Roc Homily (FIN) – Thirtieth Sunday Ordinary Time 2016

Exalt?  Humble?  Whaaa…?

How can we bear to be humbled?  To discover self-idolatry and then hand it over?  OUCH!

To exalt        Characteristics of self-exaltation: 1) forgetting God, forgetting one’s former state of humiliation because one has become self-sufficient;  2) self-idolatry, denying one’s vulnerability & mortality.

Deuteronomy 8:13f — 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,

Ezekiel 28:2 — 2 Mortal, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God: Because your heart is proud and you have said, “I am a god; I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,” yet you are but a mortal, and no god, though you compare your mind with the mind of a god.

To humble; to be oppressed, contrite; to deny oneself          Characteristics of being humbled:  1) Humiliation that brings idolators low (mountains & hills were places of idol worship);  2) Suffering that calls out to God for help;  3) Prideful disdain of others brought low;  4) Emphasis on idolators brought low.

Luke 3:5 (NRSV) — 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;

Psalm 51:8f (NRSV) — 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Isaiah 2:11f (NRSV) — 11 The haughty eyes of people shall be brought low, and the pride of everyone shall be humbled; and the Lord alone will be exalted on that day. 12 For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high;

Isaiah 40:4 (NRSV) — 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.