Tag: <span>Humility</span>

October 31, 2020October 13, 2020

Worthy is the Lamb

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Blessed Carlo Acutis, the modern Catholic computer programmer with an especially deep devotion to the Eucharist, once said, “Sadness is looking at oneself, happiness is looking at God. Conversion is nothing but a movement of the eyes.”

A movement of the eyes. Jesus and St. Paul talk all about this in today’s readings. In the gospel, Jesus uses the circumstance he observes of people grabbing places of honor at a party to make this point. It is not wrong to wish to be honored. But we do not attain honor by exalting ourselves–rather, by taking the lowest place and working from there.

This is a huge irony that merits a moment’s consideration. On the one hand, Jesus actually encourages the quest for honor and greatness, by pointing out which approaches are effective in attaining it, and which are not. On the other hand, however, the means he points out for attaining greatness and honor is precisely NOT to appropriate it.

So, as we quest for true greatness and meaningful honor, how do we acquire the counterintuitive habit of looking to stay in the background? Blessed Carlo says it best. We do so by moving our eyes from ourselves–even though it is we ourselves who want to be happy–to the Person who actually makes us happy, Jesus Christ. If He is our joy, if our basis for personal security comes from Him and His love for us, we naturally want to see Him grow in our own and others’ estimation–our life becomes all about Him. And then, He takes care of the rest, including any need we have for honor and greatness. For one loving glance from Him confers more true greatness and honor than the adoring cheers of a crowd of thousands.

This is how St. Paul found His sense of personal greatness. On the one hand, in perfect line with today’s gospel, he considered himself the least of the apostles (1 Cor. 15:9). On the other hand, today we see that he is equally content with death or life, because “to me, life is Christ.” His eyes are on Christ, and so he has no complexes in his own regard. He doesn’t need to focus on building his own image.

When we fall in love with the divine greatness, the infinite mercy and tender providential care of Jesus, our own honor and greatness becomes a non-issue–a given. Because true greatness is neither a fruit of our own self-aggrandizing, nor even of our achievement. Like the theological virtues, it is a gift bestowed on us in the act of drawing near to Him who defines the stature of every created thing.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Take you eyes for a moment off your own sense of self-worth and achievement, and consider the worth of Jesus: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing.” (Rev. 5:12). Consider Him glorified in Heaven for His divinity first of all, but also for His loving, merciful, sacrificial act of redemption. Then consider that, crazily, He respects you, even admires you as His Father’s great creation–even imperfect as you are. Consider that you need no other source of self-esteem. Adore Him for His greatness; thank Him for His love for you.

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October 2, 2020September 14, 2020

God is Big, We are Little

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Now, perhaps, we can challenge God, even though Job had no right to do so. Where is the home of the light? In the sun, we say, and we can say with some precision how far off it is. The abode of darkness? Outer space, where unlit by a burning ball of gas. Etc.

Perhaps we now have every right to challenge Him, for we know so much, and we are able to manipulate matter and energy as suits us.

To the contrary, on two counts:

1. Imagine living in a world like Job’s where the cause of everything is unknown and virtually unexplored. With all the evil and chaos in the natural world and the human world, an almost inescapable conclusion is that evil powers are as strongly at work as good in the course of the cosmos. And indeed, such was the rational conclusion of many primitive peoples. It took immense faith to believe in a good, providential, loving God as sole sovereign of the universe. Or rather, it took revelation–God’s personal revelation of Himself to humans–and then the faith of others in the word of those receivers of revelation.

Today, even though chaos remains very present to our perception, we have plumbed the depths of biological, geological, physical reality. We see the intricate and awe-inspiring interplay down to the cellular and molecular level of balanced, complementary forces that constitute a universe of order and design. We see the very fingerprints of God.

All the more, then, should we humble ourselves before Him as Job did, and place our destiny with all our hearts in the hands of this good God, who ordered creation so majestically, and who continues providing despite our sin.

2. The more honest scientists discover about reality, the more they realize they don’t know. The more honest engineers manipulate matter and energy, the more they realize how powerless they are before it, and how mysterious and mighty these natural forces are. The more doctors are able to heal, the more they realize that they are not the masters of life and death. God could well challenge us as He challenged Job: Have you ever traversed the sun, or traveled the expanse of the universe? Do you know what drives the smallest of material particles? Can you cure every disease or stop the advent of new maladies? Tiny man on earth, are you master of the vast universe?

And we would need to respond, like Job: “Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth. Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again; though twice, I will do so no more.”

Today is the memorial of the Guardian Angels. In today’s gospel, Jesus makes an argument for the need to hold children in high regard: “Their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” Perhaps a child seems of little importance, but each has been assigned one of the noblest creatures, an angel, to look after his/her every step. We must be humble before the Almighty. But it is comforting to know what Job knew: As tiny and insignificant as we are, God places all the focus of His loving Providence upon us, and we can rest in the palm of His hand.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Dialogue with Jesus about the awesomeness of creation, and how little we humans really have our heads wrapped around it. Ask Him why we earthlings are of such account to God–consider with Him our beautiful biology, and our unique attribute as free, intelligent beings. Ask Him why He Himself became man, and why He died for us. Pledge again your trust in Him; abandon your life into His hands. For despite our technology, when we take a step back, we realize we were never meant to solve the puzzle of our welfare and destiny on our own.

