On Humility - Wedding Banquet, Japanese Tea Ceremony, the Kingdom of God, reflection of the 22nd Sunday Gospel Reading Year C

In the Gospel reading for the 22^nd Sunday of Year C (Luke 14:1, 7-14), Jesus offers a caveat on how we are to be at a banquet as a guest. 

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor.
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
‘Give your place to this man,’
and then you would proceed with embarrassment
to take the lowest place.
Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
For every one who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:8-11).

It is obvious that Jesus wants to tell us the importance of humility – the spirit of yielding for another person. 

What comes to my mind in response to these words of Jesus on humility is Fr. Pedro Arrupe S.J.’s “Men for Others” speech, delivered on the solemn feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, 1973 in Valencia, Spain. The speech was on Jesuit education, addressed to the 10^th International Congress of Jesuit Alumni of Europe.

In this speech, then-superior-general of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Arrupe, said:

Men-and-women-for-others:  the paramount objective of Jesuit education – basic, advance, and continuing – must now be to form such men and women.  ………  Only by being a man-or-woman-for-others does one become fully human, not only in the merely natural sense, but in the sense of being the “spiritual” person of Saint Paul.  The person filled with the Spirit; and we know whose Spirit that is:  the Spirit of Christ, who gave his life for the salvation of the world; the God who, by becoming a human person, became, beyond all others, a Man-for-others, a Woman-for-others.

So, if you consider yourself as a person for others, as what the Jesuit education strives for, then, the above words of Jesus on humility are rather natural to you.  But, if your ego is out-of-proportion, if your pride is too strong and rather self-centered, if you have too much attachment to yourself and your own possessions, you may find it uneasy to embody these words of Jesus on humility, because such a fat ego often prompts you to seek things to please yourself first and above all. If this is the case to you, then, you are likely to find the best seat for yourself. 

Another image invoked with the above words of Jesus is a Japanese tea ceremony. This is particularly so, in conjunction with these words of Jesus from the 21^st Sunday Gospel reading:

Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough (Luke 13:24). 

Through these words in Luke 13:24, Jesus tells us that we must enter into the Kingdom of God through the narrow gate of heaven, upon our hard work of faith, making turning grace of God we receive into “constructed grace” offered up to God.  And, through his words in Luke 14:8-11, Jesus speaks of a wedding banquet and how we are to behave. 

It is not just a banquet but a wedding banquet that Jesus is speaking of.  Now it is important that a wedding banquet in the Bible is not just a wedding banquet but can be a metaphor for heaven, the Kingdom of God, as Matthew 22:1-14 illustrates.  Furthermore, Revelation 19:5-10 describes the heavenly wedding banquet, upon the judgement.  Only those who have been faithful and made it through the narrow gate of heaven are present at this truly joyful wedding. 

So, why a Japanese tea ceremony has something to do with humility required for the wedding banquet in Luke 14:8-11?

Judging from the significance of a wedding banquet  in the Bible – significant enough for Jesus to use for his parable (Matthew 22:1-14) on the Kingdom and to make an eschatological prophecy (Revelation 19:5-10), it is to give us a foretaste of heaven. 

A Japanese tea ceremony, on the other hand, is to experience what it is like to enter into the state of satori, according to the Japanese Zen Buddhism tradition. Satori is the state of the kind of awakening, though it is not sufficient to reach the Buddhahood.  As satori is synonym to kensho, which literally means being able to see (comprehend) what is true and essential, it is the state preceding to the Buddhahood, beginning to see Dharma.   

One understanding in satori is realization that everything is impermanent. And, this realization is not just intellectual kind but rather holistic, including somatic awareness.  

In satori, we come to understand that our true self, atman, is ego-less being, anatta, or muga, as called in the Japanese Buddhism. It means that satori cannot be attained unless you humble yourself. 

The importance of humility is not just found in the Zen spirituality of Japanese tea ceremony but the forms and physicality in team ceremony, as well. 

For example, just as we can enter into the Kingdom only through the narrow gate, you can make your into a tea house only through a narrow entrance, called nijiriguchi or nijiri. The word nijiri means sitting down and moving with your legs folded, while guchi indicates an entrance. So, nijiriguchi, the only entrance into a Japanese tea house, means the entrance that demands you to sit on your folded legs and move yourself to enter. Symbolically, it is about making yourself low, humble, regardless what your social status is, to enter into a Japanese tea house. In other words, nijiriguchi signifies humility. 

There, the virtue of humility is required from the very beginning of a Japanese ceremony. And, an image of nijiriguchi parallels the narrow gate of heaven in Luke 13:24, if the Kingdom of God  can be addressed with a metaphor of a Japanese tea house. Just imagine if Jesus happened to be preaching the Gospel in Japan, instead of Galilee…..if Jesus were well-versed with Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, in particular, like Fr. William Johnston SJ of Sophia University, and practicing tea ceremony, like a Catholic samurai lord, Ukon Justo Takayama, who were expelled to the Philippines…I can imagine Jesus could have preached like this:

Strive to enter through the nijiriguchi, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough to bend their knees and move forward with their legs folded….  

