The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
I’m going to be really vulnerable with you all for a moment. One of the things I go to confession for regularly is the sin of pride. Every time I go to confession, I seem to be confessing that same sin over and over again. It’s humbling because at the very root of pride is the lie that I can be self-reliant, that I have everything under control; that I CAN control everything. And because I can control things, that makes me better than those other people who can’t. I also struggle with scrupulosity, which is a fancy word meaning exaggerated guilt or anxiety about religious issues. So to mix the sin of pride with scrupulosity, not only do I think I can be self-reliant, but I also have exaggerated anxiety because I know that’s a lie.
That’s why I love the Gospel for today. “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me.” Jesus, who is so gentle and kind, reminds me time and time again that it’s not the lofty, self-sufficient, independent people that will behold the true riches of God, but the dependent children. He reminds me that it is more noble and holy to be childlike, trusting in my Father, than it is to be self-sufficient. When I recognize this, and run to confession every single time, as Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity puts it, I’m “displaying [my] misery like Magdalene at the Master’s feet… and He so loves to see a soul recognize its weakness.” It’s the paradox of the human condition: “if anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” And how can you tell if you have the same servant heart that Jesus had? As Eric Gilmour puts it, “how do you react when you’re treated like a servant?” In order to fly among the heights of God, you must be small and childlike. Pride has no place in God’s Kingdom. From today’s second reading, “where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder.”
Friends, let’s recognize that it is God who sustains our lives. It is God who is our helper. I pray for a fresh outpouring of humility and littleness upon every disciple of Jesus, that we are reminded that it’s the Lord, alone, that upholds our lives.