Aug 5 Wed
Should I always try to appear good and proclaim my qualities?
In a person’s life, “There is no greater road to travel than the way of love, but only the humble can travel it."
Humility is not the most important virtue, but without it, other virtues cannot exist. “Do not forget that humility is such an important virtue that, if it is lacking, there can be no virtue. I will repeat that, in the interior life, humility is the salt that seasons all foods. For even though a particular act may seem virtuous, it cannot be, if it is the consequence of pride, of vanity, or of stupidity, or if we do it thinking about ourselves, instead of putting ourselves at the service of God."
“When our attention turns to ourselves, and we dwell on whether others are going to praise or criticize us, we are doing ourselves very great harm. God alone should interest us, and for His sake, all those closest to us, and all the souls in the world without exception. So, away with self! It is a hindrance."
To a certain extent, all virtue can be seen as an expression of humility, in line with St. Josemaría's teaching:
“PRAYER is the humility of the man who acknowledges his profound wretchedness and the greatness of God. He addresses and adores God as one who expects everything from Him and nothing from himself.
FAITH is the humility of the mind which renounces its own judgment and surrenders to the verdict and authority of the Church.
OBEDIENCE is the humility of the will which subjects itself to another's will, for God's sake.
CHASTITY is the humility of the flesh, which subjects itself to the spirit.
EXTERIOR MORTIFICATION is the humility of the senses.
PENANCE is the humility of all the passions, immolated to the Lord.
Humility is truth on the road of the ascetic struggle.”
We must be on our guard against any form of pride that tries to disguise itself as humility. In the words of St Jerome: “It is one thing to be virtuous, and quite another to appear to be virtuous. There is no worse pride than that which hides under the appearance of humility.”
St. Josemaría gives us a reliable test to recognize it: “Are you truly humble? Can you mortify your self-love, for the sake of charity? Can you accept the humiliations God asks of you in unimportant matters that don't obscure the truth? What is it that makes charity sluggish? Quite simply, pride. So, ask our Lord to grant you humility, because if pride is not taken in hand promptly, with the passage of time it only gets worse."
On the other hand, “To be humble does not mean to go around dirty and unkempt. It does not mean being indifferent to all that happens around us and constantly failing to exercise our rights. Much less does it mean to go around proclaiming silly things about ourselves. There can be no humility if we are theatrical or if we are hypocrites, because humility is truth."