Humility

 

Humility, according to the definition of the Royal Spanish Academy, is the virtue that consists of knowing one's own limitations and weaknesses and acting in accordance with this knowledge

It could be said that being humble is about allowing oneself to be loved by God and recognizing that everything we have, whether material or spiritual, comes from Him, acknowledging that the only thing that is truly ours is our misery, our weaknesses. By recognizing our misery, we can recognize our need for God and seek Him. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains (2733), “The humble person is not surprised by his misery; it leads him to greater confidence, to remain steadfast in perseverance.” By giving thanks and glory to God for what we have received, we avoid vain glory and can open ourselves to receive His gifts and use them to serve others. By being humble, we accept not only joy but also sorrow, and we can offer both to God in thanksgiving and rejoice in Christ.   

In Jesus our Lord, we find true humility, for being the Son of God, he came into the world and became man like us, sharing our human nature and using his life in service to others.   He accepted the will of his Father, our God, in everything, even giving his life to obtain eternal life for us.

Our Mother, the Virgin Mary, is also an example of humility, for she not only accepted what God asked of her, but called herself "the handmaid of the Lord," becoming nothing in order to be everything in God.

By being humble, we can stop thinking about ourselves and start thinking about others.   Only through humility can we stop relying on our own strength and start trusting more in God, our Father and Creator.

Humility, a virtue that leads us to follow you closely, Jesus, to let ourselves be molded by your hand, to accept the cross with your joy.

Be humble and enter through the narrow door

 This Sunday, Jesus asks us to strive to enter through the narrow door into the Kingdom of Heaven.  For he says that there is another wider door through which many enter and are lost, which is the door of the world.  The deacon tells us that Jesus himself is that narrow door, for he has already told us that he is the way, the truth and the life.  So if we want to enter through the narrow door we must be like Jesus, make ourselves small, humble as Jesus, who is worthy to become man to give us salvation through his sacrifice on the cross, so, humble we can enter through that narrow door.  And in what does this humility consist?  I think of it in obeying the Father and imitating Jesus, becoming a servant of all.  Let us not fall into the false humility, which I read recently does not come from God but from the evil one who wants to turn us away from God by wanting us to think that there is no forgiveness for our sins.  Instead the humility that comes from God, it shows us the sins committed without forgetting that God is merciful and that we all need his mercy, that is, we all need his forgiveness that Jesus brings to us in the sacrament of reconciliation.  And not only his forgiveness, but we have to recognize that we need God in every aspect of our lives.  As the deacon told us, Jesus is the way of goodness, of love, of the sacraments of the church.  Hope and at the end of our days Jesus recognize us and do not close the door, so we strive to be humble and imitate Jesus, as Saint Francis of Assisi would say, in being a living Gospel.