4th Sunday of Lent

Every significant event in life needs preparation. A career requires training, marriage a courtship, and even a vacation requires reading guidebooks and planning an itinerary so our free time can have a focus. That is true for our spiritual lives also. Lent is our Christian period of strengthening our spiritual life and growing in virtue to prepare our souls to celebrate the great gift of the Easter Resurrection. 

Virtues are high standards of behavior. They are necessary for the successful living of life. When we work to develop virtue, our lives are more meaningful. They have integrity and become focused. Virtues give purpose and direction to daily living. Practicing virtuous living contributes to making ourselves and our world better. 

I’ve been focusing my homilies on the most fundamental of virtues this Lent. This virtue is foundational and the most basic and essential of all virtues. It is the virtue we all need to strive to develop continuously. It always needs our attention because possessing it is fleeting. Just when we think we have secured this virtue, well, that is a sign we need even more of it. This virtue is humility. 

Strangely, despite being such a crucial virtue, humility is misunderstood. It is often considered obsequiousness, submissiveness, weakness, and the tendency to downplay our accomplishments. Possessing a low opinion of ourselves is misconstrued as humility. That isn’t humility. It is insecurity. Insecurity isn’t a virtue but a psychological problem. If we are insecure, we need to seek help overcoming it to live a more satisfying life. 

G. K. Chesterton, the British theologian and author, defined humility as “Not thinking less of ourselves but thinking of ourselves less.” Humility isn’t a low opinion of ourselves but a clear opinion of ourselves. Humility comes about when we learn to be grounded, and it develops as we grow in understanding ourselves.

Growing in humility is worthwhile because humility is powerful. It helps us cultivate patience, and who doesn’t desire patience? Humility brings peace to our hearts, aids in our interactions with others, and makes us people with whom others enjoy being in a relationship. 

These past few weeks, I’ve shared with you that we develop humility when we recognize all our gifts of time, talent, and treasure come from God. We owe everything we cherish to a generous God who freely bestows on us all our qualities. When we come to terms with the reality that God controls our lives, we surrender to God and grow in humility. 

Listening is essential to the development of humility. Being attentive to others opens us to gain the wisdom they can share with us, and it makes us receptive to the contributions they can offer us. Prayer is listening to God and being receptive to God’s direction for us. If we are to gain humility, everyone needs daily prayer time. Even if we start with only a few minutes every day, devoting time to listen to God’s direction for our lives helps us grow in humility. 

Last week we looked at an important roadblock to our growth in humility. I told you complacency is one of the highest barriers to our development in humility. As I said earlier, just when we convince ourselves we possess enough humility, we obviously need more of it. We overcome complacency when we reflect on our actions daily and take the time to consider our actions. We recall times each day when we fail to practice humility. Celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation this Lent will help us open our hearts to God’s grace and overcome complacency so our virtue of humility can grow. 

The need to face our faults and failures to help our growth in humility continues in today’s gospel. The story we call The Prodigal Son is likely the most famous short story ever told. It isn’t only well-known to those who come to church, but even people of other faiths or no faith appreciate this tale. 

Today’s gospel begins with the Scribes' and Pharisee’s common complaint that Jesus was eating with tax collectors and other sinners. They were infuriated with Jesus for reaching out to try to help sinners feel God’s love. Jesus was liked by people who weren’t like Him. Jesus often said He had come to call sinners and not the righteous who already knew God.

Easter is coming in just a few weeks, and it is an opportunity to invite some of your family, friends, and neighbors who have drifted away from the faith or have no spiritual home to come to church. If the pandemic has hindered you from coming to church, you have been watching Mass on our Livestream and receiving only a spiritual communion. Easter is an excellent time to start coming to Mass in person. Consider who you want to invite to attend Easter Mass with you.

Today’s parable tells us of a man who had two sons, and the younger son asks his father for his inheritance. Even today that sounds like a bold request, but in Jesus’ time, it was even more radical because the son essentially said, "I wish you were dead" to the father. It would have been extremely hurtful to the man, who justifiably could have disowned the son. 

Surprisingly, the father consents to the boy’s desires and gives him his share of the wealth. The son liquidates his assets within a few days and heads out of town. He separates himself from family and the community, which should have been his support system. He essentially heads to “Vegas,” where he foolishly spends all his money on foolish pleasures. 

