 pulling up the email. There we go. Oh that one takes her to life. Hey everyone! Oh gosh, we already went live. Sorry about that. Welcome back. It's a little bit of humility there. Welcome back to our humility study, Humble of Heart. And it's just a pleasure to have Father Altair back for this third part of our three part series, our final part today. This advent has flown by. Three weeks of Advent. It's kind of crazy. Before we get started, if you have, I wanted to mention, if you have been enjoying Father's teaching here, he came out with a really amazing book called God's Plan for Your Marriage and actually teaches a course on it at the Avila Institute. And it's open for registration right now. The class begins January 8th. So it's on Monday nights at 8.30 p.m. Eastern and registration closes by January 2nd. So if you've been joining this at all and would like to learn about God's plan for your marriage, please feel free to go to avila-institut.org and sign up. So before we hopped on and went live, I was just telling Father, a few days ago we had an Avila Army webinar with Simone Rizcala and she had quoted some saints that said, humility is my daily bread. And it just, it struck me so much obviously because of the Eucharist, but I thought that was such a great quote, something to ponder and reflect on with all of these talks that have been going on. So with that, Father, I'll leave that with you and let you open us up in prayer. Thank you, Anne. And let's turn to our Blessed Lady and ask her intercession for us. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, amen. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Where we left off with our last talk was talking about Saint Benedict and his rules regarding humility. And we said that there were a half a dozen of them that deal with internal things. And then there were five others that were dealing with external things. And so today we'll start with the external things. So the first of those external practices, he says, is the avoidance of singularity. So when we look at our external acts, the desire to be singular is actually a clear sign of pride, to be different, to stand out, whatever. We all have this problem to one degree or another. But in some practical ways, it seems it's actually a little more prevalent for women. I recall speaking, for instance, with a nun, she was the superior of an order of very good nuns. And she described this problem among the nuns, and how differently the women had to address the issues of their habit, as opposed to the men from the same order. So she said, for instance, that the men's rule simply says the habit is a long, round tunic overlaid by a scapular. That's it. The women's rule, she said, was something like this. The habit consists of a long, round tunic that comes to three inches off the floor. The bottom hem is to be two inches in width. Over the tunic is a scapular, which is 14 inches wide with a half an inch hem on each side. The bottom of the scapular is to be eight inches above the bottom of the edge of the tunic. The bottom hem is two inches. Now, there were similar things with regard to every part of their habit. And she explained why this was necessary. She said for women, if it's not explicitly laid out, she said one of the nuns in order to make a point about who she is or whatever it might be, she said she'll actually have her habit dragging on the floor. There's another nun who'll have her habit up to her knees. There's one that'll have the veil hanging out here. There's another one will have the veil way back here. And so she said when you're dealing with women, you have to be so precise about how that happens. Otherwise, they try to set themselves up to somehow be different, to be unique in that way. And again, I've certainly heard from men's orders where the same thing happens. So it's not just for women, but in general, that's something that seems to be more of a problem. We see the same thing in schools, in Catholic schools. You have different cliques that do things to set themselves apart. They all wear the same uniform. But then this little group wears this particular button or this group has these kinds of shoelaces or whatever it might be that there's something that sends a message to the rest of the students in the way that they do things. And so one of the things I always laugh about, for instance, is if you go to a social event and there are two women that are wearing the same outfit. And while they're at the event, they might actually laugh about it and even take pictures or something about it. But it tends to be that as soon as the thing is over, the negative comments go on for days about how dare this person wear the same thing as me. And this is like a personal affront of some sort. And so St. Benedict talks about avoiding singularity by not doing things that will draw attention to ourselves or set ourselves apart as somehow being odd. So that's again the thing. It's not a matter of trying to fit in per se, because that's its own problem. That's the attachment to human affection, which is again part of, it can also be human esteem or human respect, whatever you want to call it, but that's also part of our pride. But nonetheless, it's that point of just not wanting to set ourselves apart in some kind of spectacular way anyway. With regard to the second point, which is 10th or 8th, all total, but the second point regarding the external practices, St. Benedict talks about silence. And so he said silence was part of humility for the religious. It's not merely intended to keep anyone from conversing, but rather as a means of calming the soul so that one can sit at the feet of Christ and converse interiorly with him. So silence then fosters good thoughts. It helps us to fight against distractions. And that helps us to fight against wasting time in prayer. And it helps us in mental prayer, because we don't have to spend precious time in prayer, just trying to quiet the mind and recollect the soul. When I've