Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 28 August 2022

St-Moses - church of St Nicholas in Manastir photo:TStarodubcev.pbm

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Long have I wondered about humility, but as the years progress I know I prefer those people who seem to possess it, not by reticence or shyness, but by the definite touch of the Spirit, so that you understand their capabilities, see them in action, but also understand they have a gift that does not dominate others, nor pushes an agenda, nor lets the ego reign free! No the truly humble person is a gift we often miss at first; so when you meet one cherish them as a good friend, for they are inspired by the Spirit of truth, who allows them to see into actions and desires of their own heart, yet enables them to deal with themselves and accept this insight as part of their journey. This is in order to grow more into the humility and compassion of Christ.

It's rather unfashionable to talk about humility these days. Too often the Dickensian image of Uriah Heep is paraded before us as the negative side of this gift. Anybody who tries to enter into that 'kenosis', the emptying out of selfishness, which is Christ's humility, runs the risk of being misunderstood, of being accused of hypocrisy. Abba Moses the Ethiopian, one of the better known 4th century desert monks , can teach us much about this virtue. He was a slave who turned into a thief, a dangerous robber, somebody well versed in iniquity with very base desires. But, as happens when meeting a truly humble set of people, he was challenged and changed. He fell in with the monks of Scetis (now Wadi El Natrun and still inhabited by Coptic monks ) and became one of them, though he found life difficult and his old habits remained not too far away,though his love of Christ eventually transformed him.

Here is one of his sayings:

'If somebody does not put themself in the attitude of a sinner, their prayer will not be heard before God."

A brother said to him, "What is a sinful soul?"

And the elder said, "Every one who bears their own sins, and does not consider those of their companion."'

Perhaps this might help us understand our first reading because in a more determined way it is taking us down the same route as Abba Moses`:

'My child, conduct your affairs with humility,
and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts'. (Sir 3:17)

You see true humbleness of heart is not a negative way at all, it can be a great freedom. Though at first St Benedict in Chapter 4 of his Rule provides 12 steps in a ladder of humility, some of which seems rather severe for contemporary understandings of psychology, it repays us to look at the end result and work backwards. Benedict understands, as Moses does, that learning humility is done for love and with love, this is the key! But not just any love, it is the transformative love of Christ, that through a process of truthful and carefully supported, spiritually-guided (it is essential one has some guide or mentor versed in this) honest analysis of both internal (ie our spirit) and our external life we see the practical change of our fears and anxieties into love:

'Now, therefore, after ascending all these steps of humility, the monk will quickly arrive at that perfect love of God which casts out fear (I John 4:18). Through this love, all that he once performed with dread, he will now begin to observe without effort, as though naturally, from habit, no longer out of fear of hell, but out of love for Christ, good habit and delight in virtue. All this the Lord will by the Holy Spirit graciously manifest in his workman now cleansed of vice and sins'. (RSB Chapter 4: vv 67-70)

We can easily move from this to the words of Jesus in our gospel, here in a dialogue with those he sees wanting the best places, Jesus observes cleverly and succinctly the different values of His Kingdom and His feast. We are expected to pay attention! Here the order of precedence is turned into anarchy, the superior people are told to go down the pecking order, the host is admonished not to flatter or provide special places for those he or she likes! No the values of the Kingdom start with the equality of all in the eyes of the Most High, 'all are one (equal) in Christ' says St Paul in Galatians 3:28. Here in Luke we see a vivid image of what this means, and how it can be frightening ! Why? Because the anarchy of Jesus is also the dawning realisation that none of us are essentially better than anybody else, for we are loved equally, forgiven mightily and endlessly by this strange, challenging, wonderful God, revealed in Jesus, and that is where our own humility begins and ends, knowing just who we really are!

Lectio

Luke 14 vv 10-14

Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, 'My friend, move up to a higher position.' Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."12 Then 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 your relatives or your wealthy neighbours, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. 13 Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; 14 blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.

Story of Abba Moses the Ethiopian

A certain brother committed an offence in Scete, the camp of the monks, and when a congregation was assembled on this matter, they sent after Abba Moses, but he refused to come; then they sent the priest of the church to him, saying, "Come, for all the people are expecting you," and he rose up and came. He took a basket with a hole in it and filled it with sand, and carried it upon his shoulders, and those who went out to meet him said unto him, "What does this mean, O father?" And he said to them, "The sands are my sins which are running down behind me and I cannot see them, and, even, have come to this day to judge shortcomings which are not mine." And when they heard this they set free that brother and said nothing further to him.

Kallistos Ware

From The Orthodox Way

"To know a person is far more than to know facts about that person.

To know a person is essentially to love him or her;

there can be no true awareness of other persons without mutual love.

We do not have any genuine knowledge of those whom we hate."