May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
As Benedictine monks, our holy father St. Benedict instructs us through his holy Rule to strive and show forth the twelve stages of Humility, for through it we can fully receive and share the love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The month of October, the month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, is almost at its end. That does not mean that we who do practise in praying the Rosary should stop, for it is through journeying with our Blessed Mother Mary that we learn what true humility is all about.
Our Blessed Mother was never boastful, but always humble, as we are reminded when we reflect on the Third Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary (The Nativity) that, after the shepherds had told of what they had heard and seen, she remembered and cherished all these things in her heart.
This morning, in our appointed Gospel passage, we meet a Pharisee, someone who is very faithful to the Law. Yet, in all his faithfulness, he still misses what the Law was all about. The Law was there to constantly remind those who followed it, and those who even today still follow it, that God should always be the center of every breath, movement and activity. The Pharisee, through his boastfulness of all that he has done, made the fasting and the giving all about himself, shifting the focus away from God and onto himself.
It was as if the Pharisee and Mac Davis wrote the song It’s Hard to be Humble together:
“Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble
when you’re perfect in every way.
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
’cause I get better looking each day. …”
The tax collector, who in his time was seen as someone wicked and bad, and for good reason, shows us another glimpse of what humility is, when we shift the attention away from us and put all our attention and focus on God.
It is through humility that our dependence on God deepens, our hearts becoming more open to receive Him anew and afresh, so that the fruits of the Holy Spirit can flourish more bountifully through us. For it is then that we can forgive, love, share and support as we ought to.
We are approaching All Saints Day, which is on Saturday 1 November, and as we prepare to celebrate this great feast day, may we follow their example of how humility leads us to live more deeply, closely to our God.
To take it further, we learn from Jesus himself what humility is all about, as St. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians (2:5-11):
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Without humility, we are lost. What are the areas in my life that still keep me from humbling myself so that I may serve Almighty God with everything that is within me?
May our week be filled with graceful moments to put our humility to the test. May you have a blessed All Saints Day on Saturday, and remember that on the 2nd of November we remember our loved ones who have passed on. Is there anyone who has passed on in our own lives whom we struggle to forgive? May this week be the week we find the necessary space to forgive, that we too may heal. Go and buy a candle, put it with the photo of your loved one(s) next Sunday, and like the tax collector, go before Almighty God with a humble heart, seeking that one day you too may share, with our Blessed Mother Mary, St. Benedict, all the Saints and your loved one(s), eternal life in his kingdom. Amen.