November 23
Desiring the first place
hoever you may
be who still desire the first place here—go and sit in the last place.
Do not be lifted up by pride, inflated by knowledge, elated by nobility,
but the greater you are the more you must humble yourself in every way,
and you will find grace with God. In his own time he will say to you: Friend,
go up higher, and then you will be honored by all who sit at table
with you. Moses sat in the last place whenever he had the choice. When
the Lord, wishing to send him to the Israelites, invited him to take a
higher place, his answer was: I beg you, Lord, send someone else. I
am not a good speaker. It was the same as saying: "I am not worthy
of so great an office." Saul, too, was of small account in his own
eyes when the Lord made him king. And Jeremiah, similarly, was afraid of
rising to the first place: Ah, Lord God, he said, look, I cannot
speak—I am only a child.
In the Church, then, the first seat, or the highest place, is to be
sought not by ambition but by humility; not by money but by holiness.
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from
Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
HTML text prepared by David P. Steelman
