Humility and heading home

hThe texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary suggest thoughts of heading home for people and individuals. Paul is convinced, as he addresses the Romans, that Israel will experience the fulfillment of the promises of the Covenant which seem to Paul, at the time, to be going to the Gentiles. His understanding is God is working through the rejection by Israel to bring those "not under the Law" into intimacy with the Divine. The Covenant that binds God and Israel as "people and God" will also be completed as the promises of God are irrevocable. This necessary steadfastness of God is praised by the psalmist who praises the discipline from God which ultimately leads to being held up and transcendently carried home by the intimacy with God. A discipline and practice which opens the path home is humility. The ego has difficulty in surrendering first place or rushing to place self at the head of the line. The ego sees God as competition and like the advice Jesus gives today in the Gospel from Luke, we should seek the lower place and "dismiss the loyal soldier", as Richard Rohr puts it, called ego, which has served our establishing of temporal security and comfort and humbly enter the wedding feast which celebrates our coming home to our most intimate relationship with God.