Humility and freedom: Building blocks for helping the poor
August 31, 2025 – Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Psalm 68, R. God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.; Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a; Gospel – Luke 145: 1, 7-14
Let us reflect on this Sunday’s Gospel from a slightly different perspective. The Gospel has humility as one of its themes: our first point for reflection. From humility, we will look at the grace of freedom that comes from humility. Then, we will end with the prescription of Jesus to invite the poor and others who have no ability to repay us.
Lessons on humility
A very practical prescription on how to remain humble came from St. Ignatius of Loyola. In our early years of formation as Jesuit novices, our novice masters often told us how St. Ignatius emphasized that Jesuits must not aspire for and accept worldly honors or titles.
Perhaps the only exception to this prescription is the special vow of obedience to the Pope in matters of mission. For example, the Pope can appoint Jesuits as bishops invoking this vow.
St. Ignatius was brilliant when it came to understanding human nature. He knew the dangers of the ego and thus protected the ego from the temptations of world honors and titles, very similar to what the parable tells us.
I often share with people that the greatest temptation for all—and perhaps for priests in a special way—is to inflate our egos through admiration and praise, to often be on center stage under the spotlight. It can become addictive before we catch ourselves. A brilliant insight from a man who was so passionate and so vain, St. Ignatius knew the pitfalls of the ego.
Humility, according to St. Theresa of Avila, is accepting who we are. Humility is truth and thus, the grace of awareness and acceptance of who we are means to know and accept who we are.
Letting go of our ego
Humility neutralizes our ego. It keeps us grounded and it allows us to be more detached—not to take ourselves too seriously, even—which leads to freedom. The freedom that comes from this allows us to do things well and generously. Our one desire is to do things the best way we can, with love and compassion, and a greatness of soul that is life-giving to others.
I often associate this humility-bearing-fruit-in-freedom to be in the prayer moments of the Lord. I am convinced that the core of Jesus’ prayer was asking his Father if he was living out his mission in the way the Father wanted him to.
We saw this in the Agony in the Garden when Jesus, filled with fear and anxiety, almost gave up. From the brink of despair, he showed us the epitome of humility and freedom.
“Not my will, but your will be done.” (cf. Luke 22: 42) The humility and freedom to surrender and dedicate one’s life to a mission—totus ad laborem—means giving it all to the work that God is asking of you.
What it means to help the poor
In his final exhortation in today’s Gospel—inviting the poor and those who have nothing to repay you with—the Lord reminded us of one of his central messages: “bring glad tidings to the poor.” (cf. Luke 4: 18)
I invite you to a radical reorientation in reflecting on this last point. To bring glad tidings to the poor is not to bring them ayuda or do charity work for them. It means opening up opportunities for them to make their and their loved ones’ lives better.
Several weeks ago, I attended an online meeting organized by Cardinal David for us to look at Naturapolis. It’s a concept of an integral ecological community that looks at persons—not at beneficiaries, but as partners.
Yes, this is a common pitfall in development work, the ayuda perspective which, sad to say, was heightened by the post-Yolanda rebuilding and the pandemic. Given the billions of pesos that development aid poured into the Yolanda affected areas, it created the “sin” of ayuda, which morphed into all sorts of corrupt practices through the years.
Today’s Gospel is an invitation to all of us to radically reorient our lives with the graces of humility and freedom to offer our all to God’s plan. It is the humility and freedom to see the other as a partner in solidarity and fraternity.
