St. Francis de Sales in his Introduction to the Devout Life tells us about the importance of humility over all other virtues:
To receive God’s grace into our hearts they must be emptied of of our own vainglory… [A]ll the saints, and particularly the King of Saints and his Mother, have always honored and cherished [humility] more than any other among all the moral virtues.” (p. 121)
To practice humility is almost impossible at times. I think that what makes humility the hardest is the fact that we have to look at ourselves exactly as we are and most of us do not feel comfortable doing such thing. Most of us are afraid to find out who we really are and how much room there is for improvement. Being humble is being honest with oneself–accepting our limitations, mistakes, faults, but also virtues. St. Francis de Sales tells us that we should not be afraid of recognizing the grace that God has shed upon us, but we are humble in recognizing it if we “glorify God because he alone is its author.” (p. 124)
A constant examination of conscience is the first step towards becoming more honest with ourselves. As I mentioned in the previous week’s meditation, a nightly examination of conscience is preferrable, since we can analyze our behaviors and thoughts throughout the day. Here is a 2-3 minute examination of conscience I found in my Daily Roman Missal that has served me very well:
- Place yourself in the presence of God, recognizing his strength and your weakness. Tell him: “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
- Ask your guardian angel for light to acknowledge your defects and virtues: What have I done wrong? What have I done right? What could I have done better?
- Examine your conscience with sincerity: Did I often consider that God is my Father? Did I offer him my work? Did I make good use of my time? Did I pray slowly and with attention? Did I try to make life pleasant for other people? Did I criticize anyone? Was I forgiving? Did I pray and offer some sacrifices for the Church, for the pope, and for those around me? Did I allow myself to be carried away by sensuality? By pride?
- Make an act of contrition, sorrowfully asking our Lord’s pardon.
- Make a specific resolution for tomorrow:
- To stay away from certain temptations.
- To avoid some specific faults.
- To exert special effort to practice some virtue.
- To take advantage of occasions for improvement.
- Pray three Hail Marys to the Virgin Mary, asking for purity of heart and body.
The humble person is also a generous person. The humble person acknowledges “the other” and knows that he does not deserve more than his neighbor, because they have been both created in the image of God. When we have reached this stage, we acknowledge that we don’t need more or better clothes than others or that we don’t deserve more frequent and more expensive vacations than others.
One of my favorite stand-up comedians, Brian Regan, had a joke about those people who go to the airport with their laptops and act as if they were “more important” than the ”little people” waiting in the security checkpoint line, because “they had a laptop and the others didn’t.” Well, the joke was very funny, but just writing it fails to give justice to it, so I won’t elaborate. The point I want to make is that sometimes because of certain things we have or merits we have achieved through our hard work, we feel that we are entitled to more than others. I have personally been “that person with the laptop” at the airport and I have felt that (ridiculous) sense of importance. We often feel that because of our position or our knowledge, our time is more precious than others’ or that we should have more privileges than the rest of the people. We think that we deserve more and nicer cars than most people or that we deserve a better treatment than most people, because “we have worked so hard for it.” When I act like this, as Fr. Thomas Dubay says in his Happy are You Poor, “my center of gravity is in this world” (p. 105) and God has been pushed away from the center of my existence. And to place myself in the bosom of the Trinity I have to first recognize God acting in me and in the world, and to do so, I have to be humble first.
