When praises come our way

YES, we have to learn how to handle praises and accolades that may come our way. Since we often are motivated to do our best in whatever task we do, it’s very likely that sooner or later, one way or another, we would be receiving praises from others. We should always be prepared to handle them properly. 

 And that means that we should not allow these nice things, no matter how flattering and intoxicating to our ego, to go to our head. On the contrary, we should feel humbled by them, since what actually took place was that God’s power and grace made those beautiful things, for which we are praised, happen. 

 We, at best, only cooperated. We only were instruments and tools, since all good things can only come from God. (cfr. James 1,17) On our own, without God, the only thing we can achieve is evil that sometimes can appear impressive according to our human and worldly standards. But that so-called accomplishment actually would be very harmful to us, taken in our true dignity as children of God, image and likeness of his. 

 And so, like the servant in one of the parables of Christ, we should just say when praises come to us that we were only doing what we were supposed to do. It was simply our duty. (cfr. Lk 17,10) Nothing special about it really. 

 When we allow these praises to go to our head, it can only show that we have been doing things with the improper intention, that we were simply looking after our pride and vanity, or that we were looking for entitlements and privileges, etc. 

 But when we do things with the proper intention, that is, doing things always for the glory of God and nor for our own glory, we would be reaffirming what St. Paul once said: “What do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did receive it, why do you glory as if you have not been given it?” (1 Cor 4,7) 

 So, when praises and expressions of adulations come our way because of our good work, let us remember St. Paul’s words: “He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.” (2 Cor 10,17) The same idea is actually echoed in a prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours: “The wise man must not glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches. Rather, let him who glories glory in the Lord by seeking him and doing what is right and just.” 

 All those exhortations about humility, about self-denial, about having to pass unnoticed, etc., are not meant to plunge us into darkness and a joyless life. They are not meant for us to simply drift into passivity, or to sink into fear or despair. They are meant to give us the glory proper to us. They are meant to make us truly happy, active, liberated. They are meant to prevent us from living in a bubble, in a fake, fantasy world. 

 This is the problem and challenge that we have these days. We tend to forget or ignore the origins of things and simply allow ourselves to be carried away by the impulses of the current state of the world, now mostly intoxicated by our own so-called accomplishments and achievements.