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<\/p>\nToday\u2019s readings are all about humility \u2013 the most important of all virtues. The shortest and best definition of it is \u201ctruth\u201d. Truth about ourselves individually and about our human condition \u2013 all in relation to God. It is also antithesis of pride, the most devastating of human faults.<\/p>\n
Just as there exist various forms of pride: pride of body, of intellect, of soul (the most dangerous of them all), so do the corresponding forms of humility. Humility is a very powerful weapon in our struggle to become closer to our Lord and requires much prayer.<\/p>\n
I have recently talked to a young, well- educated and cultured man, slightly above 40 whom I have known all his life. He has just reached the pinnacle of his career, financial and professional. \u201cI owe it all to myself\u201d, he said in a dangerously matter of fact voice.
\n\u201cHmmm \u2013 I thought \u2013 really?\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered, as old people remember \u2013 bits and pieces of his life. I saw in my memory first his mother carrying him, a sickly infant, around and around the bedroom, than his grandmother sending him off to school every morning and cooking for him his favorite meals so that he might gain strength and grow well, finally his father, who would save every penny to send it to his son while he was studying at a distant university. And many, many others who helped him along through his life. Above all, God, giver of all.
\nHow come he forgot them all? Or maybe he did not forget them, maybe it was just a slip of tongue..<\/p>\n
So the first and easiest way to build up humility, that oxygen for our spiritual blood, is gratitude.<\/p>\n
We never owe everything to ourselves. We were given our life by God and our parents. If we were born with good memory, strong intellect, health \u2013 we were given all these qualities by God.\u00a0 In infancy our mothers (usually, these days it is fathers, too) had to feed us and lift us up, change diapers, bathe us many times daily and also at night. Without that endless, often backbreaking work, we simply would not have survived the first few weeks. Few mothers sleep a full night up to about 3rd year of their children\u2019s life. Fathers\u00a0 – in traditional family – keep us afloat in less direct way, so are less visible.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A few days ago I witnessed a painful scene in which a teenager was accusing her father that \u201che was never there for her\u201d while her mother, who stayed home was. In fact, the father worked two jobs to provide for his family \u2013 and as is quite common in Canada these days\u00a0 – he worked away from home, returning for weekends. Not the best arrangement, but the only one possible in hard economy with job shortage. Yet the unrealistic perception perpetuated by public media has every father (and often mother) not only provide for his family but also be an entertainer on weekends. With no word of thanks.
\nGratitude shapes hearts to make them truthful.
\nGratitude and consequently, humility frees us from various fears, too.<\/p>\n
I will never forget the long, intercontinental flight between America and Europe one year.
\nThere was a four hour long huge storm we were flying through and our plane was tossed like a feather. All service was suspended and we had to remain in our seats all the time.
\nThe situation prompted much prayer, mostly of the begging kind \u2013 oh, please, Lord, let us arrive safely..<\/p>\n
I turned to John Paul the 2nd for intercession, clinging in my thoughts to his smiling face on the little photograph I carried in my bag.<\/p>\n
I still wonder if it was this great heavenly friend of mine who sent me an inspiration to stop begging and start thanking.. and so I began to thank God for everything: the beauty of mountain flowers I had seen (these somehow came to my mind first), the fluffiness of a squirrel on my spruce tree, the sleepy smiles of my boys when they were infants, the countless kindnesses and help I have experienced through my life.
\nIt was a bit like the full review of my life taken neither from the point of my sinfulness or achievements \u2013 but from the point of gratitude.\u00a0 Contrition followed naturally \u2013 when you realise how much you were given \u2013 and how little you yourself gave, how many of those graces you completely wasted..<\/p>\n
If I have ever been ready for death, that must have been the time.. and, despite the lingering fear, I was surprisingly happy with the childlike, carefree happiness.
\nWe arrived safely, though, so I think I was given yet another chance.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s readings are all about humility \u2013 the most important of all virtues. The shortest and best definition of it is \u201ctruth\u201d. Truth about ourselves individually and about our human condition \u2013 all in relation to God. It is also antithesis of pride, the most devastating of human faults. Just as there exist various forms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n