talked to people who are fairly advanced in the spiritual life, that's the point that they bring up all the time. If they get into, they pretty much live in silence. And if they get into conversations with people and so on, it tends to cause some agitation for them when it comes to prayer. So if they try and pray right after, if they've got some time in between, they can get calmed down again. But it's just little things. So if you're listening to the radio, watching TV, whatever, that's going to take away your peace on the inside. And so we're talking about the silence. That's the point. The fruit of silence is interior peace. And that is something that has all that been lost in our society. People today just can't stand silence. We have to have the radio and the TV and whatever going all hours of the day and night. Some people say they can't sleep without the TV set on. I don't get that. I don't understand it all. In fact, I was in a hotel about a month or so ago, and the people above me had their TV on all night long. And needless to say, I didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night. So maybe they couldn't sleep with the TV without the TV on. I couldn't sleep with their TV on. And that wasn't mine. That was theirs. So anyway, so you just think of all the different things that we have. Traditionally, I think back to the time of our blessed Lord and our blessed Lady. The society was silent. Everything was silent. We've got engines and sirens and phones and beepers and TVs and iPods and computers and radios and you name it. And so what happens though is if we don't have silence, we don't tend to look inside of ourselves. That's the thing. We keep ourselves all worked up about all these things that we never have to look inside. We never have to deal with ourselves. By that, I don't mean the navel gazing. I mean seeking God who is inside and seeking God who might be saying, this needs to change in your life. And how about this? And this needs to be let go of and so on. And so instead we just keep ourselves outside. We keep all this noise going and we never have to deal with the Lord who dwells within. What we have to remember is the wisdom of the ages. Where silence is, there is God. Where there is noise, there is the devil. And so that's what history has told us. That's the wisdom of the ages. And so people understood that when their lives were silent all the time. When the silence was broken, they realized it took away their peace and taking away the peace is where the devil's going to be. The ninth point in St. Benedict's list regarding humility is moderation in laughter. And this may not make sense to us at first glance, but he's not saying that we shouldn't laugh or that laughter is a bad thing. In fact, it's a very good thing even in religious life. You know, when they had their time of recreation so on, there's a lot of laughter that goes on. But instead, what he's saying is that we shouldn't be giving into boisterous outbursts, to guffaws, to anything that's uncouth. It's probable that he had in his mind the problem once again of seeking attention. You know, setting oneself apart. So if you're there with a bunch of monks or a bunch of nuns, and you're laughing up roriously and so on, it can seek notice by being raucous in the laughter. But the poet, Pope said, the insignificant, the empty is usually the loudest. And after the manner of a drum is louder even because of its emptiness. And so if we are full with God, we're not going to be making all kinds of noise. If we're empty, there's lots of noise. And so a good thing to think about. The 10th point St. Benedict makes is reserve and speech. All of us know people who talk non-stop. I mean, you don't even have to plug a nickel in, it just goes. If they call on the phone, you literally don't have to say a word. And for the most part, you're not allowed to. Just go on and on and on. If these people corner you somewhere, you know that you're in trouble. And for the life of me, I could not figure out how they did this. It's like, how is it possible that I can't find a way to be able to get a word in Engelweiser, to cut them off? And, well, after I was ordained my first pastor actually informed me of the secret. And so unlike the rest of us, these people don't take a breath at the end of a sentence. That would be the logical place where people can jump in. And so they've learned that people would cut them off. So they actually take a breath in the middle of the sentence so that when the end of the sentence comes, they just keep going. And you don't really have any logical place to be able to jump in there. And that's again, it's a control thing. But again, we're talking about the moderation in speech. Yeah, it's pretty obvious, you know, but at this point, this really isn't what St. Benedict was talking about. But again, something for all of us to be aware of and understand how that works. But getting back to what St. Benedict's talking about, most of us in our humanist like to get our two cents worth in. Everybody's talking. We think that we have to add to the conversation or whatever. What we have to really ask ourselves is, is this necessary? Could my lengthy dissertation have been summed up even in a sentence or two? Did I have to go on and on and on? Could I have said it just very, very quickly? And did I, was it even necessary for me to really add anything? You know, if it was, you know, I just want to put my two cents in. And perhaps what we need to do is step back a little bit. And when we're in a group, and at least employ the council to think before we speak. That's, you know, again, we, we oftentimes just, just throw in the stuff in without ever thinking about it. Maybe we need to think about that. It's a, it reminds me of a story that I heard from a young woman who was, was teaching in a very poor area in Africa. And it was, you know, she had only been there for a short period of time. So now came to the first test. And so all the kids had a piece of