October 24: Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
Joel 2:23-32
Psalm 65
or
Sirach 35:12-17
or Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22
Psalm 84:1-6
A pianist at a retreat center where I used to give retreats was extremely gifted and played beautiful music. She only had to be informed of the theme for the mass and minutes later she was able to plan appropriate music for it. The funny thing is, she suffered from very bad carpal tunnel syndrome, but she said that when she played the piano, she felt no pain. Whenever I complimented her on her extraordinary abilities she said to me, “I am only an instrument.”
This pianist embodied for me the virtue of humility, a virtue extolled in both Paul’s Letter to Timothy today and in the Gospel of Luke. Speaking of his humility, Paul said, “I am . . . being poured out as a libation,” and Jesus reminds us of the importance of humility when in Luke he says, “All who humble themselves will be exalted.”
So it would seem that humility is pretty important to have when trying to live a life of holiness. Because when I think about the saints, the one thing they all had in common was their great humility. The Rev. Joseph Watson, O.Cist. said, “The saints are instruments of the power and grace of God. When we admire them we admire God because whatever gifts they have and whatever they do comes from God.” James 4:6b reminds us that, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
In an of ourselves, we aren’t much, but with God, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4: 13).