“We need humility if we are to obey” (Saint Josemaria).
When a person is good at their job it is very easy to act without any humility at all.
After all, in the world, it is very easy to receive lots of reward about how we are doing. If we do a good job, often people will commend us. If we appear outwardly decent and good, people will generally let us know that they are proud of our work.
And yet all that outward appearance just gets I the way of everything else that is really important. After all, what could possibly be more important than obeying our Blessed Lord and the His Holy Will? And what could possibly be more distracting than letting our pride get in the way of that? Saint Josemaria said, “We need humility if we are to obey”.
And he was right…
After all, God does not speak to us clearly and in the light of day. He often speaks to us through the action and behaviours of others. If He wishes to teach us humility then we are required to listen to the slights and affronts of others against us. If He wishes to teach us obedience, then He can provide us with injustice and have others unfairly ask us to obey. I remember those days during the COVID-19 pandemic. How terrible it felt to me to have to follow arbitrary rules, especially when I did not really believe that I should be compelled to follow those rules at all…
But, God is not asking us to obey blindly and without intelligence. After all, even the Blessed Virgin asked the Angel, “But, how can that be?” when he told her that she would bear the Messiah in her womb. Even she tried to apply her intelligence to the request and understand how to make God’s Will come about. And she knew – using her intelligence – that as he was a virgin and had not known a man, she would need to take some action in order to bring about the message of the angel.
And that action was – in the end – humble obedience to the Holy Will of God. But without her humility – willingly given and applied, the Blessed Virgi would not have been able to please her Beloved…
And she was just a human being – albeit a perfect human being who was in perfect reflection of God. But the Blessed Virgin is a great gift of humility to me, because she acted as a perfect human being knowing what was right and just, simply because she chose to follow the Holy Will of God.
And in all of that, I sit back in my little home with my little sins and make excuses about why it is too hard to be humble in the face of disrespect or silly rules… How much of eternity I give away through excuses such as these…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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