Luke 9: Against Pride

Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception! Today we read the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 9 which teaches us against pride. This chapter shows us again and again, that we will never know everything about anything in this life. There is always more angles, ways to look at something, or details to learn. I think that is true with today’s feast as well.

The Immaculate Conception

While the sinless conception of Mary within St. Anne was always true, it needed more understanding over time until 1854 when Pope Pius IX declared her Immaculate Conception as doctrine. This is not what Luke Chapter 9 is about, but it conveniently displays our point with today’s reflection, that even truths that we know can develop with more understanding over time.

The thread through each of the stories in Chapter 9 of Luke is humbling when anybody starts to get a little too prideful. Any time someone thinks they are smart or great, they get corrected.

Take Nothing With You

We start with the mission of the twelve. As they are called, they are told to “Take nothing”. Once again we are seeing Jesus’ desire to see faith and trust from those who follow him.

Feeding the Five Thousand

When a crowd of 5,000 doesn’t have enough food, the apostles are put to the test.

“the Twelve came and said to him, ‘Send the crowd away… to lodge and get provisions.”

Luke 9:12

Thinking that they have a plan, the apostles come to Jesus with their concern and even propose a solution, but Jesus replies, “You give them something to eat.” They still question Him saying there won’t be enough. Yet, when they finally trust they see that Jesus provides what is needed plus an abundance.

Taking Up One’s Cross

We see this contradiction on repeat since the beatitudes. It is normal to think this way for some Christians, but in Jesus’ time, this had to be revolutionary.

“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for m sake, he will save it.”

Luke 9 23-24

Everything is backwards in this world. Before Jesus, who was saying that we should purposefully allow ourselves to be humbled to the point of death in order to achieve the greatest outcome?

He goes on to say that we cannot be ashamed of Him or his Word, or we risk the Son of Man being ashamed of us at our death. This is a serious charge not to let our pride on earth steal our joy in heaven.

Transfiguration

Here, Peter sincerely has the idea to stay in booths or tents when he witnesses Jesus with Moses and Elijah. Peter was blessed to witness an amazing foretaste of Heaven, but as he tried to cling to it, he was shown that it was not yet time for that.

Elijah and Moses disappeared as he spoke, and Peter was humbled.

Pride in Failed Healings, Comptition and Greatness

Coming down from the mountain we hear of a boy with a demon that the disciples could not cast out. Jesus makes a bold assertion saying, “O faithless and perverse generation” (Lk 9:41). I would not want to hear what he has to say if I were in that moment trying to heal the boy.

Even with that apparent failure, the apostles need to be taught more lessons against pride as they argue about who is the greatest among them (46). Again, I get it. It shows the humanity of these men chosen to lead our Church. But it is funny how the Gospel passages being put this way with back to back humbling really serve to teach us by example. Like us, the apostles need constant reminders because in the very next passage, they are forbiding another man from healing people in Jesus’ Name. And once again, Jesus corrects them saying “Do not forbid him; for he that is not against you is for you.”

Finally, verse 55 just says “But he turned and rebuked them.” after they wanted to call down fire in revenge in Samaria.

We Have More to Understand

To end the chapter we hear of two kinds of men. The first man wants to follow Jesus, but is told to stay. To the other, Jesus invites to follow him, but they come up with reasons to stay. I don’t know what came of these “would-be followers’ of Jesus, but it does show that we don’t know it all.

That is one thing we can be certain of.

Always Willing to Learn More

From an issue as complex as why I can’t get all of my kids to sleep through the night, to something as simple as 2 + 2 = 4, there is always more to learn. It sounds silly, but little misunderstandings and rounding errors can have huge consequences. What appears to be 2 + 2 might actually be 1.5 + 1.5 giving a completely different answer.

We can always learn more about any subject by looking at a different angle or spending time on it. It’s not healthy to think we know everything about anything. That’s pride.

Anyway, this is an odd way to say, we should be on the lookout against pride in our lives. It is easy for me to assume I know all about something or someone, just to get humbled or embarassed when proven wrong. It would be better for me to humble myself first, to be hopefully lifted in the life to come.

Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and thanks for reading along with Formed by a Flame!