What is Real Humility?

The first reading for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C, from Sirach chapter 3 and the Gospel from Luke chapter 14 are about humility. 

Do you have friends or family members who have a hard time accepting a compliment?  When you praise the delicious meal they have served they say, "Oh, it was nothing."  I'm tempted to respond, "You're right.  It really was pretty mediocre.  I've had a lot better." 

Why do some people reject compliments or deny them?  The reason is called "false humility."  It's false because it denies the truth of the goodness that's being recognized and praised.  It's false because it's often motivated by a desire to receive more attention and praise.

But what about the parable Jesus tells in today's Gospel?  In it he recommends taking the lowest or worst seat at a banquet so that the host will come along and seat you in a better place and "you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table."  Isn't that "false humility?"

The key to understanding all this is to ask about one's motivation. 

True humility is honest.  It's truthful, not false.  And the ultimate truth is that we are nothing.  There is no "self-made person."  We didn't create ourselves nor did we endow ourselves with the talents we use to do things that gain us recognition and praise.  All that we are and have is ultimately a gift from God. 

We are nothing and we are great.  We are great because we are important to God.  We are so precious to God that the Son of God shed his Precious Blood "that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel" (see the second reading).  The blood of Abel, the Bible's first murder victim, called for justice, for vengeance.  The Blood of Jesus calls for mercy.  It says to each human being: "You are precious to me.  Precious enough to die for.  I would rather die than to live without you." 

Because Jesus underwent what he called a "baptism"--his suffering and death--we are freed from sin and death.  We are saved and baptized into God's family. We are joined to the Body of Christ.  Now, as God's beloved daughters and sons, we share in the same relationship with God the Father that Jesus has.  The Father loves us with the same infinite love with which he loves his only begotten Son.

This is what makes us great.  Not our looks.  Not physical beauty.  Not what we do or accomplish.  Not the awards we win.  Not our wealth or power.  Not what others think of us or say about us. 

False humility is motivated by insecurity.  We wonder, "Am I really good.  Am I really lovable?"  Seeking praise from others tries to answer those questions in the affirmative.  But we can't depend on what others say or think about us for our sense of self-worth.  Human praise disappears like the sound of the words. Physical beauty does not last.  Success comes and goes. 

Our true self-worth is much deeper and secure.  It comes from a daily and prayerful awareness that I will always be precious to God, that I am a beloved son or daughter from whom God will never take away his love.  It's been said, there is nothing you can do to make God love you less. Nor is there anything you can do to make God love you more.  God's love for us is infinite and there is no more or less when it comes to infinity. 

True humility can admit: I am not perfect.  I am weak.  I am not God, but I am beloved by God.

Ultimately true humility leads to gratitude.  With it I can say: "I am nothing, but God has done great things for me.  I am great in God's eyes so I don't need to prove anything to anyone."  True humility can accept compliments and give the glory to God. 

That's what the Blessed Virgin Mary did.  According to Luke chapter 1, when Mary went to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth she was greeted with: "Most blessed are you among women."  Mary accepted the praise and gave all credit and glory to God, saying, "Behold, from now on will all ages called me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me." 

God has looked on all of us in our lowliness, our nothingness, and has done great things for us. 

The Name, the Heart, and the Blood

This month’s First Friday falls on the feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.  In 1969 this feast was

removed from the liturgical calendar but was restored in 2002.

A name represents that person, his or her identity.  According to Matthew 1:21, Joseph was directed by an angel to call Mary’s son “Jesus,” a name that means “God saves.” This is Jesus’ identity. He is the Savior of the world. As such His Name is “above every name” and is the name at which “every knee should bend” (Philippians 2:9-10). Moreover, according to a speech that St. Peter gave in front of the Sanhedrin, “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” (Acts: 4:12).  The Name of Jesus says it all and is all-powerful. It’s a prayer in itself.

As Jesus can be represented by His Name, so He is also represented by His Heart. The heart is the center of person, that person’s deepest interior or identity. Thus devotion to the Name of Jesus goes with devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the Name given to Him when He suffered and died on the cross, when His Heart was pierced so that Blood and Water, the sacramental life of the Church, would flow forth and save the world. 

Devotion to Jesus’ Name and Heart includes devotion to His Precious Blood. These three go together: the Name, the Heart, and the Blood. In fact, Blessed, soon-to-be Saint, John XXIII wrote about this in a June 30, 1960 letter entitled “On Promoting Devotion to the Most Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He wrote:

“We judge it most timely to call our beloved children's attention to the unbreakable bond which must exist between the devotions to the Most Holy Name and Most Sacred Heart of Jesus -- already so widespread among Christians -- and devotion to the incarnate Word's Most Precious Blood, ‘shed for many, to the remission of sins.’

“Suffice it to recall the spiritual favors that our predecessors from the sixteenth century on have attached to practicing devotion to the Most Holy Name of Jesus, which in the previous century St. Bernardine of Siena untiringly spread throughout Italy. No less striking are the benefits the popes have attached to practicing devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose rise and spread owe so much to the revelations of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. So highly have all the popes regarded this devotion that again and again in their official acts they have expounded its nature, defended its validity, promoted its practice.  

“Likewise the devotion to the Most Precious Blood, which owes its marvelous diffusion to the 19th-century Roman priest, St. Gaspar del Bufalo, has rightly merited the approval and backing of this Apostolic See.

“Amid today's most serious and pressing spiritual needs, may this latest exercise of that ‘care for all the churches’ proper to our sovereign office awaken in Christian hearts a firm conviction about the supreme abiding effectiveness of these three devotions.”

Jesus—the Name, the Heart, and the Blood that flowed from it to save the world—all represent the Person. May the Name of Jesus be reverenced and honored at all times and places world without end. Amen.