There is something wonderfully comic about the human desire to find the best seat.
We do it at dinner tables, in meeting rooms, on airplanes, in theaters, and sometimes in life itself. We calculate where we belong. We notice who has been placed nearer the center. We wonder whether anyone has noticed us.
Christ proposes a startlingly simple cure: take the lowest place.
Not because you are worthless. Christianity does not teach that.
Take it because you do not need the chair to tell you who you are.
And because, from the lowest place, there is still an astonishing amount of the world to see.
OPENING VERSE
Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
INVITATORY
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, for he made us.
Psalm 94 (95)
Come let us praise the Lord with joy: let us joyfully sing to God our saviour.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God, and a great king above all gods.
For in his hand are all the ends of the earth: and the heights of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
Come let us adore and fall down: and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, for he made us.
PSALMODY
Psalm 91 (92)
Antiphon: In the morning we proclaim thy mercy, O Lord, and thy faithfulness through the night.
It is good to give praise to the Lord: and to sing to thy name, O most High.
To shew forth thy mercy in the morning, and thy truth in the night:
Upon an instrument of ten strings, upon the psaltery: with a canticle upon the harp.
For thou hast given me, O Lord, a delight in thy doings: and in the works of thy hands I shall rejoice.
O Lord, how great are thy works! thy thoughts are exceeding deep.
The senseless man shall not know: nor will the fool understand these things.
When the wicked shall spring up as grass: and all the workers of iniquity shall appear:
That they may perish for ever and ever: but thou, O Lord, art most high for evermore.
For behold thy enemies, O Lord, for behold thy enemies shall perish: and all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
But my horn shall be exalted like that of the unicorn: and my old age in plentiful mercy.
My eye also hath looked down upon my enemies: and my ear shall hear of the downfall of the malignant that rise up against me.
The just shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow up like the cedar of Libanus.
They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of the house of our God.
They shall still increase in a fruitful old age: and shall be well treated,
That they may shew that the Lord our God is righteous, and there is no iniquity in him.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: In the morning we proclaim thy mercy, O Lord, and thy faithfulness through the night.
Canticle — Deuteronomy 32:1–12
Antiphon: Give ye glory to our God; his works are perfect and all his ways are judgments.
Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth.
Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distil as the dew, as a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass.
Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God.
The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments: God is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right.
They have sinned against him, and are none of his children in their filth: they are a wicked and perverse generation.
Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is not he thy father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?
Remember the days of old, think upon every generation: ask thy father, and he will declare to thee: thy elders and they will tell thee.
When the Most High divided the nations: when he separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the bounds of people according to the number of the children of Israel.
But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob the lot of his inheritance.
He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror, and of vast wilderness: he led him about, and taught him: and he kept him as the apple of his eye.
As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings, and hath taken him and carried him on his shoulders.
The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with him.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Give ye glory to our God; his works are perfect and all his ways are judgments.
Psalm 8
Antiphon: O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth.
O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth!
For thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies, that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger.
For I will behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers: the moon and the stars which thou hast founded.
What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him?
Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour:
And hast set him over the works of thy hands.
Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen: moreover the beasts also of the fields.
The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea.
O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in all the earth!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth.
SHORT READING
Romans 12:14–16
Bless them that persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep:
Being of one mind one towards another: not high-minded: but condescending to the humble.
SHORT RESPONSORY
It is our joy, O God, to praise thee with song.
It is our joy, O God, to praise thee with song.
To proclaim thy mercy in the morning.
To praise thee with song.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
It is our joy, O God, to praise thee with song.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
Luke 14:1, 7–11
And it came to pass, when Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees, on the sabbath day, to eat bread, that they watched him.
And he spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them:
When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the first place, lest perhaps one more honourable than thou be invited by him:
And he that invited thee and him, come and say to thee: Give this man place. And then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place.
But when thou art invited, go, sit down in the lowest place; that when he who invited thee cometh, he may say to thee: Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have glory before them that sit at table with thee.
