HUMILITY, NECESSARY TO PLEASE GOD.
St Peter the Apostle speaks to us of the need to be humble if we are to please God.
“Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble, 1 Pet 5:5.”
Nothing can separate us from God and from others as much as pride.
- A heart that is filled with self-love has no room for God.
- The holiness we seek can be summed up in the words that John the Baptist spoke of Christ: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Our Lord’s life must increase within us until we become “other Christs“, and our intellect and our will, our powers and our affections, all we are and all we do, become entirely his.
- Humility is essential if we are to achieve complete self-giving, and if we are to become channels by which God’s grace can reach mankind. As St. Josemaria wrote:
“Let us be humble. Let us seek nothing but the glory of God. Our life of silent and hidden self-giving should be a constant act of humility. Humility is the foundation for our whole life, the means and prerequisite for our effectiveness. Pride and vanity might attract us to the vocation of a Chinese lantern, which shines and sparkles for everyone to admire, but which lasts only one night and then goes out, leaving no trace behind.
Vita vestra est abscondita cum Christo in Deo. (Your life is hidden with Christ in God. What God thinks, not what other people think, is what matters.” These words of St. Josemaria light up our whole life.
- Without humility, everything we do would be sterile. If we allowed self-sufficiency and pride into our interior life, dialogue with God would be impossible.
- In our apostolate, which should be based on friendship, pride would put a barrier between us and others, and make it impossible for us to help or understand them.
- Our cheerfulness also depends on our being humble, because it is humility that enables us to lead an authentic existence, in which we aim to serve God and others, but without being worried about appearing less than perfect, and without letting our faults upset us.
“Humility prevents us from becoming discouraged at our own faults. Our Father God knows what kind of clay we are made op Though a vessel of clay may sometimes crack or break, if there is humility it can be put together again with staples which will add to its attractiveness, and which are undoubtedly pleasing to God. My children, human weaknesses give our God a chance to shine forth and to show his almighty power, by excusing and forgiving. Mirifica misericordias tuas, qui salvos facis sperantes in te, Domine. Show forth your infinite mercy, my God, by saving those who hope in you.”
Humility “brings with it the profound conviction that it is God our Father who does everything, while using us as the poor instruments that we are: Servi inutiles sumus (we are unworthy servants) St. Josemaria.”
Let us ask God, through the intercession of Our Virgin Mother, Mary, most humble, to increase in us the virtue of humility so that God could fill us with His grace and His instruments of redemption.
PHOTO: Theotokos Tenderness Eleusa Hand-Painted_Orthodox Icon
WHAT IS HUMILITY? HERE