WHY IS HUMILITY NECESSARY FOR HOLINESS AND SALVATION?
There is no greater road to travel than the way of love,
but only the humble can travel it. These words of St Augustine are a
excellent commentary on the passage of the Gospel from Mt 11: 25:
At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the
wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was
your gracious will.”
Humility is not the most important virtue, but without it the others cannot exist.
Holiness and salvation are not possible without the virtue of humility for we are called to live the virtues Christ lived and taught during his life on earth.
Moreover, daily conversion requires acknowledging one’s sins as its point of departure, so as to ask pardon from God and be pardoned by Him in the Sacrament of Confession; and for this, humility is indispensable.
Do not forget, my children,
that humility is such an important virtue that, if it is lacking, there can be
no virtue. I will repeat again that, in the interior life, humility is the salt
which seasons all the foods. For even though a particular act may seem
virtuous, it cannot be, if it is the consequence of pride, of vanity, or of
stupidity, or if we do it thinking about ourselves, putting ourselves before
the service of God, the good of souls and the glory of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit.
When our attention turns to
ourselves and we dwell on whether others are going to praise or criticize us,
we are doing ourselves very great harm. God alone should interest us, and for
his sake, all those who belong to Opus Dei and all the souls in the world
without exception. So, away with self! It is a hindrance (St. Josemaria).
To a certain extent all virtue can be seen as an expression of humility, in line with St. Josemaria’s teaching:
Prayer is the humility of the
man who acknowledges his profound wretchedness and the greatness of God. He addresses
and adores God as one who expects everything from Him and nothing from himself.
Faith is the humility of the
mind which renounces its own judgement and surrenders to the verdict and
authority of the Church.
Obedience is the humility of
the will which subjects itself to another’s will, for God’s sake.
Chastity is the humility of
the flesh, which subjects itself to the spirit.
Exterior mortification is the humility of the senses.
Penance is the humility of all
the passions, immolated to the Lord.
Humility is truth on the road
of the ascetic struggle.
We must be on our guard against any form of pride that tries
to disguise itself as humility. In the words of St Jerome: It is one thing
to be virtuous, and quite another to appear to be virtuous. There is no worse
pride than that which hides under the appearance of humility.
St. Josemaria gives us a reliable test to recognize it: Are you truly humble? Can you mortify your self-love, for the sake of charity? Can you accept those humiliations which God asks of you, in unimportant things which don’t obscure the truth? What is it that makes charity sluggish? Quite simply, pride. So,ask our Lord to grant you humility, because if pride is not taken in hand promptly, with the passage of time it only gets worse (St. Josemaria).
Let us ask God frequently to grant us this indispensable virtue for holiness and salvation through the intercession of our Mother Mary, most humble.
