35 — HUMILITY OF HEART

Presence of God. — O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours.

Meditation

1 — Only once did Jesus expressly say: “learn from Me,” and He said it precisely with regard to humility: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt. 11, 29). Knowing well how difficult the practice of true humility would be for our proud nature, it seems He wanted thus to give us a particular encouragement. His example, His unheard-of humiliations, which made Him “the reproach of all and the outcast of the people” (Ps. 21, 7), which for us “made Him sin” (II Cor. 5, 21) and bearer of all our iniquities, to the point of being “numbered among the malefactors” (Mk. 15, 28), are the greatest spur and the greatest invitation to the practice of humility.

Jesus speaks directly to us of humility of heart, because, to be sincere, every virtue, every reform of life must always begin from the heart, from which thoughts and actions come. An external bearing, humble speech, are vain without humility of heart; indeed they are often the mask of a refined and therefore more dangerous pride. “Clean first what is inside - Jesus said, stigmatizing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees - and the outside will become clean as well” (Mt. 23, 26). And St. Thomas teaches that “from interior disposition to humility proceed the signs in words, gestures, deeds, by which there is manifested outwardly what is hidden inwardly” (II-II, q. 161, a. 6, co.).

Therefore, if you want to be truly humble, apply yourself first to humility of heart, entering ever more deeply into sincere recognition of your nothingness, your poverty. Know how to recognize sincerely your defects, your faults, without wanting to attribute them to any cause other than your own miserableness; know how to recognize the good in you as pure gift of God, never making yourself its master.

2 — Humility of heart is a virtue at once difficult and easy: difficult, because so contrary to pride which always pushes us to exalt ourselves; easy, because we do not need to go far to seek its motives, but have them

• and in abundance - in ourselves, in our miserableness. Nevertheless, it is not enough to be miserable to be humble, but humble is only he who sincerely recognizes his own miserableness and acts accordingly.

To this recognition, man, proud by instinct, cannot arrive without God’s grace, but since God denies no one the necessary graces, turn to Him and, with trust and perseverance, ask Him for humility of heart. Ask it in the name of Jesus who so humbled Himself for the glory of the Father and for your salvation, “ask in His name and you shall receive” (cf. Jn. 16, 24). If then, despite your sincere desire to become humble, you often feel movements of pride, vainglory, vain self-complacency stirring in you, instead of being cast down, recognize in this the fruit of your bad nature and use it as a new motive to humble yourself.

Remember also that you can always practice humility of heart, even when you cannot perform particular acts of external humility, even when no one humiliates you and you are instead marked by others’ trust, esteem, and praise. In similar circumstances St. Therese of the Child Jesus said: “Nothing can inspire me with vanity, because the memory of my miseries is continually present to me” (St. 10); and you think that, as “blame does not make you more contemptible, so others’ praise does not make you holier” (Imit. II, 6, 3). Indeed, the more others exalt you, the more seek to humble yourself in your heart. Practiced in this way, humility of heart will make you conceive such a low opinion of yourself that you will no longer know how to prefer yourself to anyone, but all you will esteem better than yourself and more worthy than you of esteem, respect, consideration, and thus you will remain at peace, never being disturbed either by desire to surpass others, or by humiliations you may receive. Interior peace is fruit of humility; indeed Jesus said: “Learn from Me for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest - requiem - for your souls” (Mt. 11, 29).

Colloquy

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, heal me of pride, make my heart humble Yourself, infuse in me a little of Your most profound humility. For You know better than I: how could I, with my proud will, make my heart humble? A poor man cannot give riches to himself, a proud man cannot give humility to his heart. Only Your infinite goodness can remedy pride.

“And the remedy is this: to fix one’s gaze on You, Incarnate Word hanging upon the cross; and seeing the soul humbled thus looking at You, You soon move to look upon it, and with Your gaze You do as the sun’s ray does on the earth, which by its heat dries and disposes it to bear fruit. So do You, O Word, who by the ray of Your gaze dry the soul, drawing to Yourself all the pride in it, to consume it with Your heat. No one, therefore, can acquire humility unless he fixes his gaze on You, Word on the cross” (St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi).

“O Word, You humbled Yourself unto death on the cross, even to willing to be treated as the least of men by sinners, by demons, by the Holy Spirit, and by Your eternal Father. And all this to glorify the Father, to repair the offense done to the Father by our pride, to confound and destroy our arrogance, to teach us to detest vanity and to love humility. Oh, how truly one can say that pride dishonors God and that it most grievously displeases God, since to repair such dishonor it was necessary that You, Son of God, come to be so humbled! Oh, how truly one can say that vanity is a monstrous thing, since to annihilate it You willed to reduce Yourself to so low a degree of abasement! Oh, how one must believe that in God’s eyes humility is a truly precious treasure and gem most pleasing to Him, since You, His divine Son, willed to be so humbled to make us love this virtue, to stir us to imitate You in the practice of it, and to merit for us the grace to perform its works” (St. John Eudes).