Humility

[Homily for the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, cycle C]

Humility is a word that gets tossed around quite a bit, and we hear it in today’s readings, we hear it straight from our Lord’s mouth.

A person may be described as humble, but so may someone’s house. We’ve heard it, “he has a very humble house, very simple, without much in it.” Sometimes when someone is meek or quiet, they are described as humble, but also people who have accomplished great things but don’t boast about it. For example, “she’s so humble, you would never guess she has a fortune.” News reporters describing poor people during a tragedy come to mind also, they may say something like, “these humble people who have very little to begin with, have now lost everything.”

So, what is humility? What does it mean to be humble?

For some time after I entered seminary, I wondered what humility meant. After all, our Lord himself tells us, “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” We are called to be humble… I wondered, how can I be humble if I don’t understand what it means to be humble?

At this time I had confused humility with humiliation, and now I know they are very different. Many people confuse these two, let me explain.

After less than one year in the seminary, my family went through some very difficult times. There’s no need to go into details, but just know that betrayal, arguing, false accusations, ugly words, and lawyers were involved – a situation I wouldn’t wish anyone.

I accepted all these things and kept quiet thinking I was being humble. I thought being humble involved getting stepped all over and humiliated, no matter how much it hurt. I thought being humble meant suffering injustice without speaking up and simply offering everything to God.

I thought humility meant putting yourself down and thinking little of yourself.

I thought it meant self-deprecation and lacking self-worth.

But rather, humility is something much more profound than this. Humility is not thinking less of ourselves or allowing others to step all over us.

I have come to understand that humility is accepting some of the most fundamental truths of life, primarily that: I am not the Savior of the world, I am not perfect, and all good things come from God the Father.

Humility is accepting all that is true.

1. I am not the Savior of the World – we have to accept that we cannot fix every problem of our lives or in the lives of those around us. That is not our job description, that is God’s job description. Being humble means admitting that we cannot do everything, that we cannot be all things to all people. Being humble means accepting our limitations and being at peace.

2. I am not perfect – we must accept that we are flawed and make mistakes. The best we can do is to get up again and again after each time we mess up. Being humble means recognizing our human frailty, that we leave this world the same way we entered it: with absolutely nothing. It means recognizing that even our own life, what is most precious to us, is not our own.

3. All good things come from God the Father – being humble means attributing to God all the good things we have and all the goodness in us. Being humble means recognizing and using our gifts and talents, which have been given to us by God and also being aware that we do not have ALL the gifts. We need to recognize that others are better at certain things than us, and be OK with it.

The opposite of humility is pride. Humility puts the focus on God and recognizes that all things come from God. Pride puts the focus on us and believes that all good things come from us. Pride is the source of all sin, humility is the beginning of all goodness.

I’ve come to realize that I had confused humiliation with humility:

Humiliation is allowing others to step all over you even if they are wrong. Humility means standing up for the truth with love.

Humiliation leads to depression and a distancing from God. Humility leads to joyful acceptance of all that happens to us and a close relationship with God.

Humility can help us endure humiliation patiently, but they are not the same thing. Humility helps us endure humiliation and other difficult things because it reminds us that all things in the world are passing away and that only one thing is essential – God’s presence in our lives.