WE need to be reminded of this point—and urgently. I’m afraid we are on a runaway train in this regard. We need to control it, fix the tracks, change the personnel if necessary. Oh, if things were only as simple as that!
All around us are not only signs and traces but clear, explicit expressions of self-glorification. In whatever human aspect is involved—in the area of thought, creativity or the body—vanity, conceit, arrogance, greed, self-indulgence and their ilk take charge.
They are not anymore leashed, fenced, much less, hidden. They are put on display, allowed to move freely in open range. They have managed to build such a worldwide web of infra- and superstructures—language, fashion, attitudes—that they now seem invincibly entrenched in our system.
Indeed, to rid ourselves of them, or at least to put them under some control, would require nothing less than a revolution, first of the heart, then the mind, the attitudes, the lifestyle.
Yes, we have to be rebels. We need to fiercely fight against our own selves first, then everything else around us that keeps us complacent and self-satisfied, hamstrung by privilege and other invented perks in our life.
Glory should only be given to God. ¨Deo omnis gloria,¨ as the saying goes. It belongs to him properly. If ever there is something of it in us, let´s be sure it can only be a sharing with God´s glory. It would be a glory that would bring us closer to him, not farther.
Thus, we need to immediately cut anything that would lead us to some human glorification. Even in terms of attitudes, let´s already make sure that they clearly help us to give glory only to God.
How good it is then to cultivate that attitude of Christ to serve and not to be served, even to the point of washing the feet of his apostles. How good it is to empty ourselves the way Christ emptied himself. How good it is to just work as quietly as possible, to pass unnoticed even while we give our all in our work for love of God.
And so it would not be an exercise of masochism and of some perverted sense of self-deprecation to remind ourselves constantly that we are nothing, and even less than nothing, since everything good that is in us can only come from God.
Even our accomplishments and other successes have God as the ultimate subject, since we can only do good in him. Outside of him, the only thing we can do is evil. That´s the only time we can truly be original in the absolute sense.
Such reminder does not suppress our innate human dignity. It rather would elevate our dignity, since what is human can now be made divine. It opens us to the possibility of being raised to the level of God.
It´s a reminder that fosters our humility, not pride. Every accolade we receive would nourish our humility. And every failure deepens our humility. With pride, our successes and failures can only spoil and corrupt us or plunge us to desperation.
Thus, it´s a reminder that puts us firmly on the ground of truth and objectivity, since humility makes us see things while pride blinds us. Pride would only bring us to fantasy and absurdity.
Remember what St. Paul said: ´Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all the to the glory of God.¨ (1 Cor 10,31)
How important it is then to develop the attitude and practice of always offering everything we do to God, and to ask of him anything we need, without solely relying on our own strengths!
How important it is to make it second nature of ours to rectify our intentions in everything we do! It should always be for the glory of God. If ever we can suspect that some human glory can come to us, we need to prepare ourselves not to be affected, like hiding and disappearing after a work well done, etc.
Let´s be wary of the subtle tricks of pride that can lead us to play coy and even as a victim, if only to attract sympathy. Pride has the nasty habit of leading us to a terrible case of self-pity.
These ways obviously are not popular these days. They can be considered impractical, if not inhuman. But that´s because we are sinking in a world culture now steeped in self-centeredness and self-absorption.
We should deliberately give glory to God in all our deeds to counter this culture.
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