Twenty-second of Year C - Humility
August 2010
Today the theme is humility.
At the word ‘humility’ I can see the interest seeping away from your features as you settle down for five or ten minutes of slumber.
If you visit any newsagent you see dozens, if not scores, of glossy magazines for sale.
I often wonder how they can sell all of them but there must be a constant demand otherwise they wouldn’t survive in a very competitive market.
Some are specialist magazines and promise the truth about cars, computers etc. but the vast majority are concerned with the goings on of so called celebrities. The covers not only display the assets of the celebrities but promise ‘insights’ into recent happenings in the lives of said celebrities. They promise the ‘truth’ about, or behind, these happenings.
Humility is simple. It is the truth about myself and about God.
I can pick a nice clean shirt from my wardrobe and put it on. Then switching on a bright light and standing in front of my mirror I realise that the last wash did not remove all the stains.
I can see a beautiful person or object in the half light and am impressed with said beauty. Then the full lights come on and I say wow! as its full beauty comes to light.
Humility is the light which shows me my true nature with all its faults and shortcomings. The light which allows me to understand something of the glory of God.
God is truth. In all God’s dealings with me and with all my dealings with God there must be truth. That is humility.
God cannot uphold or collaborate with a lie in any shape or form. That is why the recent practise of frequent confession was such a farce. I was only using the Sacrament as a fire escape. It was a self-interested exercise in covering ass.
I cannot remember the number of times I have seen people storming the gates of heaved with requests for favours or determined to improve their spiritual lives and their relationship with God. I know exactly what will happen. After a period of time - days, weeks or months of constant effort - disillusionment sets in and they get angry with God and decide that all this God thing is a waste of time. A few learn from the experience and begin to realise that their whole approach was wrong. The truth is that man cannot achieve anything by his/her efforts. Man can only wait patiently, without preconditions, for God to visit him/her and work miracles in him/her.
This is truth. This is humility.
God can only work in an atmosphere of truth/humility.
It is good for me to examine my life with truth in mind. If I am honest I will find that even the most praiseworthy of things I do and say are based on fairly mixed motives.
This can be a bit depressing and discouraging but it is the truth.
But God loves truth. And given an atmosphere of truth God can work great miracles in me.