So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:7–14)
For when, He says, a more honorable man than you comes, he that invited you and him will say, “Give this man a place.” O! what great ignominy is there in having to do so! It is like a theft, so to speak, and the restitution of the stolen goods. He must restore what he has seized; for he had no right to take it. But the modest and praiseworthy man, who might without fear of blame have claimed the dignity of sitting among the foremost, does not seek it, but yields to others what might be called his own, that he may not even seem to be overcome by empty pride; and such a one shall receive honor as his due: for he shall hear, He says, him who invited him say, “Come up here.” …
If then anyone wishes to be set above others, let him win it by the decree of heaven and be crowned by those honors which God bestows. Let him surpass the many by having the testimony of glorious virtues; but the rule of virtue is a lowly mind that does not love boasting. Indeed, it is humility. And this the blessed Paul also counted worthy of all esteem for he writes to such as are eagerly desirous of saintly pursuits, “Love humility.” And the disciple of Christ praises it, thus writing; “Let the poor brother glory in his exaltation: and the rich in his humiliation, because as the flower of the grass he passes away.” For the sober and temperate mind is exalted with God: for “God,” it says, “will not despise the contrite and abased heart.”
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke 102
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