16th Sunday after Pentecost 16.9.12 Finding self
The parable of the guests taking the higher places teaches us to be aware of our true place in life, in the universe, in relation to each other and especially in relation to Almighty God.
The hard lesson to be learnt is that ‘I’ am not the centre of the universe; it is God’s kingdom not mine, that I should be seeking. We say, Thy kingdom come, not My kingdom!
Have I been looking for a kingdom? I may not want a castle and some of the other trappings that go with being a king, but we do start out in life wanting everything our own way.
Somewhere along the way we have to learn that the self is not the right place to focus. It is to God we must look for our true identity.
The fear is that in Him we might lose our individuality. In fact He invests us with far more importance than we would find anywhere else. In the world we are just one of the crowd, known by a few, loved by less; otherwise just a statistic. But God dies for us, lavishes gifts and attention on us, treats us far better than we would find anywhere else.
The Gospels tell us some strange things: that the last shall be first; that if we die we will live; the more we give the more we receive; he who humbles himself will be exalted etc...
The source of happiness in these cases is that our union with God is increasing. The closer we come to the sun the warmer we become.
Whereas if we are in business for ourselves our lives become chaotic and disordered. We are unable to build a kingdom for ourselves because it will never hold together.
Everything that we would cling to just by our own resources is insecure. Money, property, health; life itself; the stability of the world. We don't even know if we will be alive in 24 hours time.
Our only real security is in the will of God. And the way to arrive there is through constant prayer and sacraments - which enable us to see things His way, with greater wisdom and balance.
And we start to behave differently. Let us consider another lesson from the banquet. At a banquet we do not just dive into each dish and eat as much as possible before anyone gets to it. If we are very refined we learn to be patient and wait for the food to come, and then we find that everyone has enough; and it is very pleasant as well.
We need to apply the same principle to the whole world. Certain people do dive in and take what is not theirs, such as thieves, tyrants, bullies...
If we all lived gently and generously we would have a world where everyone would see the light of day; all genuine rights would be respected.
This is the kingdom of God where everyone looks after each other while deferring to God - at the same time praising, thanking, asking, confessing. Always moving towards that.
Even if no one else does this I should do it. In this case we might be exploited, even put to death. It does happen. But that is how saints are made. There is great glory for those who do put others first: cf blessed are you when they persecute you..
In any case it is the only way forward, the only way to happiness.
It all gets back to this: I am not the most important person in the universe;. God is. We are the planets; He is the Sun. We revolve around Him; we bask in His glory.
So many times we have said, Thy kingdom come. It will come if we restrain the rampant ego, finding our true selves in Him.
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