Humility

“Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”

– Matthew 11:29

Reflection:

Mother Teresa, like all saints, led an extraordinary life of humility. It was her total reliance on God that made her a model for true humility. Mother Teresa recognized she couldn’t do anything great on her own – not even serve the poor on the streets.

Mother Teresa knew who she was in God’s eyes, and knew that all of her work was His. She knew she was merely God’s instrument for love and service towards others… what a wonderful things to be! God’s own instrument!

Humility is a hard virtue. It’s difficult because it requires that we view ourselves as God does. This means we recognize our necessity to be totally reliant on God in order to be the person he created us to be. Humility, in a sense, is seeing oneself through God’s eyes, and knowing all goodness we have comes from Him.

It is not enough to recognize this reality, but if we want to live with true humility we must direct our actions toward this realization. This means that our lives should be totally directed to love God in every action, because we are His and not our own.

Even Jesus Himself was the humblest of all people, even though He is God. As St. Paul teaches us, Christ preferred to empty Himself for the sake of forgiving our sins – Jesus’ whole life was less about His greatness, and more about His relationship and reliance on God in humility.

This week, let’s give ourselves in humility back to God, knowing we are His.

Challenge: “Do not seek to be admired and loved”

– St. Mother Teresa (From Mother Teresa’s Humility List)