I compare the wedding banquet that Jesus talks about in Luke 14:8-11 to a Japanese tea ceremony, what only those who have made it through a small nijiriguchi can experience.   It is because a wedding banquet can be a foretaste for the heavenly banquet in a biblical sense, while a Japanese tea ceremony can be a simulating experience of satori, an absolutely necessary condition for Buddhahood in Zen Buddhism.  And, what is common to these is humility, which Jesus emphasizes in the 22^nd Sunday Gospel narrative. 

In the Gospel story, in particular, Luke 14:8-11, Jesus advises how we should find our seats at a wedding banquet.  He is telling us not to be like those people who rush to grab bargain items on Black Friday morning, trying to find the best seats for ourselves.  Such behaviors are nothing but manifestation of selfishness. Rather, Jesus reminds us that we should always mind for others and let others find better seats for themselves.  Jesus prefers us to be like a person, who let others stand in line for buffet dinner, yielding for others, not minding being the last person. 

This teaching of Jesus does not seem to bode well with our instinct. But, our faith teaches that we cannot attain salvation if we live only with instinct, as we cannot attain salvation if we keep our undisciplined ego.  That is why our faith enables us to appreciate these words of Jesus: 

"And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last” (Luke 13:30).

Also at a Japanese tea ceremony, it is considered to be a desired virtue not to take up the place of the guest of honor, even though you are actually so.  It is rather better not to sit in the position of the guest of honor by yourself to demonstrate the humility and politeness, which are highly valued in Japanese culture. In fact, this aspect of Japanese culture must be influenced by Mencius’ teaching on the virtue of modesty, which corresponds to the virtue of temperance, one of the Cardinal Virtues in Catholicism. In his dialogue with Gongsun Chou, Mencius teaches the importance for a monarch to practice the virtue of modesty and humility, not to seek honor for himself but to truly care for the people in his kingdom (Gongsun Chou/公孫丑章句,I-3).  This teaching of Mencius on modesty and humility really goes along with the Japanese tea ceremony’s tradition for the guest of honor not to grab his or her place for the guest of honor by himself or herself.  Needless to say, in essence, this is the kind of virtue Jesus wants us to practice, as discerned through his words in Luke 14:8-11. 

Psychologically, if your ego is well-disciplined to a point of muga or anatta,  the virtue of humility and the virtue of modesty, as well as the virtue of temperance,  go hand-in-hand.  

With such a humble self, then, we are not worried if the seats we want will be taken by others or not. We  won’t even be concerned if someone else would sit in the seats we are invited to sit – even we happened to be guests of honor at wedding banquets.  We know it is not our own minds to decide where to sit but it is either the host or others, telling us where to sit at banquets – just as God decide what is best for us. 

That is why those who are humble will be rewarded by God first at the end, at the heavenly wedding banquet (Revelation 19: 5-10), for sure. That is why it is totally fine to be the last person to receive something because we know we will be first to receive something much greater in heaven. 

Though it may seem like a bit of far-stretch application of the Gospel narrative, but the 22^nd Sunday Gospel story on humility really goes along with the very first teaching on beatitude: 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

“Poor in spirit” can mean being humble, as St. John Chrysostom preached in his homily (15) and St. Leo the Great preached in his sermon (95) on beatitude.

St. Chrysostom explained a connection between “poor-in-spirit” and humility in detail in a way to better appreciate Jesus’ teaching on humility in Luke 14:7-14:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”

What is meant by “the poor in spirit?” The humble and contrite in mind. For by “spirit” He hath here designated the soul, and the faculty of choice. That is, since many are humble not willingly, but compelled by stress of circumstances; letting these pass (for this were no matter of praise), He blesses them first, who by choice humble and contract themselves. 

But why said he not, “the humble,” but rather “the poor?” Because this is more than that. For He means here them who are awestruck, and tremble at the commandments of God. Whom also by His prophet Isaiah God earnestly accepting said, “To whom will I look, but to him who is meek and quiet, and trembleth at My words?” For indeed there are many kinds of humility: one is humble in his own measure, another with all excess of lowliness. It is this last lowliness of mind which that blessed prophet commends, picturing to us the temper that is not merely subdued, but utterly broken, when he saith, “The sacrifice for God is a contrite spirit, a contrite and a humble heart God will not despise.” And the Three Children also offer this unto God as a great sacrifice, saying, “Nevertheless, in a contrite soul, and in a spirit of lowliness, may we be accepted.” This Christ also now blesses.  (Homily 15) 

St. Chrysostom tells that the kind of humility we need for our salvation is the kind of humility with lowliness, not to make us feel good about ourselves. That’s what the “poor in spirit” is about.  And, that is what we need as we continue to strive to enter into the Kingdom of God, which can be like what is transcended from the state of satori simulated in a Japanese tea ceremony. And, the only way into this is the narrow gate, as tiny as the nijiriguchi of a Japanese tea house, symbolizing humility of lowliness. It also means to our continuing efforts toward muga or anatta, as big ego, pride, attachment and so forth, make us "too fat" to enter through the nijiriguchi of heaven, as we are truly for each other in the Kingdom of God, as illustrated in the aforementioned  Fr. Arrupe's speech.