22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle C
September 1, 2019
Learning Humility
In 1930, a German author named Erich Remarque wrote a novel called All Quiet on the Western Front.
This novel was about World War I and has become almost a classic in literature. The setting is the trench warfare in Europe, 100 years ago.
Paul Baumer, a 19-year-old German soldier huddles in a large hole made by an exploded shell. Suddenly, a French soldier jumps into the hole.
Instinctively, Baumer pulls out a dagger and stabs the Frenchman, his enemy. Then Baumer quickly discovers that the man’s name is Duval, that he is a husband and a father, and works as a printer.
Soon the wounded Duval dies, propped up against Baumer. And then, as he realizes what he has done, Baumer speaks to the dead Duval.
“Comrade, I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too.
“But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind… It was that abstraction that I stabbed.
“But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your life and your face and our fellowship.
“Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late.
“Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony – forgive me, comrade, how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and these uniforms you could be my brother…
“Take twenty years of my life, comrade, and stand up – take more, for I do not know what I can even attempt to do with it now.”
Jesus and Humility
I find this excerpt from All Quiet on the Western Front to be very moving.
I find the words of the German soldier so reflective of Jesus’ insight today. “Those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Jesus calls us to embrace humility, a humble way of living. I believe we see the essence of humility in the thoughts of the German soldier.
The Heart of Humility
Humility is not seeing others as an abstraction or as an idea in my mind or as an impersonal demographic.
It is not seeing and summing up a person as just part of a category or a race or a nationality or a religion or a political persuasion or a gender orientation. Instead, it is seeing others – in fact, each person – as God sees them.
Humility is realizing that we share with every human being the dignity of being made in the image and likeness of God. It is the awareness that we are all basically one – seeking self-worth, a sense of purpose, fulfillment, life’s necessities, some comforts, and opportunities for our children.
Humility is being aware that whites in Harford County and blacks in Baltimore City, Hispanics in Latin America or Hispanic immigrants here, the citizens of China or Iran or Kenya – we are all basically the same. It means that we see as God sees.
Humility is not a diminishment of myself – not at all! Instead, it is respecting the other as I respect myself.
In fact, what does Jesus say? “Those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
So, if we are humble, we end up not being diminished but being “exalted”– becoming fuller and more alive persons. And if we are humble, we also enable others to become fuller and more alive persons.
But if we are not humble, we end up diminishing and even killing the life of others, as the soldier Baumer realized. And in doing that, we disconnect ourselves from others, we shrink as persons, and we diminish and, in a way, even kill off our own lives.
Conclusion
That is what humility is and does and what its absence is and does. This is the virtue or way of being that Jesus calls us to embrace today.