paper that was turned upside down on their desk. And when the teacher told them to turn over the paper and start the test, the students all turned over the page. And then they just sat there. And they did nothing. And when this teacher inquired of the other teacher what was happening, she said, well, because paper was in such short supply in that area in Africa, the students had been taught to think through what they wanted to say before they began writing. So again, something doesn't even have to be with writing, although it works for that too. But, but how important just to stop and think before we think that we need to put in some opinion of our own. Finally, Saint Benedict talks about modesty in behavior. And so when, when he's talking about modesty and behavior, obviously, we can understand that modesty extends to all of our actions and not just the way we dress. But we have to understand modesty is not just an ornament that helps us to maintain proper comportment, but rather it is a guard of virtue. So there are three sorts of modesty that that are given regarding our demeanor. The first deals with our composure or the comportment of our bodies. This is first because it renders us submissive to others for the sake of God. And this is also in the primary place in this section because it makes us subjects of others, not only in some occasions or once in a while, but in all times in all places, whether we are alone or with others. So again, it just, it helps us to be able to remember that that we are, we are to be humble. We aren't to be putting ourselves out there and presenting ourselves that way. So it's just the way that we hold our body even is to be humble, to be modest. The second type of modesty is interior. And it works in the same way in the soul as the external composure works in the body. So this kind of modesty keeps and maintains the powers of the soul and tranquility by avoiding curiosity and needless inquiries of our understanding and holding in check the many desires of our will. So we've always got these things coming up in our minds and in our thoughts. And so what this does is that it helps to keep all that in check and again, just maintain the interior calm. The third type of modesty has to do with our words and the manner that with which we converse with others. And so what this means is using the proper language, avoiding the use of vulgar and offensive words, which in our society has just become absolutely out of control. Modesty and speech must also govern our manner of speaking so that it would be agreeable and not offensive to our neighbor, not too soft, not too loud, not too soft, not too slow, whatever, not too fast, but actually finding that proper holy medium between the various extremes. As we've said before, the old Latin phrase in Medeus dot Virtus in the middle stands virtue. And so that's what we want to be aiming for. Now, these things having been said about modesty and behavior, we must also hear the admonition of St. Ambrose on this subject. He said, modesty should be simple and natural. If it were forced and affected, it would be most displeasing. So again, it needs to just flow naturally. You can't force it to happen. We all recognize when somebody's being phony, when they're just putting on an act, and obviously that'll be recognized immediately by anyone as false humility. And false humility is pretty repulsive to anyone. So when our Lord said, learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, we would not immediately recognize in these words the assurance that humility casts out all fear. But St. Benedict, after having proclaimed his 11 degrees of humility, told his brothers, and I quote, having ascended all these degrees of humility, the monk soon reaches the love of God, that perfect love that casts out all fear. This again is because of the correlation between humility and charity. If we have perfected humility, then we will be able to perfect charity. Beyond this, if we're truly humble, then we're not going to fear the judgment of our Lord because we've already judged ourselves. And we've judged ourselves as we've seen in the previous talks about being the lowest, of being the least. And so we're not afraid or surprised when someone else sees the same thing in us or thinks that same thing. So we really believe that we are the lowest, and we stand before the Lord, we're going before him as the lowest. We're not trying to impress him. We're not going to be afraid because we have humility. As it is with most everything in our lives, of course, our pride wants us to think better of ourselves than what we really are. So here in St. Benedict telling us about the ascending of all 11 degrees of humility, we might be tempted to think that we've actually acquired them all. Just doing so well. Again, we need to be so careful not to be too proud of our humility because that kind of destroys the whole thing. But nonetheless, because we can look at these things and convince ourselves of certain things, we need something further that will help us to determine whether or not we have actually achieved humility. So the truth, the proof rather of true humility, according to Bergamo in his humility of heart, is patience, meekness of speech, humbleness of bearing, or giving oneself up to lowly works are all pointing in the right direction, but they are not actually sufficient to judge whether or not a soul is truly humble if we've actually achieved that humility that we're looking for. So they're pointing to the fact that we're on the road to humility, but they aren't the proof of it. So there are many who will bear the appearances of external humility, but they still get angry at every slight adversity. They resent any little vexation that they might encounter. So you just, again, you look inside, you say, okay, I'm doing these things externally. But remember, in the spiritual life, the externals always come before the internals. So in other words, let's say you're prone to anger. And so