The world’s troubles and tragedies constitute a large portion of news media reporting as well as the public conversations of individuals.  There are wars, threats of war, injustice, violence, civil unrest at home and abroad, and all manner of potential problems to worry about.  The world is truly a mess, but it’s a mistake to dwell on that thought. 

Another favorite topic in the media and individuals’ conversations is private worries about oneself.  The media is full of recommendations about how to avoid or deal with personal problems.  Self-help books not only offer help but also the sort of amateur diagnosis that will make anyone believe they’re troubled – even if they’re not.  Often, I hear people talk about how difficult and burdensome their lives are.  It might be true that one’s life is a mess, but it’s a mistake to dwell on that thought. 

Obviously, it’s sensible to give appropriate attention to existing and potential problems, but it’s faithless to obsess about what one does not control.  Further, the remedy for one’s worries about the world and self is not found by seeking a happy medium between the two sets of worries.  The remedy for the tendency toward obsessive worry is the same as the remedy for all moral issues. 

Catholicism’s perspective on sin is derived directly from Hebrew religion’s perspective on sin.  In Hebrew religion, sins fall into one of two categories.  The names of the two categories of sin were borrowed from archery and adapted to Hebrew religious language during the period of time when the Israelites were a highly organized army.  An arrow can miss the target by falling short or by over-shooting; sin is, therefore, either a matter of under-achieving or over-reaching. 

In Catholicism, we say that sin can be sin of omission (falling short) or commission (over-reaching).  Again, the remedy for sins of omission and sins of commission is not the middle ground composed of a little of both.  The remedy for sin is humility of the sort that Jesus counsels in today’s Gospel reading. 

In Jesus’ culture, dinner parties were carefully choreographed events that served to maintain social order.  One invited one’s peers to a dinner party with the expectation that one’s guests would reciprocate with similar invitations.  One would never over-reach by inviting someone of higher social status nor would one fall short by inviting one’s social inferior.  Dining with one’s social equals strengthened those peer relationships and maintained one’s status. 

Apparently, the host of the dinner described in today’s Gospel reading had ulterior motives when he invited Jesus.  The Gospel says that the other guests “watched him suspiciously.” (Lk 14:1)  The host and guests at dinner were among those who found Jesus offensive and looked for a way to do him harm.  Their self-concern was visible in their behavior; they vied with one another for places of honor at the table. 

Seeing his fellow guests clamor for a high-status place at the table, Jesus addressed the issue of status.  His teaching about honor and status sounded like common-sense advice about not over-reaching, but his audience misunderstood him and judged him as falling short.  Jesus’ counsel to ‘seek a lower place’ and to invite those who could not repay the favor was instruction about the kingdom of God, that is, about the type of humility required to avoid sin, both social and personal. (Lk 14:10, 14)   As the host and diners judged Jesus to be a teacher of falsehoods, they judged his recommendations to be a formula for social failure.  Most people today similarly judge humility to be a recipe for failure or the act of a loser. 

In the Scriptures, humility is not the act of behaving like someone’s doormat; nor is it timidness.  Humility is the act of being honest about the limitations of life while remaining hopeful and faithful. 

In the first reading, Sirach the sage wrote, “What is too sublime for you, do not seek; do not reach into things that are hidden from you.” (Sir 3:21)  Again, like Jesus’ teaching, this is not advice to under-achieve by being a Luddite or an anti-intellectual; it is advice to embrace one’s limitations as well as one’s strengths. 

Jesus’ teaching and Sirach’s wisdom lead to a virtuous life because they avoid the two pitfalls of under-achieving and over-reaching, not by finding a middle ground but by maintaining hopefulness in the midst of limitation. 

One finds what one seeks from life. (Lk 11:9)  The dinner’s host and guests expected to find falsehood from the teacher whom they disliked and feared; they found what they sought.  Jesus’ instruction, however, was about how to find the kingdom of God.  His remedy for the worlds’ ills is not to strike a balance between worrying about one’s personal problems and worrying about the world’s public problems, but to focus single-heartedly on accomplishing God’s will. Those who seek God’s will rather than their own find the reward that only God can give.