Editorial

Humility is the moral virtue by which we have an accurate opinion of ourselves, seeing ourselves as God sees us. Humility is the virtue that restrains us in our unruly desire for personal glory and helps us to recognize the fact that there is an infinite distance between the creature and the Creator God, without whom we are nothing and can do nothing. With Christ as our model, we can say that humility is the self-emptying that allows God to work in us with His grace.Pride is the deceptive drive for self-glorification that opposes God’s wisdom, elevates the self as the ultimate authority, and leads to control, manipulation, and moral distortion. It breeds vanity, self-deception, and the lust for power- fueling conflict, defying God, and opening the door to spiritual ruin. Left unchecked, pride always ends in downfall, no matter how strong it seems.Jesus told St Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” which prompted the evangelist to write, “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (II Cor 12:9). St Paul said, “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (I Cor 1:28-29). St Teresa of Avila is said to have remarked, “God plus one is an army.” We are all little in the sight of God, and without Him we can do nothing. But thanks be to God; He is the One who makes something out of nothing. St Augustine said, “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. Do you plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.”While the world holds in high esteem – wealth, success, status, power, pleasure, fame, physical beauty, athletic prowess — all these things have no value for God. Greatness in the sight of Heaven is the perfect fulfilment of God’s Word and God’sWill in your life. No matter how simple or hard it might be, greatness is found in following God’s Will even the most ordinary circumstances of our daily life. That is to say, greatness is holiness, and holiness is the alignment of the human will with the will of God. That is how even the littlest, simplest, most hidden, humble soul can be great.To grow in the virtue of humility the first thing to do always is to pray for it. The humble soul prays constantly out of radical dependence on God. The Bible says, “The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and he will not be consoled until it reaches the Lord” (Sir 35:17). We must imitate the perfect model of humility, Jesus Christ, the Son of God; Jesus, who said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3); Jesus, who humbled Himself to share in our humanity; Jesus, who taught His disciples to take the lowest place, who washed the feet of the Apostles, who came to serve and not to be served, and who said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Mt 11:29). Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, allowed Himself to be spat upon, abandoned, betrayed, denied, scourged, mocked, and crucified for love of us. For our salvation, He gave Himself up to a shameful public death. That then is the humility of God.We need to embrace the cross as a way of life. That’s what Jesus clearly wants us to do and invites us to do. He never said, “I’m taking up the Cross so that you don’t have to.” Rather He said, “If you wish to be my disciple, you must deny yourself, pick up your Cross every day, and follow me” (Mt 16:24) and “whoever does not pick up the Cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:27). As disciples of the Lord we must follow Him all the way to heaven. This involves following Him to Calvary; for as St Rose of Lima said, “there is no other ladder to heaven but the ladder of the Cross.” May the promise of Christ: “All who humble themselves will be exalted” (Mt 23:12) encourage us to embrace this attitude!