None of us want to be humble. We enjoy hanging on to our pride and protecting it. If we do something foolish in front of others, we might talk about our “pride being hurt”. We like having people pay attention to what we want, even if it’s to be left alone. Instead of attending to others’ needs, we’re constantly tempted to attend only to our own and help others only if it fits with our plans and desires.
Pride is a dangerous vice to have. In fact, the tradition of the Church has long considered pride the deadliest of the seven deadly sins, as all other sins flow from our pride. The Catechism defines pride as “undue self-esteem or self-love, which seeks attention and honor and sets oneself in competition with God.” Through our pride, we come to think that we know better than others, and sadly, that we know better than God Himself.
Of course, this is spiritually dangerous ground to be on. When we are ensnared by pride, we are blinded to God’s will. We decide that God’s will is unimportant compared with our own. To see the results of this position, look at Satan and the fallen angels. Catholic Tradition reveals to us that at the beginning of time, God revealed to the angels His plan for salvation of humanity, which would make humans, created as lower than the angels, rulers over the angels. Out of pride, Lucifer, who was created the highest of the angels, denied God’s plan allowing these lower beings to rule over him, causing him and the angels who followed him to be cast out of Heaven.
The pride that caused Satan to fall from the heights of heaven is the same pride that causes us to question the Truth which God revealed through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Through pride, we place what we think or feel over the Truth which Jesus entrusted to the Church. If you’ve ever said something to the extent of, “I know the Church says one thing, but I believe something else,” there’s a very good chance that pride is causing the disagreement, not a true theological reflection on the Truth revealed by Christ. This statement first denies revealed Truth safegarded and protected by the Church, and secondly justifies the individual’s opinion.
Because we are prideful humans, we need to approach God with humility and heed the warning of Our Lord in today’s Gospel reading: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” We need to realize, in the words of a song performed by contemporary Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman, that “God is God, and I am not.” As sinful humans affected by original sin, we don’t have the full understanding of God’s plan for our lives, for all of humanity, and for all creation. We need to realize that we are blinded by sin, and pray for the humility to live as God wills.
Admittedly, it is difficult to pray for humility. We all want to hang on to our pride, but we can be encouraged by the First Reading from the Book of Sirach: “conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself all the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.” By truly seeking humility, we are drawn closer to God and receive His gifts more willingly. Becoming humble is painful, as our ego will take some bumps and bruises along the way, but we will receive far more joy from living a humble life than we ever will by following our pride.
In fact, true humility leads us to share our joy with others. Through humility, we are willing to joyfully give to those in need whether they can repay or not. In fact, if they can’t repay our generosity, Our Lord tells us that “blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Our humble generosity now will be repaid more so in the eternal life. Note that being humble is not synonymous with being a push-over. We should not allow generosity to become enabling of bad behaviors or sins, but we still must be willing to help where ever we can.
When we approach others with humility, we emulate Our Lord. As the priest prays at every Mass when mingling the water with the wine: “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share the divinity of Christ who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.” Our Lord approached humanity with true humility. May we approach Him and our fellow members of humanity with that same humility.
