Take the last seat!

At the Bible study, reading this Gospel, everyone’s on board, a car came to pick up one of the participants and they tell their young sister, “I get shotgun, to the back!” And I said, “Hey! what did we just talk about?!” I received a certain look, like, “yea, but cmon! Really?!”

Its funny because its true, and because we want to get ours, we want respect, because we have dignity. But also, this goes so against our human nature. We want what belongs to us, this is justice, and so, to get slighted, that hurts our pride.  But at some point, whether here or in purgatory, we need to destroy our pride.

Speaking of taking the last place…that applies to our parking lot, and not forgetting your Christianity in the pews… and that doesn’t mean leaving after communion to get a head start…this isn’t a baseball game where its a blowout.

In the past, this one time, I went to a wedding. I was sitting next to my mom and my brother.  My aunt, because of the small family, invited my mom to sit in the front row, with her! How exciting! Getting called up! My mom turns to me and says, “Cmon, she’s calling us forward!” I replied, “She is calling YOU forward, I’m content right here.”

Perhaps this is my own cowardice, I’d rather not be in the front if I don’t have to, but also, I wasn’t trying to gain the esteem of the people gathered there.  Nor was my mother.  It was humble for her to go forward, it was true and good. Nor was it my role to go up.  Maybe I disobeyed my mother, but life is complicated sometimes and we need to make decisions in the moment.  And so, we train ourselves, by taking the lowest seat, being humble as we can in our lives, even to the point that we humiliate ourselves, because pride cometh before the fall.  And all of us…all of us! … We want to be like God! We want our respect, “I don’t care what people think of me.” Yes you do! We all do! And so we discipline ourselves, so that we understand that we don’t deserve to even be here…that we are here as a result of God’s goodness to invite us here and cleanse us of our sins, by His blood!

Bl. Giorgio Frassati would travel with his friends by train.   And like planes they have classes.  His friends would complain, “Giorgio, why do you always travel by third class? You have the money.” (Giorgio, perché viaggi sempre in terza classe?) “Because there is no fourth class.”

We have to look for ways to pursue humility.

Bc humility, humiliations, come from the latin word - humus (hoom-es) meaning, dirt, ground.

You won’t out humble Christ, He was born in a cave and died naked. He is God.  And He identifies with the poor, the lame, the crippled, the blind.  Which is why we read

“Alms atone for sins as water puts out fire” (Sir 3:28-29)

But they aren’t different than you.  In a way, they are you, you are poor, Christ is poor, and Christ in you.

We sit in the last seat because we know who we are, we are poor sinners in need of God’s mercy, (We were saved, we are being saved, we hope to be saved.)

Indeed we give to the poor, we invite the undesirables because when they don’t have what they need, they actually have a right to your jacket, or your bottle of water.

Many of us identify with Christ the King, on the mount of Transfiguration, The Resurrected Christ, in His glory!

But we as Catholics ought to spend our time identifying with the wounded Christ, the suffering Christ, like Simon of Cyrene, or our Mother of Sadness.

St. Charles de Foucauld wanted to identify with Christ in His abjection, in his lack of dignity, in his forgottenness.  He saw in the Host, Christ, the humble Christ, in the form of bread, not even shiny bread, or tasty bread, just ordinary... too ordinary.

All of us want to be special in some way, talented.  Who of us want to be forgotten to the eyes of the world?

And so St. Charles went to Nazareth, “Who are the poor living there? Ah yes, the Franciscan sisters.  I shall work for them.” “Well, we can’t pay you money.” “Good, I was hoping not, some bread?” “Sure” “Great! I can garden and do errands and pray.” “OK, you can live in the gardeners hut!” “Errrrr, that’s too nice, I was thinking the smaller shed?!?!!” “OK?” “Great thanks!”

The saints overdo it, so that maybe we might be inspired to do it.

Christ is the image of God the Father, identical.

The saints are an image for us of Christ.

