Humble Pride

A Reflection on the First Reading for October 27th, 2019:
​Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sirach 35.15-17, 20-22

The Lord is the judge, and with him there is no partiality. He will not show partiality to the poor but he will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged. The Lord will not ignore the supplication of the orphan, or the widow when she pours out her complaint.

The person whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted, and their prayer will reach to the clouds.

The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and it will not rest until it reaches its goal; it will not desist until the Most High responds and does justice for the righteous, and executes judgment. Indeed, the Lord will not delay.

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I know that temptation. The temptation to get ahead. We’re trained that when we show up at our high school reunion, we are in the same popularity and success contest we were in when we walked across our graduation stage. I remember my 10 year high school reunion and the impending fear that I would have nothing to tell them. I knew many of my peers had gone on to already successful careers and education. They already had all the trappings of success – good salary, big house, nice cars, etc. Meanwhile, I was 10 years out and was a stay-at-home Mom pregnant with my 5th child. It turned out I couldn’t go to the reunion anyway because I was far too pregnant (I gave birth a few days later), but I remember the anxiety of having what I felt was my own lack of worldly success rubbed in my face. High school all over again. I was ridiculously proud of what I was building, but I doubted my former peers would see it that way. My oldest child was about to turn 4 when his baby sister was born. Five kids under 4 would be impressive at the reunion, but not for the same reason I’d wanted. I would be a joke.


Life with 5 kids (even with one still in utero) was not exactly glamourous. Even if I wasn’t naturally very humble, the day to day reality of motherhood had a way of providing plenty of opportunities for humility. But my life-induced humility wasn’t always something I was grateful for, as the story above shows. We can live a very humble life and still be too proud to share it with others out of fear of being shamed by others.

"We can live a very humble life and still be too proud to share it with others out of fear of being shamed by others."

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This reading is a good reminder that we are called to humility – humility is holy. However, when we are given opportunities for humility, we can poison it by being ashamed of being humble. The temptation to conceal the facts of our situation are almost as strong as the temptation to brag about how holy we are. In either case, we can approach our circumstances with great pride in how we do or don’t share them.


Social media in many ways has become a constant high school reunion. We are “friends” with all sorts of people for reasons that aren’t always clear. And then the temptation is to only show a very curated version of our lives. I have to fight every day against the urge to overshare and brag about how humble I am (ha) or only show the most filtered, shiny, perfect version of things. The call to find the sweet spot of accepting how I am being humbled and actually growing in humility is all about listening to the Lord and discerning what He’s showing me.


Stephanie Potter

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