Friend, Come Up Higher

THE SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

Last week I developed a way of understanding how life ordered around the Christian calendar, or Liturgical year can be one that begins to bring meaning to being; to living within the appointed place and time which the Lord has determined. Time ordered according to the Divine story of redemption enables a sacramental life, one that recovers mystery and sees beyond the material into the deeper, spiritual meaning of creation and the human experience.

The cycle from Advent through Ascension and Pentecost recapitulates, or recollects, the good news of the Kingdom. This liturgical movement anchors our lives firmly in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; the days, weeks, and seasons preach the message of redemption from sin and point to the eternal hope of the resurrected life. The first half of the Liturgical year- from Advent to Pentecost- draws our attention to the salvation we have been given, as we relive and remember the life, passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today, we find ourselves in the middle of the second half of the Liturgical Year, which is called Trinity-tide. These Trinity Sundays, which span some twenty-five or so weeks, put forth a system illustrating the practical life of Christianity, founded on the truths previously represented in the first half of the Church year, guided by the example of our Blessed Lord. Or in other words, the second half of the liturgical year, Trinity-tide, is chiefly concerned with working out the salvation we have in Christ. There is a sort of shift from contemplating the doctrines to putting them into action.

The season of Trinity-Tide emphasizes growth in the Christian life, which is why its liturgical color is dominated by green, which symbolizes life. Greenery adorns the altar to reflect growth and health. We employ this beautiful tapestry on the altar and vestments, evoking floral and festive imagery: all of this clueing us into what Mother church is desiring for her children: to grow in knowledge and wisdom and to move closer and closer to God and one another. The aim of Christian maturity is love. This, St. Paul reminds us, is the vocation to which we have been called, the high duty placed upon all baptized Christians: love.

First, by grace, we strive to love God above all things. We put sin to death, turn from vice, and in doing so, position ourselves to grow in the enjoyment of his commandments. Second, we love our neighbors. For, in learning to love Christ, we learn how to actually love others as he does. Sin is the great enemy of love and presents a considerable obstacle to fulfilling the Divine law. Therefore, we must seek to live a virtuous life. St. Paul puts it this way, "I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love." Lowliness; meekness; long-suffering; forbearance; without these virtues, we cannot love.

Now, a close examination of the readings and collects appointed throughout Trinity will reveal a strong emphasis on cultivating virtue: it permeates the season. Vice must die, and virtue must arise. The Apostle Paul commends this pursuit to the Philippians writing, "brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Philippians 4:8).

The Christian life should be marked by the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. And, these four virtues subsist within the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. We call these ‘theological virtues' because they alone conform our faculties for participation in the divine nature. You see, these three virtues dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. Faith believes, hope perseveres, and charity binds all things in peace.

Faith, hope, and charity have the One Triune God for their origin, motive, and object. This is important, for when I speak of pursuing virtue, I am not talking about moralism. Moralism tends to bother itself with earthbound concerns. It's interested in reform, producing civil and polite people, focused on ordering social and civil affairs to attain the best possible human existence... on earth. Virtue, on the other hand, is concerned with transformation and sets its aim on eternal life... citizens of the heavenly city. Virtue's concern is not merely improved self-management but the complete transfiguration of imperfect sinners into perfected saints in glory.

In the fourth century, St. Gregory of Nyssa, one of the great Cappadocian fathers, wrote, "the goal of a virtuous life is to become like God" (1). Man's goal, the holy Bishop said, is to liken himself to God, and he reaches this goal first of all through the love, knowledge, and practice of the virtues, which he wonderfully described as "bright beams that shine from the divine nature." Joseph Ratzinger, one of my favorite contemporary theologians, likens this to "a perpetual movement of adherence to the good, like a corridor outstretched before oneself."(2)

Now, saints such as Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, Clement, St. Paul, and the Apostles identified the great malady that, if left unchecked, prohibited one's ability to travel down the corridor of virtue: pride. Pride is opposed to God because it doesn't acknowledge anything beyond itself. It is the voice of Pharaoh opposing the Diving command, saying, "who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?" (Exodus 5:2). Yes, pride is the impediment to a virtuous life, and that in itself, is alarming and sobering. But the implications of pride go far beyond diminishing the ascent of Christian growth. The stakes are much higher. For according to Jesus, the prideful shall not be exalted! It is the lowly to whom our Lord says, "Friend, go up higher" (Luke 14:10).

