Fresh or frozen?

Bishop Scott Bullock
The Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 31, 2025

The story is told of a man who received a promotion to the position of Vice President of the company he worked for and the promotion went to his head, and for weeks on end he bragged to anyone and everyone that he was now the vice president. His bragging came to an abrupt halt when his wife, embarrassed by his behavior, said, “Listen Bob, it’s not that big a deal. These days everyone’s a vice president. Why, they even have a vice president of corn down at the supermarket!”

Somewhat deflated, and skeptical, Bob rang the local supermarket to find out if this was true. “Can I speak to the Vice President of Corn please?” to which the reply came back “fresh corn or frozen corn?” Sorry.

He was humbled — which is always a good thing, at least the Scriptures and Jesus himself. Very counter intuitive to life, isn’t it, that we ought to want to be humbled. 

This first reading says, “My friend, conduct your affairs with humility.” And then Jesus amplifies this teaching when he says, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”  

But notice an important distinction between being humbled and humbling oneself. Jesus’ command is that we humble ourselves before our God and the needs of others. 

So, what is this humility that’s so much a part of the Christian life and how do we do it? Jesus teaches us clearly: It is a choice we make, to reject striving at the highest place, and instead choose the lower place for the sake of others. He takes as an example being invited to a banquet, an apparently sumptuous and prestigious affair, where folks are competing for the best seats, presumably nearest the host. So, imagine the scene, the jockeying for seats, and we don’t have to imagine too hard! “Why does Joe get to sit near the host? Why do I get stuck way back here?” All the while, grumbling and grasping for a higher place, the guests can’t enjoy the banquet. By opting out of the competition, ceding the higher place to someone else and seeking the lower place, Jesus suggests one has a new vantage point, free from grumbling to see and truly enjoy the banquet which is our lives. 

In honesty, we know that such grasping for a higher position happens all around our lives. “Why does Mary get to spend time with that friend other thanme? Why did Frank get the promotion? Who is he to cut in front of me in traffic? Why does she get a better house than mine?” All the while, we’re missing the deeper truth: thank God I have a job. Thank you God I have a car, and I can travel. Thank God I even have some place to live. When we don’t choose the way of humility, instead are looking for something more, something else, we are perpetually, frustratingly unhappy. And in our dissatisfaction, we can’t see the blessings that are all around us.

Want to follow Jesus’ path of humility to the deepest joy in life? Prayer is the perfect and ultimate training ground for humility. So might I suggest that if you are not praying, you’re not being humble? For prayer is where we remember, by its very nature, that we are not the Lord of our lives by praying and humbling ourselves before the one who is truly the Lord. It’s in prayer where we discover the true source of our satisfaction and joy — not ourselves, but instead the one who created us, our God. So, prayer is where we learn true Christian humility, where we remember that we do have dignity as God’s beloved child. It’s there we discover that we’re more than some vice president — we’re a VIP, a very important person before God, who has created us, meets us and cares for us at each moment.

Maybe there is some dignity in being a vice president, even of corn (whether frozen or fresh), but this status is so fleeting that it leaves us ultimately longing for more. By humbling ourselves to the needs of others, behold, that person becomes more important and so do we. Our true dignity comes not from being the Lord of our lives, but rather by taking the second place, the lower place, and serving.

We’ve all tried, over and over again, to clutch at life in an effort to satisfy and serve ourselves and over and over again, we’ve come up wanting, haven’t we? Isn’t it time to try a different path, Jesus says. The path of humility? 

Let’s take Jesus at his word and let’s humble ourselves before the needs of others. And, above all, let’s humble ourselves before the Lord and let’s receive in faith the richness for which we all long. The rich fare that only God can give, received above all in the Eucharist we are about to share. In all our searching, that’s what we’re truly longing for anyway, isn’t it? We’re longing for God. So, let’s try new acts of humility today and find a full life of being provided for by a most generous God.