Proper
17 :: Proverbs 25:6 – 7 / Psalm 112 / Hebrews 13:1 – 8, 15 – 16 / Luke 14:1, 7
– 14
This is the homily given before the start of the St. John’s, Huntingdon’s annual parish picnic, by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, August 28, 2022.
“KNOW THYSELF”
(Homily texts Proverbs 25:76 – 7 & Luke 14:1, 7 – 14)
“Know
thyself”. Those words, well known, come from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.
Knowing
oneself is a critical skill to have and to maintain. (More on that in a
moment.)
Apparently
the Pharisees, in our Gospel text for this morning, didn’t have a good and
accurate knowledge of themselves.
Luke
offers us a glimpse of the behavior of a group of Pharisees as they jockey for
the best and most prominent seats at a banquet. (In my mind’s eye, I can see
this somewhat ludicrous but humorous scene.)
It’s
possible that these self-important types had forgotten the wisdom of our
reading from Proverbs, which says, “Do not put yourself in the king’s presence
of stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, ‘Come up
here,’, than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.”
What
then, was the problem with these Pharisees?
Apparently,
they didn’t bother to try to step outside of themselves to take a look back to
try to see themselves and their behavior as others would see them. Not only
were they blind to their true condition, but they seemed to take delight in
their puffed-up image of themselves. So, it looks as though this is a case of
willful blindness.
The
crux of the matter is that knowing oneself is a difficult, seemingly impossible
task. For we cannot see ourselves clearly and accurately, if we attempt to rely
on our own abilities. St. Augustine would remind us that we are so blind to our
own, true spiritual condition that we are totally unable to see, or to help,
ourselves. We are in need of God’s help in order to clear our eyesight. God’s
holy Word can assist us in this quest. The Holy Spirit’s help is also
necessary. Beyond that, other Christian believers and their assistance can also
help us. (After all, one of the Church’s functions is to provide a setting
where we can support, correct and uphold one another in our walk with God.)
The
goal of all these helpful things is to allow us to “know ourselves”, as truly
and as accurately as we are able to. This goal has everything to do with
integrity, which might be defined as being in a condition where our “outsides
match our insides”.
AMEN.