Because every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.
BENEDICTUS
Antiphon: He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Canticle of Zachary — Luke 1:68–79
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers, and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father, that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him, all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: to direct our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
INTERCESSIONS
Christ our Lord chose the place of the servant and calls us to follow him. Let us pray:
Lord, teach us the freedom of humility.
For thy Church: keep her faithful to Christ, who came not to be served but to serve, and make her a home for the poor, the forgotten, and those who have no place of honor.
Lord, teach us the freedom of humility.
For bishops, priests, deacons, religious, and all who bear responsibility in the Church: preserve them from the temptation to confuse prominence with holiness.
Lord, teach us the freedom of humility.
For those who govern nations and communities: give them wisdom to remember that authority is entrusted for service and not for self-exaltation.
Lord, teach us the freedom of humility.
For our work today: keep us from jealousy, vanity, resentment, and the hunger for recognition. Let us do well the work placed before us, whether anyone notices it or not.
Lord, teach us the freedom of humility.
For our homes and families: teach us to listen before speaking, to forgive before keeping score, and to love without demanding the best seat.
Lord, teach us the freedom of humility.
For those who feel invisible, overlooked, unwanted, or forgotten: remind them that no human seating chart measures their worth before God.
Lord, teach us the freedom of humility.
For the sick, the lonely, the frightened, and all who carry genuine suffering this morning: draw near to them and give them companions who will remain beside them.
Lord, teach us the freedom of humility.
For the faithful departed: welcome them to the heavenly banquet, where every earthly rivalry has vanished and Christ is all in all.
Lord, teach us the freedom of humility.
And for ourselves: free us from the exhausting work of proving our importance. Give us the grace to take the place thou givest us and receive everything else as gift.
Lord, teach us the freedom of humility.
OUR FATHER
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil. Amen.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Almighty and eternal God, from whom every good thing comes, deliver us from the restless desire to exalt ourselves. Give us the humility to receive our place with gratitude, the charity to rejoice when others are honored, and the freedom to serve without seeking reward.
Make us attentive to the small duties and hidden opportunities of this day, that in following Christ in humility we may one day hear his gracious invitation: Friend, go up higher.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
BLESSING
May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
THE PARADOX OF THE DAY
The man who must have the highest place becomes a prisoner of the room; the man willing to take the lowest place is free to enjoy the banquet.
CHESTERTON FOR THE MORNING
“For the chief pleasure is surprise.”
— G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, “The Ethics of Elfland”
Chesterton goes further: the man who would make his world large, he says, must learn to make himself small.
That is almost a perfect commentary on today’s Gospel.
A CHESTERTONIAN MEDITATION
There is a peculiar moment at almost every gathering when perfectly respectable adults become amateur cartographers.
They enter a room and immediately begin mapping it.
Where is the important table? Who is sitting beside whom? Is that chair reserved? Should I sit here? Would it seem presumptuous to sit there? Is the seat near the host a mark of distinction, or merely dangerously close to the kitchen door?
A dining room can become a tiny kingdom in approximately thirty seconds.
Jesus apparently noticed the same thing.
At the Pharisee’s house, he watches the guests selecting their places. We might expect him to ignore such a trivial social maneuver. There are empires to overthrow, souls to save, sins to forgive and death itself to conquer.
Instead, the Son of God watches people choosing chairs.
This should tell us something about Christianity.
God is interested in the chair.
He is interested because the smallest ordinary action can reveal an enormous spiritual fact. A man reaching casually for the best seat may be revealing what he believes about himself, about his neighbor and perhaps even about God.
The Gospel is not chiefly a lesson in etiquette. Christ is not inventing a clever strategy for eventually obtaining a better seat. Humility that takes the lowest place merely so someone will publicly promote it is pride wearing a disguise.
Christ is describing freedom.
The proud man enters a room and immediately needs something from it.
He needs confirmation.
