubljana for a few hours. Streets were deserted (and very safe). It turned out to be a memorable morning. And the walking was enough to get me back to sleep for a few hours.