Msgr. Roger J. Landry

Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY

Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

August 31, 2025

Sir 3:17-18.20.28-29, Ps 68, Heb 12:18-19.22-24, Lk 14:1,7-14

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The text that guided today’s homily was: 

• In Jesus’s parable in today’s Gospel, the Lord is doing far more than giving his disciples — those 2,000 years ago and us today — advice on how to achieve the best seats at a wedding reception. As valid and applicable as that counsel is for human situations, Jesus’ real point was to teach us how to be exalted at the eternal wedding banquet to which the Host, his Father, has invited “the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.” In order for us to hear those words from God the Father, “Friend, move up higher,” which is the deepest longing that exists in the human heart, for definitive happiness and holiness in heaven, Jesus says that there is only one way: we must recognize that we’re poor in need of the Lord’s true riches, crippled in need of the Lord’s help to straight ourselves out, lame desperate for the Lord’s grace to walk by faith, and blind crying out for the light of faith to see things clearly. We must, in short, humble ourselves, for it is only the humble who will be so exalted.


• These are very hard and challenging words in our age, which prizes and even prioritizes human exaltation. We see it in the ever-growing number of award shows indulging the egos of those in film, television and music, as they give out awards for best actors, actresses, directors, producers, graphic artists, costume designers, film editors, hairstylists, production designers, sound mixers, screen play writers, you name it. We witness it in the honors we give to the students who are “Most Popular” and “Most Likely to Succeed,” to the “Best Looking” women in beauty pageants, to the “Most Successful” sales representatives, to the “Most Valuable Player” in sports leagues, and even to the “best groomed” dogs. We see it even in the Church in which the culture of earthly honoring and exaltation survives as certain clergy are given honorific titles, lay people special pontifical medals, and the wealthy have pews, or halls, or buildings named after them. So many of us have been raised with the desire not only to be the best, but to be acknowledged as the best — and if we recognize begrudgingly that we’re not the best, then we at least want to be better than those around us. We want to get our own way, rather than conceding to the wishes of another. We yearn to have the last word, rather than concede it to someone else. We desire to be the ones noticed and thanked, and resent it when others get the credit we think we deserve. In short, so many of us hunger to be noticed, esteemed, and exalted. We want the places of honor at table, first class seats on airplanes and front row seats at concerts. We long for positions of power and influence and titles of status and worldly honor.


• To all of us in this culture, Jesus says to us in the words of today’s Alleluia verse, “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29 ). Jesus’ whole life is a lesson in humility. And he turns to each of us and says, “Follow me!”


• Paul described Jesus’ humility best in his letter to the Philippians, grounding our humility on the unbelievable humility of the Son of God: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:3-11). Jesus, St. Paul emphasizes, humbled himself to assume our human nature, to take upon the form of a slave to serve us rather than to be served (Mt 20:28 ), to wash our feet, (Jn 13), to become obedient to human authority, and even to allow himself to be mistreated, manhandled and murdered by his own creatures, all so that he might save us. He humbled himself and God the Father exalted him forever. St. Peter said that Jesus did all of this to leave us an example, so that we would follow in his footsteps (1Pet 2:21 ). If we do this, if we learn, imitate and enter into Christ’s humility, then we will enter into Christ’s exaltation, being lifted up by and with him forever.


• This is a perennial message God is trying to drive home to us today. Sirach instructs us in today’s first reading, “My child, conduct your affairs with humility.” Everything we do, in other words, we’re called to do humbly. Sirach continues, “The greater you are,” the more blessed you are with talents, material goods, prestige or high office, “humble yourself the more, and you will find favor in God.” The Letter to the Hebrews, of which we have a portion in our second reading, focuses on the humility of Jesus as our High Priest, who although he was Son of God, became like us in every respect, able to sympathize with our weaknesses because he has been tested in every way without sin, learning obedience through what he suffered. Right before today’s passage, the sacred author urges us to rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us — most especially pride — and persevere in running the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith as he seeks to lead us as creatures, liturgically and eschatologically, to the awesome fulfillment of all that gave the Israelites in the desert as a foretaste: to God the Father, the blazing fire, the judge of all, accompanied by storm and trumpet blast; to Jesus himself, the mediator of the new and eternal covenant whose blood is not just sprinkled upon us but that we consume; to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, with countless angels, the assembly of the heavenly first born, the spirits of the just made perfect. Jesus humbled himself as our leader and perfecter so that he might exalt us in the heavenly Jerusalem.


• But becoming humble is easier said than done. We first need to have a clear grasp of what humility is. Humility comes from the Latin word, humus, which means ground or dirt. It has various connected spiritual meanings. It means, first, that we have both of our feet on the ground, that we have a deep sense of who we are. As we hear every year on Ash Wednesday, we recognize we’re dust and unto dust we shall return. We acknowledge our human weaknesses and limitations. At the same time, however, humility means that even though we know we’re dust, we also recognize that God has breathed into us the breath of life, that he calls us through a humble life to greatness, to a communion of love with him and others. We’re vessels of clay, to use St. Paul’s image, carrying within an immense treasure (2 Cor 4:7). To be humble, we need to keep both of these things in mind. To be humble doesn’t mean that we think that we’re losers, to lack self-esteem or even harbor a little self-hatred. Consistent with the overall message of the Gospel, it means, rather, that we recognize we’re ex-captives who have been liberated by Jesus and have become adopted children of the King. Humility means never forgetting whence we have come but also remembering the greatness that our relationship with God confers on us. To be humble, in other words, does not concern primarily our attitude toward ourselves, but fundamentally our attitude toward God and others, to let God act, to acknowledge our dependence on him, to thank him for his blessings, to implore his mercy, and to make his ways our own.


• Pope Leo has been trying to remind the Church of humility since the beginning of his papacy. In his first homily, the day after his election, he urged the Cardinals and the whole Church to “move aside so that Christ may remain, … to make oneself small so that He may be known and glorified, … to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love” Jesus. In his homily for the Mass formally inaugurating his papacy 9 days later, he said, “we want to say to the world, with humility and joy,” to “look to Christ” and “come closer to him!” To look toward Christ, rather than at oneself, is the open secret of humility. Earlier today in the Vatican, during his Angelus meditation, Pope Leo talked about the connection of humility to freedom and therefore to love. He said, “In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of humility in describing perfect freedom. Humility is really freedom from ourselves. It is born when the Kingdom of God and its righteousness become our real concern and we allow ourselves to lift up our eyes and look ahead: not down at our feet, but at what lies ahead! Those who exalt themselves generally think that nothing is more interesting than themselves; yet deep down, they are quite insecure. Whereas those who know that they are precious in God’s eyes, who know they are God’s children, have greater things to be worried about; they possess a sublime dignity all their own. Once we learn to take the last places, rather than s