Last weekend, the 2016 Summer Olympics came to an end.
Many around the world watched as 11,500 Athletes from 206 countries competed in 39 sports over 16 days to see who was the best in the world.
This event ... which takes place every 4 years ... has retained the same Motto that it had ... 92 years ago ... at the Paris Olympics back in 1924.
Do you know what the motto of the Olympic Games is?
It’s the 3 Latin words ... Citius. Altius. Fortius ... which mean "faster, higher, stronger"
It remains the official motto of the Olympics through the years because it sums up the whole meaning of these competitive games. Yes, the world wants to know who will be Faster, Higher and Stronger than all the rest.
These athletic performances captivate us as we measure and record every new Olympic record and World record. Success at the Olympics brings medals, and prizes and endorsements and money and prestige. The world duly recognizes and honors those who are winners in their chosen field of competition.
Now, for all the attention that’s given to this arena of athletic achievement ... there’s another arena of achievement that is often overlooked by the world.
It’s the arena of spiritual achievement ... where victory is rewarded ... not with gold medals, but with Everlasting Life!
And perhaps the reason why this achievement is overlooked ... is the fact that ... winning in the spiritual arena requires that we follow a very different motto …
a motto that’s the exact opposite of the one used for the Olympic games!
To win in the spiritual arena, the motto is not “Faster, Higher, Stronger”... but rather, “Slower, Lower, Weaker”!
It’s a motto that’s counter-cultural for sure, but it’s the proven path that we must follow to win the crown of victory in Heaven.
For, you see, the essence of the Christian motto of “Slower, Lower, Weaker” ... is humility.
In our First reading today, Sirach tells us, “Conduct your affairs with humility.”
And he goes on, “Humble yourselves the more the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.”
Wow! He says ... the greater you are ... the more humble you should be!
When we have a humble heart, we are meek, modest, and unpretentious.
Humility restrains the unruly desire within us for personal greatness ... and leads us to an orderly love of ourselves
that is based on a true appreciation of our place in relation to God and to other people.
Humility helps us to see ourselves in the big scheme of things ... and it keeps us from getting puffed up with ourselves.
With humility we recognize that we’re not so great and we’re able to admit it.
Who is Great? God alone! And our time here on earth should be spent in praising Him and not trying to bring accolades to ourselves.
This is what the Psalmist is calling us to do in Psalm 68 that we just prayed. He says, “The just rejoice and exult before God; they are glad and rejoice.
Sing to God, chant praise to His name, whose name is the Lord.”
There is no time for us to be puffed-up with ourselves!
Once we even begin to contemplate how awesome and superior God is to us ... we’ll be filled only with the desire to praise and exult Him and not ourselves.
Let me give you an example that came through in the powerful short-movie ... released in 2006 ... entitled “Another Perfect Stranger.”
It’s a well-made movie about an 18 year old girl going off to college who is doubting the existence of God and has a very interesting conversation with a man sitting next to her on the airplane, who turns out to be ... none other than Jesus!
At the end of the movie, still not sure who this guy is that is full of such wisdom, she overhears him speak to two other people on board in a foreign language.
And the girl asks him, “So how many languages do you know?” And he calmly replies, “All of them.” She goes, “Come on, how many languages do you know?”
And again, he replies, “All of them.”
Do you realize how immense that is? Google tells me that there are 6,500 spoken languages in the world. Pope Francis knows 7 languages:
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and English.
Perhaps you may know one or two. But God knows them all!
So if you’re feeling pretty proud that you know a few languages ... get going ,,, because you’ve got 6,498 to go!
Recognizing this one fact about God should fill us with humility, wonder and awe.
In our Gospel today, Jesus is once again rebuking the Scribes and the Pharisees for their inordinate pride ... in the way they dressed ...
in the way they greeted each other in public and in the way they sat at table.
Jesus doesn’t want us to be prideful like them; He calls us to be humble like Him!
In our Gospel Acclamation today, Jesus said, “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”
Humility helps us to overcome the tendency, particularly when things are going well, to want to take credit for all our accomplishments, our assets, and our achievements … when in reality so many of these things have been given to us.
Humility comes from contemplating the question, “What do we have that we weren’t given?” Nothing! Everything we have is a gift, whether it’s our life, our freedom, our faith, our health, our family, our job or our possessions.
So there’s no point in pretending like we’re the creators of these things. In fact it’s to our advantage to give the glory and the credit to God, the true source of all things. For Jesus said in our Gospel, “the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Look what God does for us in every Mass!
When we humbly bring the gifts of bread and wine up to the altar at the offertory,
God takes them and transforms them into the Bread of Life, Jesus!
The grain and the grapes were God’s 1st gifts to us. And after using our God-given knowhow to make them into bread and wine and humbly presenting them to Him,
He gives us a 2nd gift … His greatest Gift … His Son.
Yes, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the hands of His priests ...
He transforms bread and wine into the most magnificent gift for us …
the Body and Blood of His Dearly Beloved Son.
God certainly does reward our humble actions.
And how about the Sacrament of Confession?
When we humble ourselves and go before a Priest and confess our sins ... what does God do?
He exalts us by freeing us from sin and gracing us with his peace and strength.
Humility is the corner-stone of prayer. Without it, we’d never pray!
With humility, we see our insignificance before God and it moves us to approach God from the depths of our need. When we’re humble, we pray!
St. Augustine used to say, “Man is a beggar before God.” And indeed we are!
We need to humbly acknowledge, “Lord you are everything and we are nothing.”
A modern-day model of the virtue of humility was Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who died just 19 years ago in 1997.
She spent her adult life as a humble sister, ministering to the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India.
And in 1979, when Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work, the whole world stopped and took notice ...
The world that thrives on tracking the biggest and the best ... had to stop and take notice of this diminutive nun ... who took care for the lowest and the least.
And how did Mother Teresa describe herself after receiving this fame?
She said, “I’m just a pencil in the hand of God.”
Talk about humility. Mother Teresa wanted only … to be held in the hand of God and to move whatever way He chose to move her. That’s humility!
Next Sunday, September 4th, Pope Francis will canonize Mother Teresa as Saint affirming that Jesus keeps the promise He made “You will be repaid in the resurrection.”... for Mother Teresa now reigns in Heaven!
God has given us great models of humility ... the best of course ... was His Son.
Jesus, the Creator and Redeemer of the world humbled Himself to become one of us … a creature … a man.
And He entered our world in the most humble way … Being born in a Barn … with a bed that was the feed trough for farm animals!
And then as a grown man, at the Last Supper,
He knelt and washed the feet of His Apostles!
The Creator washing the Creature!
What a demonstration of humility!
We can definitely learn from Jesus how to be meek and humble of heart.
Yes, humility is the key to salvation.
It’s humility that brings us close to God.
In our 2nd Reading from Hebrews, the author says,
“You have not approached that which could be touched …
no, you have approached God, the Judge of all …
and Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant.”
Being with God is where we want to be ... and being humble is the way to get there.
Yes, in comparison to God, we are far beneath Him in every way.
We may be good; but God is great!
So you see ... we already know ... who’s the fastest, highest and strongest in the world ... it’s the God-Man, Jesus Christ.
And let’s understand that God isn’t asking us to match his strength ... but rather to match his weakness!
Jesus showed us how to be slower, lower and weaker ... when He made his self-offering for the redemption of the world.
Let’s be humble like Him so that we can win the golden crown of heavenly glory.
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