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September 28, 2020September 28, 2020

Good Job, Children

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Imagery of the encounters of Jesus with children enchant us. We see Him laying His hands on them and blessing them in Jn. 19:13-15, and when the disciples try to shoo them away, He rebukes them because “the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

In that passage from the Gospel of John, Jesus’ regard for children goes beyond mere affection. He holds them up as an example to follow for us who likewise wish to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. In today’s gospel from St. Luke, He places one beside Him and, again showing the child as the example, He tells His disciples that the least among us is the greatest.

It may be hard, though, to understand precisely in what way Jesus wants us to be like little children. Is He asking us not to take on any leadership, but to follow, like a child does its parents? Is He asking us to be naive like an inexperienced child, relinquishing any pursuit of wisdom and knowledge? Or is He asking us to be affectionate toward God, like a child is toward its parents?

The first reading does not show us a child, but rather, an adult who models for us what it is to be childlike in the way that Jesus means, unlocking for us the heart of Jesus’ message. For Job is at once the manliest of men and the image of what Jesus means when He calls us to be “the least among you,” like a child.

We hear Job undergo a litany of disasters, one after the other, wherein all things he possesses on earth are wiped out, one after another. And the loss is not limited to possessions. All his children, too, are wiped out at once. Yet, Job blesses the name of the Lord. “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go back again. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.”

What is it that moves Job to this attitude? Surely, he loves the domain he has accumulated. But to Job, it is just a manifestation of that which he loves most, which fascinates him: God’s loving role as provider. God is not a good provider because Job has much; rather, Job sees the much that he has merely as a sign of God’s bounty, sovereignty and goodness. For Job, God is the Provider and the reason, in fact, why the much that he has possessed is good.

How is Job like a child? Simple. When disaster strikes, a child does not rebel against its parent or question its goodness. It runs to the parent who loves it as its key to understanding and fixing the situation. The parent is the essential; all else is contingent.

So the virtue of a child that Jesus calls us to imitate, to the point that he signals it as our key to greatness, is the virtue of trust, trust that is so strong that it eclipses any possibility of attachment to anything earthly.

How does trust make us great? It is not that greatness is a false ideal, and that littleness must take its place. We are not called to be meek milquetoasts who are afraid of success. Job was certainly no such man.

Rather, trust opens our hearts to the true greatness of holiness, which is infused by God, and comes from no earthly achievement. When our hearts are completely open to Him in childlike trust, and we have relinquished the need for control that keeps Him out of the driver’s seat, He can show us what greatness is by filling us with the divinity. And divinity is not a pious, sweet feeling; divinity is He who is omnipotent, creator of the universe. Divinity is greatness itself.

Thus, when we become as childlike as Job, we open ourselves to receiving and becoming the kind of thunderous greatness that can change the world. So it has occurred with the saints–first and foremost the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose childlike “yes” at the Annunciation and throughout her life–that is, whose childlike trust in God–became the catalyst for God to exalt her as Queen of the Universe.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus that you want no attachments but Him. That you will gladly live life with riches, or destitution, with human love, or loneliness, whatever He wants–that you just want the fullness of Him, and the fulfillment that He brings, which requires nothing earthly. Abandon to Him even your fears and your responsibilities. Tell Him that you trust Him–and ask Him to help your lack of trust.

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August 22, 2020August 2, 2020

Queenship of Mary

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Today is the memorial of the Queenship of Mary–important enough for 1/15 of the entire cycle of the rosary to be dedicated to it.

Still, the readings of the day default to Saturday of the 20th week in ordinary time, which as such will be the subject of these reflections.

What is striking is how gloriously the ordinary readings of the day, by apparent utter coincidence, reflect the splendor of Mary’s Queenship–and the secret of her regal stature.

The first reading is all about the glory of God entering into the temple. Mary, who carried Jesus in her womb for nine months, is the Temple of God par excellence. Indeed, bringing to fulfillment the role of the Jewish temple described in the first reading, we can hear God the Father speaking to His Son of Mary’s heart: “Son of man, this is where my throne shall be, this is where I will set the soles of my feet; here I will dwell among the children of Israel forever.”

The Gospel seems to have little to do with Our Lady, much less her Queenship, as it starts by pointing out how the Pharisees do everything for show and for superficial honors. But then we hear Christ describe how we must be, in contrast to this attitude: “The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Mary echoes these sentiments in reference to her own treatment by God, almost verbatim, in the Magnificat: “He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly.” (Lk. 1:52)

Truly, the glory of the Lord entered triumphantly into Mary at the Annunciation, and she was the maiden most highly exalted, most highly lifted up, due to her humility, her lowliness.

Would we like to have a glorious crown in Heaven, like Our Lady? Would we like to have the power that she has in Heaven to intervene for the conversion and the eternal salvation of souls? What is the secret? After all, she didn’t “do much!” What is the difference between Mary and me?

The answer is almost literally painfully simple. That it is hard takes nothing away from its simplicity. The glory of the Lord is pressing to enter and flood your heart, your life, as it did Mary’s. All that is required is your authentic daily “yes,” like Mary’s at the Annunciation; a “yes” articulated clearly and simply to God in your time of prayer, a”yes” given to the Holy Spirit as you seek to heed Him during the day, a “yes” offered in full awareness of the lowliness of your being in His sight. It is this “yes” that brings the glory of the Lord to enter in, and causes God to say, “This is where my throne shall be.”

And ultimately, it is that glory, the glory of the Lord Himself, that constitutes Mary’s heavenly crown.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Consider and examine your “yes” to God. Consider its imperfections. Reassert to Him how deeply and truly you wish to make your “yes” purer, more constant, more consistent, so that He can do for others through you what He did for us through Mary.

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