Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography,
In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.
I thought of that passage as I listened to the Gospel reading of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector:
He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised 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 whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
No doubt, dear reader, you are familiar with this parable and the teaching against pride. And yet, how easy it is to fall into the sin of pride. How often have you said “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner, since I am not like that Pharisee?” I know I have.
Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, and the one that leads to the other six. It is pride which caused the rebellion of Satan against God. Fortunately, each deadly sin has an antidote – a virtue. The antidote for pride is humility.We see humility practied perfectly in Our Lord. In Phillipians 2:5-8 we read:
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
I don’t have any words of wisdom for growing the virtue of humility. Fortunately Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val, Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X did, and wrote this prayer. It is a hard prayer to pray, at least for me:
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, R: Deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being loved… From the desire of being extolled … From the desire of being honored … From the desire of being praised … From the desire of being preferred to others… From the desire of being consulted … From the desire of being approved … From the fear of being humiliated … From the fear of being despised… From the fear of suffering rebukes … From the fear of being calumniated … From the fear of being forgotten … From the fear of being ridiculed … From the fear of being wronged … From the fear of being suspected … That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be esteemed more than I … That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease … That others may be chosen and I set aside … That others may be praised and I unnoticed … That others may be preferred to me in everything… That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…
Copyright © 2013, Michael Lindner
Michael Lindner
Mike is a scouter, a science geek, a dad, a husband and a Catholic. He earns a living as a software engineer in beautiful New Jersey. In his spare time (ha ha) he muses at his blog What Does Mike Think? He is not a writer (which will be painfully obvious after reading his posts) but feels called to apologetics and evangelization anyway. You have been warned.
2 responses to “The Challenge of Humility”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
[…] The Challenge of Humility (newevangelizers.com) […]
[…] The Challenge of Humility (newevangelizers.com) […]