Humility

Of all people, the Virgin Mary is the supreme model of humility. The Lord Jesus, God and Man, said: “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” He said clearly that this is what we should learn from Him. He clearly demands it from us. We should practically deny ourselves, accept our cross and follow Him humiliated, abandoned and crucified. Humility is the basis of all virtues. The opposite of humility is pride which leads to eternal death, while humility is the key to heaven. Humility overcomes the devil and the old self in us. Different forms of jealousy, comparing with others, competitiveness even in spiritual life, sadness when someone is successful – this all is a sin of pride! We need to humble ourselves in thoughts time and again. But then we need to do so in words, deeds and gestures as well. Sadness is often a sign of preoccupation with ourselves, failure to achieve our plans or dreams etc. Unless we grow in this virtue, we will never have true unity with Christ or any man either. Humility overcomes the spirit of pride. Pride does not love those who are better, is jealous of them and seeks to humiliate them. In its blindness, it fails to realize that the success of my relative or brother or sister in the community will be for my benefit too, because through love we are like connected vessels, and so the good of my neighbour is mine too and his pain is somehow shared by me as well. We must learn to think in a new way: not I but we! Pride criticizes and scorns those who fall, and thus hurts both them and us ourselves. Humility is truth. Whenever we humble ourselves, God gives us the light! Self-humiliation is the safest way to all virtues, and especially to love.

Download: Humility