Last Sunday’s Gospel had a fundamental teaching for the followers of Jesus. He told us that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Saying this, the Lord reminds each of us that humility is not an “add on” for us. It is at the heart of accepting and living the call and gift of faith.

 

Humility is not easy for us. The disaster of original sin, that wound which still affects every human soul, flows from the failure of our first parents, Adam and Eve, to guard and live humility in their relation to God. In descriptive terms, we are told that the tempter slyly asked Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden’?” (Gn 3:1).

 

After Eve only half-heartedly defends God’s wise command, the tempter makes the frontal attack against humility and in favor of pride. He says, “God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.” (Gn 3:5). On this basis, Adam and Eve abandoned their humility before God and disobeyed His command in search of a promised but false equality with God.

 

The spiritual wound of renouncing humility plays out in our everyday lives. We can think 

of the difference between being in a circle of friends or a working group when everyone relates to each other with humility as opposed to having someone in our midst who treats others with arrogance. Humility makes for good and respectful neighbors. So too in families and marriage, humility is necessary for harmony and an ability to forgive others.

 

Our public life and discourse have been increasingly coarsened by the loss of humility. Think of the harsh and, at times, personally offensive rhetoric of our public leaders on all sides. Our economy and our advertising are also based on generating relentless desires for material things, many which are not essential to our well-being. As a result, a simplicity of life and desires that are part of humility is lost.

 

For us as Christians and Catholics, we can only truly accept and live our knowledge and faith if we begin with humility. Essentially, humility is an acknowledgment of the truth and reality that God is the source of all good. God’s creating love and power lead us to acknowledge that He is all and without Him we are nothing.

 

But our faith and the truth of our reality does not stop with our self-abasement. God has destined us for greatness, calling us to become like His Divine Son, our savior and our brother. But it is by emptying ourselves that we make room in our souls for the greatness of God’s life and presence that transforms us in preparation for heaven.

 

From that standpoint, we freely look to God and to the Church for guidance in our faith and our lives. Even in difficult or unpopular moments, we can more easily receive the teaching of the Church when we begin with that desire to join ourselves to God’s plan and His will in a way that Eve and Adam did not.

 

Then, the words of Mary in the Gospels can more easily become our own. “Be it done unto me according to Thy will.” Or again, “Do whatever He tells you.” The humbleness of Jesus, not grasping at His divinity but coming to live among us and die for our sins, becomes our guiding example and a motivation for our gratitude.

 

Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. It was the way of Jesus. It is the way of faith. It is the path to heaven.