When we do something foolish, our bad decisions are often compounded by events beyond our control. Another situation develops to aggravate our difficulties. We often allow ourselves to buy something with an extravagant price tag and then get hit with an unexpected cost. We put off giving attention to a project, and then another demand for our time and effort develops. That is what happens to the younger son. As soon as his money runs out, a famine grips the land, and he must struggle to try to survive. Circumstances reduce him to doing the unthinkable for a Jew. He is forced to depending on a Gentile for support, and he must undertake the disgusting job of feeding pigs, an unclean animal. He has hit rock bottom.

Then the parable tells us the son comes to his senses. That is a natural Hebrew expression for saying someone is taking responsibility for their actions, and it shows the son has recognized his plight is of his own making. The young man has realized he has a problem, and he is solely responsible for his circumstances. 

When we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, we can resort to playing a blame game. Everything in our being seeks to place fault on someone else. We look for a scapegoat or an excuse for our behavior rather than accepting responsibility. The son could have blamed his father for allowing him to act the way he did. In his thoughts, he could have scolded his father for acquiescing to his demand for his inheritance. He could have thought. “What was my father thinking to allow me to do this to myself. He should have seen what would happen to me.” He could have rebuked his father for not using his wisdom to stop his actions. The son could have said that he would not have desired to leave the family if his father had just loved him more. If my father didn’t love my brother more than me, he could have claimed none of this would have happened to me. 

Humility is taking responsibility for our actions, and it is the ability to see we are at fault and must accept the consequences. The younger son gets humility and begins to want to reconcile with his father. Although the son’s contrition might not have been perfect, he develops a survival plan. He believes if he shows sorrow and can ask his father for forgiveness, he might be able to survive. While he doesn’t see the possibility of regaining his birthright, he believes his father will offer at least enough pity to hire him as an ordinary day laborer. 

When we can mix humility with a flaw, it can bring about a good result. Humility with weakness becomes strength. Combined with failure, humility results in victory, and mixed with disappointment, it brings us success. That is the result the son experiences as he comes home to face the consequences.

The parable tells us that his father sees him coming while still far off. The father has been on the lookout for him to return. The father has long been seeking the opportunity to embrace him, forgive him, and welcome him home. The son cannot fully express his humility because his father first embraces him. The father has no desire to chasten his son but is excited to welcome him home. He calls for a cloak to be draped over his son’s shoulders, a ring placed on his finger, and sandals on his feet. These are all signs that the jubilant father intends to restore the young man to his full stature as a son and not a mere hired day laborer. He rewards the boy’s gesture of humility. 

Yes, the younger son’s gesture of humility only comes out of desperation and after inflicting great pain on his parent and the wider community. The father is willing to accept the son’s repentance on any grounds. This display of behavior would have been striking to Jesus’ audience. They would have marveled at the possibility of a father denigrating himself to such a degree. It was shocking to show such forgiveness before the community. The father shows even greater humility than the son.

By telling the parable, Jesus is instructing his critics among the scribes and Pharisees of their need to show humility to sinners. God, Jesus preaches, has an incredibly humble heart, and God is always willing to welcome the sinner with love and be humble with those who show humility. If we claim to want to imitate God in our lives, we must do the same. 

Last week I encouraged everyone to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation this Lent. This sacrament is our way of opening our hearts to prepare for growth in humility. I am in the Reconciliation Room at the back of the church each Saturday from 3-3:45 pm, and I’m also available by appointment. Next Sunday at 4 pm, the parish will conduct a Lenten Reconciliation Service here in the church, and I plan to have other priests available to hear confessions with me. On Monday of Holy Week, from 4-6 pm, I will also be hearing confessions in the Reconciliation Room. There is no need to worry if it has been a while since your last confession. The confessor is here to help you. A brochure explaining Reconciliation and how to celebrate it are on the table at the back of the church. Help yourself. 

Have these homilies on humility been helpful? Have you attempted to put some of my suggestions into practice this Lent? Do you recognize the possibility of growing in humility? When we aspire to humility, we build our relationship with God, the epitome of humility. When we develop humility, we show our world that the risen Christ is alive in our world and sharing the grace of the Holy Spirit every day.  .