This is so not humble…
I actually felt kind of down today because I realized I am not at all humble. Do you know what St. Therese might say to that? “You are full of self love! Pride frets over one’s lack of virtue.” Or she could say something like this to console me, “Learn to rejoice in your defects and offer the humiliation of knowing your imperfections as a sacrifice to Jesus.”
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said humiliations are the stepping stones to humility. (I must say, for me it’s been a rather rocky road as well.)
Why is humility so important? “Humility is considered in all Christian tradition as the foundation of the spiritual life, since it removes pride, which is, says Holy Scripture, the beginning of every sin because it separates us from God.” Garrigou-Lagrange
“Humility is based on truth, especially on the truth that there is an infinite distance between the Creator and the creature. The more this distance appears to us in a living and concrete manner, the more humble we are. However lofty the creature may be, this abyss is always infinite; and the higher we ascend, the more evident does this infinite abyss become for us. In this sense, the highest soul is the most humble, because the most enlightened: the Blessed Virgin Mary is more humble than all the saints, and our Lord is far more humble than His holy Mother.” - Three Ages of the Interior Life
Yesterday, on another blog, a question was raised as to whether or not there are degrees of glory in heaven. Indeed there are. Some saints may be given greater glory than others. I commented with an anecdote from St. Therese regarding an incident wherein she had trouble understanding the same concept, somehow feeling cheated because of it. Her sister, Pauline explained it to her by using the example of glasses filled with water. One glass was smaller than the other, yet both were filled to capacity. With this analogy, Pauline explained that the glory God gives to souls is proportionate with their capacity to receive.
For my part, I better be more concerned with the degrees of humility on earth than the degrees of glory in heaven. After all, I can remember only one thing Jesus explicitely instructed us to learn of Him, when he said, “Come to me all of you, and learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”
May 11th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
The gospel for tomorrow speaks of humility. I believe that Origen wrote some kind of commentary on this. I think I remember reading that in the ‘Infinity of Little Hours’ book.
Jesus said:
‘If the world hates you,
remember that it hated me before you.
If you belonged to the world,
the world would love you as its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
because my choice withdrew you from the world,
therefore the world hates you.
Remember the words I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too;
if they kept my word, they will keep yours as well.
But it will be on my account that they will do all this,
because they do not know the one who sent me.’
May 12th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Is that photo of “laundry day” in Lisieux?
Is there something about geezer-hood that keeps bringing up “humility?” I never used to worry about that. Now my lack of it is constantly being presented to me.
May 13th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
“The infinite distance between the Creator and the created” is something which came up in the discussion of detachment over at my place, and it’s so pertinent to humility as well, as you show here, Terry.
I like Father Garrigou-Lagrange very much. I have his book Christian Perfection and Contemplation.
May 14th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Thanks for your thoughts and comments on humility, Terry. (I always learn something from your blogs).
I’ve been having some interior struggles, and after some self examination - I realize that a lack of virtue is at the root of my problem. I’ve just purchase Peter Kreeft’s BACK TO VIRTUE. Hopefully if will inspire me.
God Bless You!