30 — HUMILITY

Presence of God. — O Jesus, who so greatly humbled Yourself for us, teach me the practice of true humility.

Meditation

1 — Charity is the essence of Christian perfection, because only charity has the power to unite man to God, his last end. But on our part - poor, miserable creatures whom God wants to raise up to union with Him - is charity properly the ultimate foundation of spiritual life? No, there is something still deeper, which is, so to speak, the foundation of charity, and this is humility. Humility stands to charity as foundations stand to a building. Digging a house’s foundations is not yet building the house, and yet it is the preliminary and indispensable work: the conditio sine qua non. The deeper and better planted the foundations are, the higher the building can rise and the more solidity it will guarantee. Only the fool “builds his house on sand,” with the inevitable consequence of seeing it soon collapse; but the wise man builds “his house on rock” (Mt. 7, 24-26), and then, despite raging waters and winds, the house does not collapse, precisely because its foundations are firmly planted.

Humility is the solid and secure rock on which every Christian soul must raise the building of its spiritual life. “If you want your building to rise on a good foundation - teaches St. Teresa of Jesus to her daughters - seek to be the least of all [that is, exercise yourselves much in humility], and thus you will lay such strong stones as to prevent your castle from collapsing” (cf. M. VII, 4, 8).

Humility digs the foundations of charity, in the sense that it empties the soul of pride, empties the soul of disordered love of self and of one’s own excellence, to make room for the love of God and neighbor. The more humility clears the soul of vain and proud claims of self, the more room it makes for God. And “when at last [the spiritual man] comes to reduce himself to nothing, that is, to establish himself in supreme humility, then indeed it may be said that spiritual union between his soul and God has now occurred” (J.C. A. II, 7, 11).

2 — The soul that desires to attain the sublime heights of union with God must tread the way of profound humility, because, as the divine Master teaches, only “he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (Lk. 18, 14).

The higher the ideal of holiness to which you aspire, the loftier the goal to which you tend, the more you must go down, or rather must dig in yourself the fertile abyss of humility. “Abyssus abyssum invocat” (Ps. 41, 8), the abyss of humility calls the abyss of Infinite Mercy, of graces and divine gifts; indeed “God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble” (I Pet. 5, 5). Humble yourself, then, under the mighty hand of God, sincerely acknowledge your nothingness, become aware of your misery, and if you wish to glory, do so - like St. Paul - only in your infirmities, because precisely in your weakness, humbly acknowledged, grace and divine power work and triumph (cf. II Cor. 12, 9). Even if you belong to the number of those good souls, sincerely desirous of advancing on the way of perfection, but who rely too much on their own strength and personal initiatives, you can very profitably apply to yourself the precious warning that St. Therese of the Child Jesus gave to a novice: “I see well that she is taking the wrong road and will never arrive at the end of her journey, for she would like to climb a mountain, whereas God wants her to descend it... Jesus Himself will undertake to fill her soul, little by little, as she empties it of her imperfections” (CR.).

The sublime ideal of union with God totally surpasses our capacities as weak creatures; if we can aspire to it, it is not because we count on reaching it through our own efforts and initiatives, but because we trust that God Himself, according to His promise, will come to take us by the hand. But God does not take by the hand the proud soul; He bends only over the humble, and the more humble He finds a soul, the more He raises it to Himself. Humility digs in the soul the capacity to receive the abundance of divine gifts.

Colloquy

“O my God, You make me understand to what point I must descend so that my heart may serve You as a dwelling: I must become so poor as not to know where to lay my head. My heart is not entirely empty of myself, and for this You command me to descend. Oh, I want to descend very low, that You may rest Your divine head in my heart and there feel Yourself loved and understood! O sweet divine Guest, You know my misery, and precisely for this You come into me with the intention of finding there an empty tent, a heart totally empty of self. You ask no other thing of me” (cf. T.B.G. Lt. 116 and 144).

O Lord, help me dig in my poor soul that abyss of humility which draws the abyss of Your infinite mercies. Help me descend, while my pride loves so much to rise. Help me recognize and confess humbly my nothingness and weakness, while my pride so loves to deem itself something great. Help me glory in my infirmities, while my pride tends continually to glory in what is not mine, but pure gift of Yours. My God, how true it is that holiness follows the path opposite to nature! Give me strength to undertake this path courageously, to go into You, O Lord, for I know You are always ready to sustain the weak who has recourse to You and entrusts himself to You; because I know that, if my pride is great, Your mercy is infinite and Your omnipotence invincible; because I know that if “someone is exhausted and in need of help, lacking strength and abounding in misery, as soon as Your eye rests upon him, You raise him from his abjection and misery, and lift up his head” (cf. Sir. 11, 11-13).

O Lord, who will be “abounding in misery” more than I, who have not yet conquered my pride? And then who more than I will have need of Your help?