THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Third Sunday of Advent 16 December 2012

The Sunday Sermon

Fourth Sunday in Advent Christmas

Dear Friends,

The same St. John the Baptist that we heard Christ exalt in last week’s Gospel, we hear profoundly humbling himself in today’s Gospel. He says of himself that he is but a voice crying in the wilderness. The voice precedes the Word (in time, but not in eternity) and is nothing without the Word. Just as sound comes before meaningful words, so St. John precedes Jesus. Likewise, St. John is nothing without Jesus. St. John also says of himself that he is not even worthy to perform the humblest of tasks for Our Lord, i.e. not even worthy to loosen the strap of His shoes.

Jesus has made it clear what we are to learn from Him: “Learn of Me because I am meek and humble of heart” (Matt 11:29) This St. John already knew and understood. The Jews esteemed St. John and were ready to accept him as the prophet, or Elias, or even as the Christ. St. John led a very exact and perfect life in the eyes of all men; there were none that would find fault with him. He was of royal and priestly ancestry yet, he set all that at naught to live a life of mortification and penance in the wilderness, eating locusts and honey; and clothed in coarse garments girdled by a leather belt.

Christ by comparison was born from humble ancestry. His foster father was a poor humble carpenter. Christ ate and drank publicly and fed multitudes. It was in part because of these differences that the Jews esteemed St. John but rejected Christ. St. John rightly rejected the esteem of men and the world and whole heartily embraced humility. We see clearly in this that the esteem of the world and men is not to be sought after or even considered; it is as Solomon tells us: “vanity of vanity and all is vanity,” (Ecc 1:2). It is not the judgment of the world that we have to please, or even our own self judgment, but it is God who judges and it is Him that we must please.

St. Gregory admonishes us: “… we should note and ponder with careful thought, how holy men of God, in order to safeguard themselves in humility, when they know many things well, endeavor to keep before their minds that which they do not know, so that on the one hand, they remind themselves of their own limitations, and on the other, they are not raised above themselves because of those things in which their mind is accomplished. Knowledge indeed is virtue, but humility is the guardian of virtue. For the future then, let you be humble in your minds with regard to whatever you may know, lest what the virtue of knowledge has stored the wind of vanity may carry off. When therefore, Dearest Brethren, you do any good, ever recall to memory the sins you may have committed, so that while you are discreetly mindful of the evil you may have done, your mind will never indiscreetly rejoice over the good you do. Let each esteem his neighbor as better than himself, especially those who are strange to you, even those whom you see do that which is wrong, because you know not the good that may be hidden in them. Let each one seek to be worthy of esteem, yet let him be as if he knew not that he was, lest haughtily claiming esteem, he lose it.

Hence was it also said by the prophet: ‘Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits’ (Is. 5:21). Hence likewise St. Paul says: ‘be not wise in your own conceits’ (Rom 12:16). Against Saul who had grown proud, was it said; ‘when thou wast a little one in thine own eyes, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel’ (I Kings 15:17); as if it were openly said: when you looked upon yourself as but a youth, I raised you above others, but because you now look upon yourself as a great man, by Me you are regarded as a child.

David on the contrary, holding as nothing the dignity of his kingship, danced before the ark of the covenant, saying: ‘I will both play and make myself meaner than I have done: and I will be little in my own eyes’ (II Kings 6:22). Whom it hath not exalted to break the jaws of lions, to overcome the strength of bears, to be chosen while his elder brothers are set aside, to be anointed in the place of the rejected king, to lay low with one stone the warrior dreaded by all, to bring back the number of foreskins desired by the king, having avenged the kings enemies, to receive a kingdom by promise, to possess the whole Israelite people without challenge (I Kings 17:37; II Kings 12:7; I Kings 17:25,28,49; II Kings 7: 12,16) yet with all this he despised himself, and confessed that he was but little in his own eyes.

If therefore holy men, even when they do mighty things, think themselves worthless, what must be said of those who, without fruit of virtue, are yet swollen with pride? But any works, although they be good, are as nothing unless seasoned with humility. A great deed done boastfully, lowers rather than uplifts a man. He who would gather virtue without humility, carries dust in the wind; and where he seems to possess something, from the same is he blinded and made worse.

In all things whatsoever, Dearest Brethren, that you do, hold fast to humility, as to the root of every good work. Pay not heed to the things in which you are better than others, but to those in which you are worse; so that while you keep before you the example of those that are better than yourself, you may, through humility, be enabled to ascend to greater things, by the bountiful mercy of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”