A theme in this weekend’s gospel is humility. Let’s look at its power to move the Christian heart. Here’s a quote I find terribly helpful:

In Paradise there are many Saints who never gave alms on earth: their poverty justified them. There are many Saints who never mortified their bodies by fasting or wearing hair shirts: their bodily infirmities excused them. There are many Saints too who were not virgins: their vocation was otherwise. But in Paradise there is no Saint who was not humble.¹

Humility is recognizing our place in the universe, our connectedness, and our dependence on God for the little we have. Humility is the lived recognition that we are always children of God. 

Without humility, we nurture images of ourselves as grandiose, important, and superficially strong. We lack nourishment and the proper food from God, who is the source. God makes us grow well. 

Despite our insignificance in the universe, God cares for us. We are not lost in the vast cosmos! Have we ever recognized our smallness in the greatness of the universe? Have we ever stood outside on a starry night and uttered the words of the psalms:

When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place— What is man that you are mindful of him, and a son of man that you care for him?” Psalm 8:4-5 

This psalm is about wonder and awe. It is recognition that while we are insignificant, weak, frail, and short-lived, we surrender to the awesomeness of God’s grandeur and majesty. God has raised our dignity – God has called us sons and daughters. We are seen, we are known, we are loved by God. This is a psalm about praise and humility. 

We ultimately need and must aspire to the humility of Christ. Where do we see the humility of Christ? In the liturgy. At Mass, we hear words that pass our hearing if we are not attentive. The priest says, “On the night he was betrayed…” On the night his friends would abandon him, he gave them food for the journey, he washed their feet. While he was to be abandoned, he remained present for the many. The steadfast love of Jesus was sealed at the washing of feet.

Pope Benedict XVI points to such awe-filled humility when he said,  

The One whom we adore … is not some distant power. He has himself knelt down before us to wash our feet. And that gives to our adoration the quality of being unforced, adoration in joy and in hope, because we are bowing down before him who himself bowed down, because we bow down to enter into a love that does not make slaves of us but transforms us. So let us ask the Lord that he may grant us to understand this and to rejoice in it and that this understanding and this joy may spread out from this day far and wide into our country and everyday life.

As we strive toward humility, we must keep in mind that humility is a matter of the heart. We are always working on tempering anger, holding back on a sarcastic comment, and not trying to make ourselves puffed up more than we are. Humility is asking others, “Please be patient with me.” 

Keep ascending toward Christ by the way of humility. Do not descend toward pride and sin. Ascend toward a community centered on Eucharist. Through humility, Christ will glorify us, we will stand under the stars of the psalmist and understand our place in the universe. Our place is in the heart of God who sees, knows, and loves us. 

Let us be saints together. Together we shall find a place at the Lord’s table. Amen. 

1. Father Cajetan Mary da Bergamo, Humility of Heart ↩︎