Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The real battle within the human heart is between pride and humility. The Lord Jesus knows well the hearts of men and so, from beginning to end, his Gospel is a call to become small, to become poor in spirit, as the first of the Beatitudes proclaims: “blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God”. To strive to “enter the narrow gate” (cfr. Lk 13,24), means first of all to be humble before God and our brothers and sisters. Those who feel they are superior to others, are on the wrong road, they have entered through “wide gate” which leads to perdition (cfr. Mt 7,13). The one door which opens on to Paradise is: “unless you become like children you cannot enter” (Mt 18,3). How high is the price of humility! Perhaps it is the most costly of all virtues, and therefore the most precious. Being humiliated causes much suffering! And it takes such a long time to ask forgiveness! Peace between the warring parties- nations or individuals - is so difficult to reach because “there is no peace without forgiveness” (John Paul II) and forgiveness in the fruit of humility!
There can be no Christian holiness without radical humility, without that lowering of self, lowering of one's ego, which reaches the awareness that without Jesus we are nothing and can do nothing. The good thief, the woman from Cana, the centurion, the publican… are among the most luminous of the Gospel figures, who show us again and again that God's blessings comes down only on the humble, starting with the humblest of all creatures, the Blessed Virgin Mary! The Gospel also shows us figures obscured by their pride: Juda, Caifa, Herod, the Pharisee of the parable, the rich young man … it is crossed by a line mark: on the one side those who are with Jesus, the poor in spirit, on the other those who are against Him, the proud. The former are of the lineage of God, the latter are of the lineage of the Devil. In fact the Evil One generated them through pride, whereas the humble are generated by the humility of Jesus and Mary: the Lamb and the Handmaid.
Humility needs to be won again every day like a precious pearl. Christ gave many warnings in this regard: “the last will be first and the first will be last ” (Mt 20,16), “he who exalts himself will be humiliated and he who humiliates himself will be exalted” (Lk 14,11), “anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all” (Mk 10,44), “learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11,29)… What wonderful examples of humility are found in the Gospel! Think of John the Baptist who says of himself: “He (Christ) must grow greater, I must grow less” (Jn 3,30) or, obviously, still more think of the Mother of Jesus, who says she is “the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1,38), chosen because “he looked upon his humble servant” (Lk 1,48)!
The path of humility flows from Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped.7But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross”! (Phil 2, 6-9). For the apostles it was a struggle to live humility, ever more transparent, in order to have faith “the size of a mustard seed ” (Mt 17,20): a disposition and a dependence on the Lord, the exact opposite of self-sufficiency.
A person who was fully aware of this was Simon Peter, the first in a long line of Popes who were to take the title “Servants of the servants of God ”. From his experience he learned a most important lesson which enabled him to write: “Humility towards one another must be the garment you all wear constantly, because God opposes the proud but accords his favour to the humble” (1Pt 5,5). He learned this above all after his denial: when we touch the bottom and thanks to God's mercy, we repent, we can reach unimagined humility, the humility of one who knows he is carried by grace, justified solely by God's mercy! Besides, obviously, Peter's freedom, this would appear to be the most profound reason for his denial: God wished him to be more humble!
In a recent Catechesis, the Holy Father Benedict XVI, speaking of the teaching of Aphraates a great Syriac Church figure of the 4th century, dwelt on the subject of humility: “One of the most useful virtues for Christ's disciple is humility. It is not a secondary aspect in the Christian's spiritual life: man's nature is humble and it is God who exalts it to his own glory. Aphraates observed that humility is not a negative value: "If man's roots are planted in the earth, his fruits ascend before the Lord of majesty" (Expositions 9, 14). By remaining humble, including in the earthly reality in which one lives, the Christian can enter into relationship with the Lord: "The humble man is humble, but his heart rises to lofty heights. The eyes of his face observe the earth and the eyes of his mind the lofty heights" (Expositions 9, 2). ” (Benedict XVI, general audience 21 November 2007).
May the humility of Jesus and of Mary, be the pole star of our life, so we may live in keeping with the spirit of Advent which has just begun. (Agenzia Fides 5/12/2007; righe 57, parole 849)
