Removing the clutter

I was marking assignments on the significance of the Last Supper; one of my students focussed on the humility of Jesus. He highlighted the fact that Jesus, on his last evening with the Apostles, chose to wash their feet. This, of course, was taken from St. John’s Gospel. The students were also asked to carefully examine St. Luke. The fact this student was struck by the humility of Jesus in spite of other fundamental elements of the Last Supper made me reflect on the radical humility in the life of Our Saviour.
 
I emphasise “humility” as a fundamental quality manifesting the person of Jesus because humility extends to the last acts of His human life in continuity with the events surrounding Jesus’s birth. In the 2nd Sunday of Advent we hear Isaiah proclaiming, “Prepare the way for the Lord,” words identified with St. John the Baptist (Mark 1:3; Isaiah 40:3). But who is this John the Baptist? He is considered a prophet by his contemporaries and his disciples. He lived the radical life of an ascetic anticipating the coming of the Messiah. Detached from the world, John the Baptist prepared himself and others for Jesus: repentance, cleansing, and detachment. Repentance of sins acknowledges that one is a sinner -- we actually do have sins to be forgiven! This prepares us for Jesus, as John the Baptist had done. Forgiveness also means the mind and heart are cleansed of clutter. Interior purification leads to making daily changes. John lived off locusts and honey! An aesthetic diet for someone dwelling in the desert. John the Baptist’s life and language reflected a humble preparation for “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.”
 
I have always been astonished and overjoyed visiting poor countries the openness to prayer, the dependence on God, the value attached to the Sacraments. “Why, I ask myself?” Because their hands are not full with their possessions. They have room to pray, to hope, to ask, and to be thankful. With material well-being we become “cluttered” and self-sufficient. We no longer “need” God. It requires “humility” to say, “I need you.” “I need you, Lord, without you I cannot move forward.” It requires humility to say “someone is greater than I.”
 
In God’s plan to save us He showed that humility is the route of salvation. The Son of God is prepared for a stable. Divine Kingship is not shown in human terms of power, wealth, and fame to impress us with superficial “crowns.” Ugliness of pride is what separated the first man and woman from God (Genesis 3), and so it will be radical humility that will reconcile man with God. Humility is our path to salvation following Christ. 

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