In today's Gospel, Jesus has been invited to the home of one of the chief Pharisees to break bread on the sabbath day. And in comes a man who is sickened with dropsy. Now, dropsy would be similar to what modern medicine calls edema, which involves an excessive build-up of fluid in the system. Edema isn't a disease in itself but rather a symptom of something else that is really wrong with a person. It's a symptom that derives from kidney problems or congestive heart failure, or some other drastic disease within the body. The result: a person balloons or puffs up from excessive fluid in the system. I thank the Rev. David Curry for many insights he made with this observation.

Now, this poor, miserably afflicted man is standing before Jesus. The Lawyers and Pharisees, writes St. Luke, are watching Jesus closely to see what he will do. So, he asks them a simple question, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" He has put them in an interesting dilemma. Now, the proper answer for a Pharisee and Lawyer should be, "No, it is forbidden to heal on the Sabbath," for the practice of medicine during sabbath was explicitly prohibited by Jewish law. But how absurd would that have been? See how cleverly Jesus poses this dilemma. They were stuck: they couldn't answer him one way or the other. So they very prudently kept their mouths shut.

And in their silence, Jesus miraculously heals the man. Just think how awesome this must have been. Immediately, the man was totally changed, transformed before their eyes. A normal man now stood before them, the bloating was gone, and so was the underlying disease which had caused the swelling. What a miraculous thing Jesus has done! He was no longer puffed-up from the illness within.

Jesus then turns to instruct his hosts and asks, "Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath-day?" Now, oddly enough, this was allowed in Jewish law. But at the same time, healing or the practice medicine on the Sabbath was not allowed. This is absolutely crazy! Being respectful of his hosts, he puts forth a parable to them. "When you show up for a wedding, don't go and grab the best seats at the table because somebody more important than you might have been invited, and you would have to give up that place."

Now to get the full import of what Jesus is getting at, you have to realize that in Jewish society, the seating of guests at a banquet was incredibly complex. Taking into account age, rank, wealth, and all sorts of social-political issues thrown into the mix. The highest-ranking person would be given the honor of sitting closest to the host, the lowest of rank, farthest away. The Lord had just witnessed these men, "marking out the chiefest seats," so he puts a parable before them. "When you go to a wedding, don't do that. Seek the lowest place, and then the host can say, ‘Friend, come up higher.'" Now Jesus isn't instructing them on the niceties of etiquette in the Jewish community. Instead, the Lord is trying to teach them something about their relationship with God; that they should live their lives with honesty, simplicity, and humility.

"For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." What did Jesus mean? Simply put, you and I must understand the virtue of humility in such a way that we come to a right knowledge of who we are before God. What a beautiful teaching that comes fast upon the healing of the man with dropsy. He was all bloated and puffed-up. Now Jesus is dealing with people who are bloated with puffed-up with pride. In love, Jesus healed the man with dropsy. And by this demonstration and teaching, he wanted to heal the prideful Pharisees as well.

And friends, the Lord is warning us against the great malady of pride, the chief of sins. Unlike Pharaoh, Christ humbled himself under the strong hand of the Father. And we too must embrace humility, looking to Jesus, who humbled Himself in obedience to His Father, even to the point of death on a cross. "Be honest," He is saying, "about who you are and what you are before God, first and foremost. It is your relationship with God that is most important, drawing nearer and nearer to Him. Beloved, if you exalt yourselves, God will put you down. If you humble yourself, God will raise you up. Hear the Psalmist, "For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar" (Ps 138:6). The wisdom of the proverbs says, "One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor" (Proverbs 29:23).

Humility is honesty with oneself before God: to be honest about who and what we are. It acknowledges that we are not God; but sinners in need of divine forgiveness and grace. False humility is a poison as well, and will eventually cause all the symptoms of "spiritual dropsy." Sincere, honest, and penitential humility is what our Lord is calling us too: for humility is the principal gateway to obtaining all of the virtues. And, it is the virtuous life that ends in beatitude.

That sabbath day luncheon began with Jesus graciously healing a poor bloated man who stood before him. And, it ended by pricking the spiritual bloating of the Pharisees and Lawyers, teaching them about true humility. Today the Lord calls us to a banquet: a Eucharistic feast! Christ bids us come and also tells us how we are to approach saying, "but when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee." So, I too say come. Come in all humility, lowly, and grateful. Come up higher unto the altar of God, and worship in the presence of Him who lovingly feeds you. And may humility forever exalt you into the eternal friendship of your redeemer. Amen+

(1) St. Gregory of Nyssa, De beatitudinibus, 1:PG 44,1200D

(2) Benedict XVI General Audience Address September 5, 2007.