Homily originally presented September 1, 2019
There’s always a bigger monkey!
The transitions that students make when they move from Grade School to
High School and from High School to College can show them a profound truth.
It’s a truth that can be simply and humorously expressed in the following saying,
“There’s always a bigger monkey.”
I heard this saying in college and I knew what it meant the minute I heard it. You see, the animal kingdom is ruled by the law of survival of the fittest; and each animal’s existence is based on where they are in a hierarchy of strength and power
There’s a similar hierarchy with humans with each person fitting in somewhere along a continuum of strength and power as well as other attributes as well ...
such as intelligence and finesse.
So, a person may think they’re great within their immediate circle of reference,
but if they broaden that circle even a little ...
they’ll find that there are others who are better than they are in many ways.
Hence the saying, “There’s always a bigger monkey.”
This could be from the standpoint of knowledge or speed or strength or skill.
For example, in my Grade school there were 500 students; but then in my High school there were 1,400 students, and in my College there were 20,000 students.
Each time you enlarge the circle of reference, you’ll find there are
more and more people who have gifts and talents greater than you.
As you can imagine, on a national scale or and finally an international scale ...
the odds are that many others are better than you at any given endeavor.
Again, “There’s always a bigger monkey.”
I certainly experienced this in my life.
While I lettered in Basketball in 8th grade ... I didn’t make the team in High School.
While I lettered in Swimming in High School ...I didn’t make the team in College.
There’s always going to be others who are bigger, faster, stronger & smarter than you. And so what’s the lesson to be learned in this? It’s one of humility.
Humility is the quality of being modest and respectful … of being able to say,
“I’m not so great.” Humility comes from honestly assessing the gifts we have
and putting them in perspective … seeing them in the big scheme of things.
What is the Big Picture? Here are 4 aspects that comprise the big picture:
- As we just pointed out, we need to acknowledge that
there many other people who are superior to us in many ways.
- Then, we need to realize that none of the talents we possess were created by us, rather, they were all bestowed on us by a Creator, God.
- Next we need to admit that none of the human gifts we have will last forever.
- And finally, we need to acknowledge the huge gap..
the limited powers of man ... and the infinite powers of God.
If nothing else makes you humble and respectful, that one alone should do it.
Humility is a great virtue. It safeguards us from falling into the sin of pride.
Recall Pride is called the first of the 7 deadly sins … it was the very sin of Adam.
Pride leads to arrogance and self-righteousness and self-centeredness.
Pride moved Adam to disobey God and got him kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Had he humbly obeyed God, he would never have lost his Original Grace.
Throughout the Bible there’s a constant call for all to walk “humbly” before God.
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.”
What wise counsel that is … for God loves a humble heart!
When we carry 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.
God alone is great ... and our time would be best 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, saying “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 far superior God is to us,
we will be filled only with the desire to praise and exult Him and not ourselves.
Have you ever noticed who it was that Jesus was the hardest on in the Scriptures?
It was the Religious Leaders ... the Scribes and the Pharisees ...
as we hear today in our Gospel from Luke.
Once again, Jesus takes the time to reprimand them for their pride ...
this time for striving to have the most honored seats at table.
Jesus doesn’t call us to be prideful leaders like them;
No, He calls us to be Servant Leaders like Himself!
In washing the feet of His Twelve Apostles, Jesus clearly established
that humility is the foundation of fruitful service to one another.
Humility helps us to overcome the tendency in life, particularly when things are going well, for us to want to take credit for all our accomplishments,
when in reality we’ve been gifted by so many things.
Humility comes from contemplating the question,
“What do we have that we didn’t first receive?” Everything we have is a gift,
whether it’s our life, our health, our family, our job or our possessions.
So there’s no point in pretending that we are 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 His only Son, Jesus! The grain and the grapes were gifts from God to us.
And after using our God -given knowhow to make them into bread and wine ...
we humbly present them to Him.
And what does God do with our humble offering? Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the hands of His priests, He transforms them into the most magnificent gift back to us … the Body and Blood of His Dearly Beloved Son.
God certainly does reward our humble actions.
And how about the Sacrament of Confession?
It takes a great act of humility to go before a Priest and confess our sins.
And what does God do?
He exalts us by freeing us from sin and gracing us with His mercy and strength.
In our Gospel today, Jesus tells us that He will similarly reward our humility when it comes to our relations with one another.
As Servant Leaders, He calls us to humbly share our gifts and talents with others ...
especially the poor.
He says today, “Give to those who have no way of paying you back.”
You see, in God’s eyes, giving to the poor is giving to God.
Jesus promises, “You will be repaid in the resurrection.”
Humility is the corner-stone of prayer. With humility we see our dependency on 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 22 years ago in 1997.
She spent her life as a Servant Leader, ministering to the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India. And here’s how she described herself,
“I’m 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!
In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work, and the whole world had to stop and take notice. This world that thrives on tracking who’s the biggest and the best had to pause and acknowledge this diminutive nun who humbled herself to care for the lowest and the least.
In our Gospel Acclamation today, Jesus said,
“Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”
This is because humility is the key to salvation. There’s no pride in heaven ...
only humble hearts full of gratitude for God’s Gift of Eternal Life.
So, remember the saying, “There’s always a bigger monkey.”
And readily admit that we’re not so great.
On earth there will always be others greater than us.
Realize God isn’t asking us for greater than others ... but the servant of others.
He’s asking us to show meekness and humbleness of heart!
Let’s do our best to honor His request trusting in His promise that:
“he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
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