He needs the right chair, the right introduction, the right title, the right acknowledgment. He must know where he stands because his happiness depends upon standing sufficiently high.
This is an exhausting way to live.
The humble man has an extraordinary advantage.
He can sit down.
Chesterton understood that humility is not the gloomy conviction that we are worthless. It is the joyous discovery that the universe does not depend upon our importance.
That is why humility enlarges the world.
A proud man looking at a mountain asks whether he can conquer it.
A humble man can simply be astonished that there is a mountain.
A proud man encountering a brilliant person begins calculating the comparison.
A humble man has the luxury of admiration.
A proud man receiving a gift wonders whether it is sufficient.
A humble man is amazed that there is a gift at all.
And Chesterton says that the chief pleasure is surprise.
We lose surprise when we believe the world owes us something.
A sunrise ceases to astonish us because, after all, the sun rose yesterday.
Breakfast ceases to astonish us because there was breakfast yesterday.
Our wife or husband, our children, our friends, our work, the tree outside the window, the coffee in the cup and the fact that our lungs have continued operating through the night all gradually move from the category of miracle into the category of entitlement.
We begin demanding the best seat at the banquet because we have forgotten the astonishing fact that we were invited.
Psalm 8 asks the question that restores the proper proportions:
“What is man that thou art mindful of him?”
Look at the heavens.
Look at the moon and stars.
Then look at yourself.
The astonishing Christian answer is not that man is insignificant.
It is precisely the opposite.
God has crowned man “with glory and honour.”
Here is the paradox.
We become capable of understanding our dignity only after surrendering our demand for importance.
Christian humility does not say, “I am nothing.”
It says, “I am something so astonishing that I could never have invented it for myself.”
We did not manufacture our existence. We did not negotiate the terms of our creation. We did not earn the morning.
We woke up and found it waiting.
That changes the seating arrangement.
Today is October 31. Much of the world around us will spend the evening playing cheerfully with darkness: costumes, skeletons, ghosts, graveyards and things that go bump in the night. There is something rather human about laughing at monsters.
But tomorrow the Church turns our eyes toward something far stranger than ghosts.
Saints.
Men and women who discovered that losing themselves in Christ did not make them less themselves. It made them more.
They stopped fighting for the highest chair.
And somehow they became the great figures of the Christian imagination.
Francis gives away his possessions.
Thérèse chooses little things.
Joseph barely speaks in the Gospels.
Mary calls herself the handmaid of the Lord.
And Christ himself kneels before his disciples and washes their feet.
The Christian story contains a remarkable number of people moving downward.
And somehow everything keeps rising.
Perhaps this morning there is some room in which we are still trying to secure our position.
At work, we want recognition.
At home, we want to win the argument.
Among friends, we want our story heard.
Online, we want the reaction.
Even in good works we sometimes want someone to notice that we were the one doing them.
Christ offers a wonderfully practical experiment.
Take the lower place.
Let someone else tell the story.
Give someone else the credit.
Ask a question instead of giving an opinion.
Perform some useful task that nobody is likely to notice.
Allow another person to be impressive without immediately producing evidence that you are impressive too.
Then observe what happens.
The universe does not collapse.
In fact, it gets larger.
Other people become interesting again.
Ordinary things recover their color.
Gratitude becomes possible because gratitude begins where entitlement ends.
And perhaps we discover that God has been saying something to us all along.
Friend, go up higher.
Not necessarily higher in the world’s estimation.
Not necessarily to the head table.
Higher into freedom.
Higher into wonder.
Higher into the strange kingdom where the first are last, servants are kings, children understand what scholars miss, and a condemned man upon a cross conquers death.
The world spends enormous energy deciding who deserves the best seat.
Christ simply invites us to the banquet.
Perhaps that is enough astonishment for one morning.
CLOSING
Today, take one place lower than the place you think you deserve.
Then look around.
You may discover that the view is better from there.
Christ, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine.
Chesterton Radio