HUMILITY: SEEING OUR WEAKNESS AND ALL OF GOD'S STRENGTH

HUMILITY: SEEING OUR WEAKNESS AND ALL OF GOD’S STRENGTH

Thanks to humility, we experience, alongside our weakness, all of God’s strength.

We pray in the words of the Psalm: Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant who trusts in you.

When we try to be humble, we feel God’s power acting in us, on the basis of our weakness; and we come to understand that we are never stronger than when we have only God to rely on. We also learn that age and experience alone are not a guarantee that we will get things right; otherwise all old people would be geniuses. It is God who makes us more prudent than our teachers and wiser than the aged.
People who are humble realize that their life is in the hands of God: in manibus tuis sortes meae (my fate is in your hands). And when they turn to God in their prayer, they do so without pride, without putting on false airs and graces, since they know that their mistakes and sins are not hidden from God’s sight.
Humility prevents us from becoming discouraged at our own faults. Our Father God knows what kind of clay we are made of. 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. –St. Josemaria

Humility makes us strong, because it makes us small, like little children. Don’t forget, silly child, that Love has made you all-powerful (St. Josemaria). It leads us to abandon ourselves into the arms of our heavenly Father who takes every care of us. He took our infirmities and bore our diseases. Humility makes us see things as they are and face up to ourselves in God’s presence. May our stumbles and defeats separate us from Him no more. Just as a feeble child throws itself contritely into the strong arms of its father, you and I will hold tightly to the yoke of Jesus. Only a contrition and humility like this can transform our human weakness into the fortitude of God ( St. Josemaria).

Humility doesn’t stop us from aspiring to greatness, but it reminds us that we are only instruments.

To be humble… means being natural,… being simple and straightforward in our dealings with God and with other people. Since we live in the middle of the world, our humility must never become confused with timidity or a lack of self-confidence.

As our sanctity hinges on our work, we need to build up professional expertise and respect, and each of us will acquire, in our own job and social sphere, the dignity and good name we deserve, gained in honest competition with our professional colleagues. Our humility doesn’t entail being timid and shy, or lacking in daring in the field of noble human endeavour. With a supernatural spirit and a desire to serve – with a Christian spirit of service – we must strive to be among the best.
Some people without a genuine lay outlook on life understand humility as a lack of confidence, a kind of indecisiveness that stops them from doing things. They think it involves waiving their rights (sometimes even the rights of truth and justice) in order to avoid friction and disagreements, so that they can be nice to everyone. There will always be some who don’t understand our way of practising a deep – and genuine – humility; they may even call it pride. The Christian concept of this virtue has been severely deformed, possibly because the various forms of humility that people have attempted to transfer onto secular society are really more suited to convents than to Christians whose vocation requires them to be at the crossroads of the world (St. Josemaria).

The humility which the Work asks of us goes very deep. It is a direct result of the contemplative conversation which we try to keep up with God sine intermissione (without interruption). It 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). He plays with each of us as with a child: ludens in orbe terrarum et deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum (playing on the face of the earth and my delight is to be with the sons of men)

Through the happiness that fills our whole life, we offer our friends living proof that to follow Christ is to find the human and supernatural fulfilment to which we are called.

How great the value of humility! Quia respexit humilitatem…It is not of her faith, nor of her charity, nor of her immaculate purity that our Mother speaks in the house of Zachary. Her joyful hymn sings, “Since he has looked on my humility, all generations will call me blessed.” ( St. Josemaria).

Let us ask Mary to remove every trace of pride from our hearts so that every day we may become more closely identified with her Son. Then we will be able to carry out more fruitfully the work of co-redemption to which we have been called

SOURCE: Excerpt from the book, Meditations, (private collection).

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