Humility then is a virtue of the kingdom, not of the world, but to live in the kingdom we must obtain this virtue.

En el estudio bíblico, leyendo este evangelio, todos a bordo, vino un auto a recoger a uno de los participantes y le dicen a su hermana menor: “¡Me dan el asiento delantero, ¡a la parte de atrás contigo!”.

Y yo le dije: “¡Oye! ¡¿De qué acabamos de hablar?!”

Recibí una cierta mirada, como, “Oh, vamos Padre, ¿por qué dirías eso?”

Es gracioso porque es verdad, y porque queremos tener lo nuestro, queremos respeto, porque tenemos dignidad. Pero también, esto va tan en contra de nuestra naturaleza humana. Queremos lo que nos pertenece, esto es justicia, y así, recibir un castigo, eso hiere nuestro orgullo. Pero en algún momento, ya sea aquí o en el purgatorio, necesitamos destruir nuestro orgullo.

Hablando de ocupar el último lugar... eso se aplica a nuestro estacionamiento, y sin olvidar su cristianismo en las bancas... y eso no significa irse después de la comunión para comenzar con ventaja... este no es un juego de béisbol donde es una derrota.

En el pasado, esta vez, fui a una boda. Estaba sentado al lado de mi mamá y mi hermano. ¡Mi tía, debido a la familia pequeña, invitó a mi mamá a sentarse en la primera fila, con ella! ¡Que interesante! ¡Siendo llamado! Mi mamá se vuelve hacia mí y dice: "¡Vamos, nos está llamando para que avancemos!" Le respondí: “Ella te está llamando a TI, estoy contento aquí”.

Tal vez esta es mi propia cobardía, preferiría no estar al frente si no es necesario, pero también, no estaba tratando de ganarme la estima de las personas reunidas allí. Mi madre tampoco. Fue humilde para ella seguir adelante, fue verdadero y bueno. Tampoco era mi papel subir. Tal vez desobedecí a mi madre, pero la vida a veces es complicada y necesitamos tomar decisiones en el momento. Y así, nos entrenamos, tomando el asiento más bajo, siendo lo más humildes que podamos en nuestra vida, hasta el punto de humillarnos, porque el orgullo viene antes de la caída. Y todos nosotros… ¡todos nosotros! … ¡Queremos ser como Dios! Queremos nuestro respeto, “No me importa lo que la gente piense de mí”. ¡Sí lo haces! ¡Todos lo hacemos! Y así nos disciplinamos, para que entendamos que no merecemos ni siquiera estar aquí… ¡que estamos aquí como resultado de la bondad de Dios para invitarnos aquí y limpiarnos de nuestros pecados, por Su sangre!

Beato Giorgio Frassati viajaría con sus amigos en tren. Y al igual que los aviones tienen clases. Sus amigos se quejaban: (Giorgio, perché viaggi semper in terza classe?) “¿por qué siempre viajas en tercera clase? Tu tienes el dinero." “Porque no hay cuarta clase”.

Tenemos que buscar maneras de buscar la humildad.

humildad, humillaciones, provienen de la palabra latina - humus (hoom-es) que significa, suelo, tierra.

No superarás a Cristo humilde, Él nació en una cueva y murió desnudo. El es Dios. Y se identifica con los pobres, los cojos, los lisiados, los ciegos.

Por eso leemos “La limosna expía los pecados como el agua apaga el fuego” (Sir 3, 28-29)

Pero los pobres y desamparados no son diferentes a ti. En cierto modo, son ustedes, Uds. son pobres, Cristo es pobre, y Cristo en ustedes.

Nos sentamos en el último asiento porque sabemos quienes somos, somos pobres pecadores necesitados de la misericordia de Dios, (Fuimos salvados, estamos siendo salvados, esperamos ser salvados).

¿Si no somos pobres, porque necesitaríamos un salvador, a salvarnos de qué?