Humbling Yourself and Speaking the Truth
There is a bold theme running through the readings today. Without much subtlety or opaque metaphors, they plainly state one message: in order to be genuine and truthful, we must acknowledge our faults and failures. And having done that, we are then able to go out and spread the good news and truth to others in ways that are more impactful. We must essentially start by humbly becoming aware of our own imperfections and pride. As St. Vincent de Paul said, humility is nothing but the truth, and pride is nothing but lying.
Today’s first reading from Isaiah starts us off with this theme – “I am a man of unclean lips” – and reminds me of getting caught swearing around my parents as a child and then having my mouth washed out with soap. (That it didn’t involve all that much soap and was quite brief, however, didn’t negate the lesson. I am also especially glad that they didn’t use a tong-carried ember, as Isaiah references; if an angel didn’t want to touch that, then I sure don’t want to.) The point of this, though, is that understanding that we are flawed and have to struggle at bettering ourselves sets us up to receive God’s blessing and allows us to use our experience to help others.
In our second reading today, St. Paul gives us, in his usual, passionate way, a straightforward message of Jesus calling for followers to help him spread his message. Together with the first reading, Paul stresses that Jesus is looking for those who are humble enough to know they may not be the obvious person for the job. But he is giving them an opportunity to make themselves better and at the same time help others. This creates an empowering process, in which the teacher can both teach as well as learn.
This theme is repeated again in the gospel when Simon Peter humbly declares to the Lord to depart from his presence, for he is a sinful man. But because of Peter’s self-reflection and honest admittance, Jesus wants Peter to share these virtues with the rest of the world. It is much like the old saying in leadership that the right person for the job is the one who doesn’t want it. Steve Jobs once said that the right people to lead things are the ones who don’t even want to be leaders in the first place; but they become leaders because they are great contributors and just want to get things done. They are also bravely humble. Humility and self-knowledge are important to helping us become adaptive people who get things done. Those who have experienced failure know what will and won’t work.
All these readings reinforce the point that if you have a failing in your life that you want to change, then God will be there to assist you during the journey. And by bravely answering God’s call you might even be a role model to others who are where you once were. As Jesus said, “Do not be afraid.”
–Michael De Leonardis
Send Us Forth are reflections written by St. Matthew parishioners and friends