A Homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday, August 31, 2025
Prince of Peace Catholic Church – 8:00 & 10:00 Masses
Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Psalm 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11; Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a; Luke 14:1, 7-14
Audio Recording
Today’s readings lead us to a theme at the heart of the Christian life: HUMILITY. If humility is central, it is because its opposite — PRIDE — is the root of our deepest spiritual sickness.
“Pride is the oldest and deadliest sin”
From the beginning, pride has been humanity’s great enemy. Pride caused Lucifer to rebel against God. Pride led Adam and Eve to reach for the forbidden fruit, desiring to be “like gods.” Pride drove Cain to kill his brother Abel. Again and again, Scripture shows that collapse follows when pride replaces obedience to God.
Pride rears its ugly head when we think we know better than God what is true. We see pride everywhere in our culture today where so many believe that truth is relative. We’ve all heard the saying that “your truth is not my truth.” People today make themselves gods by pridefully following their own “truth”, rather than THE Truth. As Bishop Barron often reminds us, pride is the “capital of the capital sins,” the supreme distortion of the soul, because it puts the self where only God belongs.
Now it’s important to distinguish between being proud and being prideful. There is nothing wrong with being proud in the sense of rejoicing in someone’s accomplishments. When a parent says, “I’m proud of my daughter’s hard work,” that’s love and gratitude. That kind of pride builds others up and honors God.
The pride that destroys, however, is different. It is inordinate self-love, an exaggerated elevation of self above others, and even above God. When self-love blinds us to our dependence on God, we place ourselves on a throne that is not ours.
In our first reading today, Sirach tells us: “My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.” The world prizes ambition and self-promotion. Yet Sirach reminds us that true greatness is found in humility, in knowing our place before God.
And he adds: “The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself.” The more responsibility or influence we have, the greater the temptation to pride. Holiness requires the opposite: the higher we rise, the lower we must bend in service. THIS is true humility.
In the Gospel, Jesus sees guests scrambling for seats of honor at a banquet. He tells them: take the lowest place. Why? Because pride always seeks recognition. Humility is content with the lowest seat, knowing that just being present is a gift. Humility doesn’t need to be seen, to be acknowledged.
Then Jesus goes farther. He says that when you give a banquet, do not invite those who can repay you. Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. This is because humility gives freely, expecting nothing in return. This is God’s way. Pride, on the other hand always asks, “What’s in it for me?”
Pride is not only an ancient problem; it is everywhere today. It seeps into families when we refuse to apologize. It divides communities when people insist on being right. It infects politics, business, and even the Church when power is treated as a prize rather than a responsibility.
Pride whispers: “You deserve more. You should be noticed. You don’t need the Church, you know best.” And when we listen to these lies, the results are always the same: broken relationships, blindness to others, and worst of all, blindness to God’s grace.
But thankfully God has given us the antidote to pride: humility. Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself, but THINKING OF YOURSELF LESS, and thinking of God and others more. It is not weakness; it is truth. Humility admits: I am not the center of the universe. I am a beloved child of God, dependent on Him for every breath, for my very existence.
“Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself, but THINKING OF YOURSELF LESS”
And when we live this way, we are free — free from comparison, free from the exhausting game of proving ourselves, free to love generously as Christ loves.
For us, humility should not be abstract — it should be a daily practice:
• When we APOLOGIZE instead of insisting we’re right.
• When we LISTEN instead of talking.
• When we SERVE without expecting thanks.
• When we pray and ADMIT we cannot save ourselves.
• When we WELCOME the poor, the broken, the forgotten.
Every act of humility plants a seed of grace. Each one tears down a little pride. And the promise of Jesus is sure: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Dear friends in Christ, pride is the oldest and deadliest sin. HUMILITY is its antidote. Sirach calls us to it. Jesus teaches it at the banquet table. The saints remind us that without humility, holiness is impossible.
So let us ask today for the grace to imitate Christ’s humility. May He free us from pride and teach us the joy of taking the lowest place. Then, when we take our seat at the eternal banquet, we will hear Him say to us: “My humble friend, move up higher, to a place of honor.”