HOMILY WEEK 20 06 – Year I
Walking the Talk with Humility
(Ruth 2:1-17; Ps 128; Mt 23:1-12)
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“Do what they teach you, but not what they do, because they do not practice what they teach.”
The gospel today is inviting us to be humble, and to be persons of integrity living our faith – to “walk the talk.”
I had a personal experience of this gospel when I was asked to help a brother Oblate from overseas learn to drive so he could get his learner’s license in Canada. As I drove along on our many “driver training” trips, I carefully explained all that he had to do: make a complete stop at stop signs, stop at red lights before turning right, signal and shoulder check before changing lanes, etc. The result – he failed his first driving test. When I asked him what went wrong, I realized he failed because he didn’t do what I had taught him, he did instead what he observed me do – roll through stop signs turning right, and not really shoulder check when changing lanes! I felt embarrassed, convicted, guilty and like the Pharisees Jesus talks about in today’s gospel – not practicing what I was teaching. I resolved then and there to improve my own driving habits and be more careful and law abiding.
Living our faith, the way Jesus wants us to in the gospel, is to first of all be compassionate, enter into the other’s need and pain, and truly care not just from the heart but also through practical action that will really help them. The folk song back in the 60’s says it well: “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”
Then Jesus stresses the need to be humble, to not seek honors or reward or recognition. We are, instead, to serve others without fanfare or any other agenda except to help others along their way. In Jesus’ words, we are to “humble ourselves and we will be exalted.” We are to be servant leaders.
I had a lesson in this from a Chinese fellow university student and friend with whom I lived and worked with for a while. As part of a St. Thomas More College civic cultural committee on campus, he was behind the scenes organizing many of the events that the students enjoyed, without anyone knowing it. He was even responsible for bringing Up With People to Saskatoon, the group I eventually joined. A very good photographer, he also started a home portrait business. At a meeting that he had someone else chair, I asked him why he did not identify himself as the owner rather than as simply the photographer? He replied that the others didn’t need to know that. His humility and servant leadership were striking and edifying.
The teaching not to call anyone rabbi or instructor or father can be confusing and has been interpreted by our non-Catholic friends as to question why we often call our priests by that title. This again is called Semitic Hyperbole – holy exaggeration to make a point. Rabbis, Imams, instructors, teachers and fathers of all stripes abound in our society and in many religions. The purpose of this teaching by Jesus is solely to stress that he, the Messiah, must be first and foremost in our lives, the center of our allegiance and fidelity. Nothing should take his place as the most important person in our lives.
Naomi, Ruth and Orpah
The women in the story of Naomi and Ruth in the first reading are an example of the humble service Jesus asks of us. Ever since Naomi’s husband and sons died, leaving her without a descendant, she probably struggled with bitterness and grief, evidenced by the fact that she rejected her name, which means “sweet,” and told everyone to call her “Mara” – “bitter” – instead (Ruth 1:20).
According to The Word Among Us, the village women have a profound impact on Naomi. Standing at her side at the end of the story, they proclaim God’s faithfulness to her. They tell her, “The Lord … has not failed to provide you today with an heir” (Ruth 4:14). They even take it upon themselves to give the boy his name. It’s as if these matriarchs were prophetesses, announcing the goodness of the Lord and helping Naomi see her life from God’s perspective.
Like these village women, we can all become humble prophetic voices for one another, helping others see their lives through the eyes of faith. We can encourage others by pointing out how God is at work in their lives when they cannot see it. We can listen to them, soak up their pain, and help them move from a place of bitterness and anxiety to faith and surrender to the Lord. I am so grateful and feel privileged to do this with some who come to the Star of the North for spiritual direction.
An interesting aside in this story of Boaz and Ruth and their child whom the village women called Obed, is how much that story prefigures the coming of Jesus into our world and his mission. First of all, Naomi’s husband Elimelech was from Bethlehem, where Jesus would be born. Second, Ruth loved Naomi with the kind of love that Jesus teaches us in the gospel. Third, their son Obed “became the father of Jesse, the father of David,” so Ruth and Boaz were the grandparents of King David, who in turn prefigured Jesus who was born of the line of David. The village women again say of Obed that he will be a “restorer of life and a nourisher” to his grandmother – precisely what Jesus is for the whole world. It is a nice climax to this beautiful story of Naomi and Ruth.
The Eucharist is a humble thanksgiving sacrifice and memorial meal that is meant to be lived out through selfless service and servant leadership. May our celebration today help us to humbly live our faith with integrity and truly “walk the talk.”
