Thought for the Day – 20 July – Meditations with Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)
HUMILITY
Meditations for a Month
Consciousness of Humility
How are we to know whether we are humble?
If we think we are humble, we may be quite sure that we are not really humble at all! There is no
more certain sign of pride, than to be unaware of its existence in ourselves. Which Saint ever lived,
who did not acknowledge and lament his pride and self-love? A Saint who should believe himself to be thoroughly humble, would be no Saint at all.
How far do I recognise in myself an ever-running sore of pride, making me foul and unsightly before God, who hates the proud and gives grace only to the humble?!
If I find that I take disparaging remarks, attacks and contradictions from others, with patience and good humoor, it is a good sign but, not a certain sign that I am humble.
Pride, which apes humility, often renders man proof, against that which others think. He wraps himself in his cloak of pride and looks down on their opinion of him.
Indifference to the praise and honour of those
around us, is not a certain sign, for this too may come from pride and a spirit of contempt!
But if anyone:
+++ recognises himself as full of pride;
+++ dislikes the idea of being honoured and praised;
+++ desires humiliations and prays for them; or
+++ thinks himself to deserve the worst of everything and the lowest place,
he may hope that he has begun to walk the road which, in the end, may through God’s grace, produce in him the virtue of humility.
Examine yourself on these points, thank God for any signs of progress and lament over still -remaining defects.
AnaStpaul 