Who Does Not Want to Be?

June 11, 2024

Hi!  How is each and every one? Last Wednesday at long last my young friend and I met again after five years?  We met when she was in Grade 11.  After a year and a half, I transferred residence and we would just get in touch through messenger.  Another friend informed me that she enrolled in the University of Sto. Tomas, Manila.  I also learned that from her, herself.  The usual case is that students get a unit around the area of the school to stay in during the school year and go home to spend the weekends with the family. Maybe we really did not try hard to get to meet each other those years she stayed over around the University which was not very far from my place.  And now that she has made it and graduated and learned how to drive just three months before graduation, she expressed her intent to come and visit me.  And sure she did, after scheduling and rescheduling the date, we finally saw each other and had a good time sharing and updating one another on happenings.  I learned a lot from her and we had a good time. 

Street life, commuting by different means of transportation is indeed a school of virtues and a maturing process.  She has had different experiences to share and give advice or tips to the old and the young.   An example is when younger persons teach you technology depending on the situation, either one of you can say ‘patience lang’.  Another one is when the time comes that you will need to take angkas (motor ride), this is how to go about it.

I guess we both considered the day a victory of sorts because we finally made it together; in spite  of not being able to do all the things we planned to do that day because of traffic, the rain and other things.  But we made it and we look forward to another time we can do the other things we planned.

Following is about the fount of abundance (From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 4).

Humility:  The Source of Abundance              

University of Chicago Center for Practical Wisdom

 The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility.  For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it.—St. Vincent de Paul

Differencebetween.com

 Humility is not thinking less of ourselves; it is thinking of ourselves less.—C.S. Lewis

Humility is the heavenly virtue that is classically seen as an antidote to pride.  Unfortunately, humility is often equated with tearing oneself down, with diminishing oneself. We think of being humble as the opposite of being proud of ourselves and taking joy in our accomplishments or our other gifts. 

As I have noted previously, pride is not the “sin” of being pleased with yourself or your gifts, nor is it the putative “virtue” of failing to rejoice in those gifts.  If you give your child a gift, you expect your child to be excited about it, don’t you?  How disappointed would you be if your child received your gift with little more than a grim nod out of fear of seeming too happy? Jesus tells us that if we who are imperfect can give our children good things, how much more can our Father in  heaven do so for his children (Mt 7:11)?  If that’s true, how much more do you think God wants his children to be excited about and rejoice in the gifts, talents, treasures, and beauty that he has given them? 

When the psalmist contemplates the wonders of his body, he does not say, “Um, thanks, God.  I guess it’s okay.”  No!  He proclaims, “I praise you, Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made!” (Ps 139:14).  When was the last time you looked in the mirror and said something like that about what you saw?  Was King David being prideful when he sang this incredible song?  Of course not.

“Humility” shares the same Latin root as the “humus,” or soil.  Which is not to say that humility is the same thing as mere dirt.  As any gardener knows, humus is rich, fertile soil.  It produces much fruit and many flowers.  Humus is the good patch of earth one can rejoice in!

So if living with humility does not mean beating up on oneself for allegedly spiritual purposes, what is humility really, and how does it both counteract pride and help us achieve abundance?  Recall that pride denies our radical communal nature.  It claims that I have no obligation to share my gifts with others, nothing to learn from others, and no need for my life to be complicated by intimate relationships with others. 

By contrast, humility is the virtue that makes me radically receptive to being with, learning from, and sharing myself and my gifts with others.  This is true even of the qualities such as beauty, achievement, or status that are associated with the type of pride known as vanity or vainglory.  The sin of vanity or vainglory isn’t the sin of dressing well or rejoicing over one’s achievements.  It is the sin of lording one’s appearance or accomplishments over others instead of using one’s appearance to facilitate healthy social interaction or one’s accomplishments to be a blessing.  Even in these instances, pride is the sin of saying “I will not serve.”

As I shared earlier, abundance can be satisfied only by the active pursuit of meaningfulness, intimacy, and virtue.  Humility facilitates meaningfulness by making me want to give my gifts and talents to others.  Humility says, “If what I have can be a help to you, please let me share it with you.”

Humility facilitates intimacy by inspiring us to say, “You are important to me.  I want to see the truth, goodness, and beauty in everything you find true, good, and beautiful.  Teach me to see the world as you do!”

Humility facilitates virtue by inviting us to ask ourselves, “What can life teach me today?”  Humility is the virtue that makes us useful to God and enables us to be a profound blessing to others.  It is such a powerful virtue that, in the words of St. Teresa of Avila, “There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge in the world” (Clores, 2002).

Scripture reminds us that we can never seem to find the right time to act, the right path to take, the right things to do that will make us happy (Eccl 3).  There comes a point when all the things pride tells us to chase leave us cold.  Humility facilitates abundance by placing our hearts in a receptive mode.  We cannot find the right time to act, but God can.  If we are willing to learn, God will show us how to walk the paths of both authentic, bone-deep happiness and divinization at the same time. Humility leads us to the surprising discovery that it is possible to be both authentically happy and holy!

I cannot but agree to everything that is written above.  Humility is the wellspring of abundance.  God, like the best father, wants you and me to run to Him and express our needs, our helplessness, our dependence on Him, our gratitude towards all His gifts.  You cannot imagine how much He wants to give each one of us the best.  But He waits for us to ask Him for whatever you and I want. He wants that you and I talk to Him about them.

Yes, take good care of your relationship with God, His mother, and Jesus.  If you do so, you will never be lonely, alone, or abandoned.  If there is any relationship worth the effort, time, money and priority, it is your relationship with God. 

As always, I suggest you and I talk to God in the silence of our prayer time with Him about the things we read above.  Listen to Him and do whatever He tells you to do. 

See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”

Affectionately,                    

Guadalupinky