Pardon us asking, but what was the least pleasant year of your childhood?
Our seat-of-the-pants survey results are that most people target 7th Grade as the absolute armpit of adolescence. Your mileage may differ, but social events for most young people at that age were a horrible mixture of peer pressure, cliques, and awkwardness.
As we grow older and climb out of the sociological gutter of 7th Grade, secular society tends to apply a coat of varnish to social interactions, to give a thin veneer of decency – but scratch the surface and it’s still mostly 7th Grade underneath.
As we’d expect – and as is the topic of this week’s Pearls episode – God has a completely different design for the society of Heaven. And we get a glimpse of it this Sunday.
The first reading this Sunday is from Sirach, including this:
My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God. (Sir 3:17-18)
And then, the in the second reading, St. Paul references Heaven as, “city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering…”
So, we’re thinking about Heaven and humility, and “festal gatherings”. And then we come to the Gospel reading and Jesus painting a picture of celebrations where God is the host – there’s no jockeying to be at the “cool” table – there’s no preening or posturing. Instead, there is an extra effort to reach out and embrace the outcast and the marginalized and the unwanted. In modern parlance, there is authentic “equity” and “inclusion.”
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that the choirs of angels ascend in order of service. Archangels are higher than Angels because they serve at a higher level. And so on up the ranks all the way to Cherubim and, the highest choir, the Seraphim. The Seraphim are so close to God that they burn with holy fire. They have six wings – two to fly, two to cover their eyes that can’t bear to look directly on God’s divine beauty, and two to cover their feet lest they should tread on holy ground. The Seraphim serve at the highest level – so in a sense, they are the most lowly of the angels. (It begs the question how angels serve one another – do they tune one another’s harps and fluff their clouds?). But there are others in Heaven who are even greater in service than the Seraphim – first our Blessed Mother – Queen of the Angels and the Queen of Humility. And then, far and above even her, is the Trinity – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – who’s nature it is to be completely self-giving – to pour themselves out in love.
The social currency of Heaven, so to speak, is humility and service. Ponder that…
And let us not forget the Psalm reading for this Sunday:
The father of orphans and the defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God gives a home to the forsaken; he leads forth prisoners to prosperity. (Ps 68:4-5)
In one way or another, every one of us has experienced times of feeling orphaned, or forsaken, or imprisoned. As we enter into the Sabbath this weekend, we can reflect on God who created a heaven that will wipe all of that away. And in fact, if we invite Him into those parts of our life, in prayer, He will pour Himself out to us even now. After all, it’s His nature to serve.
Sabbath blessings to you –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: Luke 14:1, 7-14
On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully.
He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Then he said to the host who invited him, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”