HUMILITY BEFORE GOD AND MAN

Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness, despising everyone else.

“Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’

But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and prayed,
‘O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’

I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;
for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,

and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

- Lk 18:9-14

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The gifts received from God are derived, not from ourselves, but from the Holy Spirit. They are to be used, in a spirit of humility, in the service of the Church and of our brothers.

The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican seen above is a striking reminder that we have no grounds for self-satisfaction.

There are two classes of men, said Blaise Pascal:

1. Saints, who consider themselves guilty of every fault

2. Sinners, who do not feel guilty of anything.

The former are humble and God will exalt them; the latter are proud and will be humbled by punishment. 

Going even deeper, St. Irenaeus defined man as "the receptacle of God's gifts."

God is not content with calling on us to observe His commandments; we should to do that regardless. But beyond that He gives us His Holy Spirit, so that we may transform our lives and the lives of others, and so make them truly Christian.

— St. Andrew Daily Missal


Meditation—Prayer of Confidence in the Merits and Merciful Power of Jesus

The proud who claim to draw their power from themselves, commit the same sin as Lucifer, who said:
“I will ascend into Heaven…. I will be like the Most High.”
And like Lucifer they will be overthrown and cast down into the abyss.

But what do we say - or what SHOULD we say?

"Without Christ, we can do nothing, as He has Himself declared."

We declare that it is through Jesus, and with Jesus, that we can arrive at holiness and enter into Heaven; we say to Christ: 

“Master, I am poor, miserable, naked, weak, of this I am daily more and more convinced. But I know, too, that Thou art ineffably powerful, great and good; I know that the Father Thou lovest so much hath placed in Thee all the treasures of holiness that men may desire; I know that Thou wilt never reject those who come to Thee. 

Therefore, whilst adoring Thee in the deepest recesses of my soul, I have full confidence in Thy merits and satisfactions; I know that, altogether miserable as I am, Thou canst, by Thy grace, shower Thy riches upon me, uplift me even to the Divine, that I may be made like unto Thee and may share in Thy Divine Beatitude!”


—Dom Columba Marmion, Christ the Ideal of the Monk


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