Humility preserves and restores goodness

AGAIN, we cannot overemphasize the importance of this

virtue of humility. It is what preserves whatever goodness we have,

whatever we have received from God. And if we happen to lose that

goodness, it is also this virtue that helps to recover it.

  

            We should do everything to grow always in this virtue. In

a previous column, we have already said that this virtue is a very

tricky and slippery one. The moment we say we are humble, the

tentacles of pride start to grab us. We can never say we are humble

enough. We have to continue to grow in it, always identifying the

shifting frontlines of the battle for humility as we go on with our

life.

  

            The reason our first parents lost their state of original

justice was precisely because they were overtaken by pride, by the

thought that they can replace God. They were intoxicated by the

goodness they were enjoying then. That’s why they disobeyed God’s

command not to eat of the forbidden fruit.

  

            For us to see the true value of humility, we only have to

look at Christ. Being the Son of God, and God himself, he shows us how

humility indeed preserves goodness and restores it once that goodness

is lost.

  

            As St. Paul once said, Christ “emptied himself, taking the

form of a servant…” (Phil 2,7) From his birth to his death, the marks

of his humility and everything that flows from it were all obvious.

  

            In that way, Christ managed to do only those that his

Father wanted him to do, which is how goodness that can only come from

God is preserved. “I have come down from heaven not to do my will but

to do the will of him who sent me.” (Jn 6,38)

  

            We need to understand that humility involves giving our

will to the will of God. It is a giving away that actually is not a

loss at all but an immense gain for us. That’s because that is how we

have been created, how we have been designed. Without God, like a

branch cut off from the vine, we just die and are capable only of

doing evil.

  

            And precisely because Christ did only what his Father

commanded him to do, he managed to recover us from the state of sin

and restore us to the state of grace. How truly important it is to be

humble. It is what would enable us to obey God’s will, and to do so

irrespective of the great cost in terms of suffering it may involve.

             In the case of Christ, he managed to make that supreme

sacrifice of offering his life for our sake. Humility, as we can see

here, is never a passive virtue, much less a sign of weakness. It is

strength, it is power, it fuels our capacity to love to the end.

             We need to do everything to grow in this virtue every day.

Let’s never take it for granted, for many now are the occasions when

we are tempted to be on our own, to fall into pride and blinding

egoism.

  

            Remember, it’s humility that preserves whatever goodness

we have, and recovers it once it is lost.