you learn to keep silent, you learn not to lash out, but inside you're still angry, you're still burning, you're just not letting it out. And maybe you've even got to the point where people can't tell you're angry, your face doesn't turn red, you don't get all upset, but inside it's still there. So that's the thing, we can get some of these external things in place, but we have to look at what's going on inside. So if we see that in certain circumstances, we actually are able to demonstrate some tolerance and patience in bearing insults or suffering wrong in silence without getting upset, without getting angry or resenting somebody. Again, these are a good sign from which we can conclude that we've actually gained some humility. Even then, however, patience is the only infallible sign of true humility when it proceeds from the recognition of our own unworthiness. And when we tolerate the wrong because we know that we are full of faults ourselves, and therefore we deserve it. Of course, it's not possible for us, if I should say it is possible for us as we begin to grow in humility to take pride in the fact that we're more patient, and that we're able to suffer an insult because we still feel that we didn't deserve it, or we can even bear wrongs patiently. But nonetheless, we still feel wrong. We're still attached to our own feelings of importance when it comes to somebody who's failing to esteem me or recognize who I am or whatever you want to say. So again, we may be able to see that there's some improvement in humility. It will also be quite clear in these kinds of things that we've not yet perfected it. And so that's that's what the saints are interested in is perfecting that humility. Because remember charity and humility are equals. So the depth of your charity, the depth of your humility is equal to the height of your of your charity. So you can't grow in charity, the love of God, love of neighbor, unless we grow in humility first. So therefore, we have to make a few distinctions with regard to this patience. The patience of the philosophers, the Stoics or the worldly people is very different actually from the patience of a Christian person. The Stoics taught patients in their writing and by their example. But interestingly, it was actually a patient's born of pride. That is, it was self esteem and contempt for others. You know, they thought that they were higher than others. And so they just had to be patient with these stupid people or whatever it might be. The worldly minded will bear many afflictions and anxieties in their lives with patience. But again, it's a patience that proceeds from selfish motives or from the necessity of worldly prudence. So again, a whole different motive. So Christians alone bear a patience that is united with humility. And therefore receives every adversity with submission to the divine will. That's the thing. We can see it as this is part of God's will for me right now. He's allowing this to happen. Therefore, that's God's will. And so that's the patience St. Augustine tells us that is pleasing to God. And I quote him again. He says, that which a man does from pride is not pleasing to God, but that which he does from humility is acceptable to him. And so again, it's a matter of looking at that point of what is God's will. If this is happening to me right now, somehow this is God's will for me. And so even if it's something that seems unjust or may objectively be unjust, nonetheless, if we can remind ourselves, you know what, there are a lot of things I've gotten away with. There are a lot of things that I could have gotten in trouble for or should have gotten in trouble for, but I didn't get caught. And so therefore I got away with it. Well, now I'm getting blamed for something that I didn't do. Okay. Well, how many times did I not get blamed? You know, so it's again, looking at those points as being the least as being the lowest as being undeserving of whatever accolades or whatnot. And truly believing that about yourself. That's where that humility comes in that we're really looking for. So when we look at our own selves, again, we like to try to convince ourselves that we have certain virtues. Maybe by nature, for instance, you don't really care about eating or drinking very much. And therefore we automatically think we're temperate. Maybe we like to give. Maybe we're just very kind and we like to give to others. And therefore we think we have the virtue of charity. And so again, easy for us to convince ourselves of these things. But on the other hand, it doesn't matter how much practice, how much we practice humility, form a judgment about ourselves, about being humble, because the person who thinks that he's humble no longer is because that's going to be pride when we look at it that way. So just as the first steps in becoming humble are to recognize ourselves as being proud, so to flatter ourselves by suggesting that we're humble is the first step toward pride. And the more humble we think ourselves to be, actually, the greater is our pride. So whatever is going on within our hearts and imaginations that make us think that we're really humble is actually nothing more than vanity. And vanity and humility can't exist together because vanity is a lie. And pride springs from a lie. While humility is founded in truth, in fact, St. Teresa of Avila simply said humility is truth. And so again, if you really understand or recognize the truth about yourself, as we've talked about that balance, you know, we've got the dignity on the one side and we've got our nothingness on the other side. And so if we understand that and have that truth and recognize ourselves for who we really are, then we're going to have humility. Yeah, I mean, again, there's a point of truth in acknowledging that there are these good things that have been done, but then we give the credit to God, we don't take it for ourselves. And so, and that's that's easy in our heads to be able to grasp, but down deeper, we like the we like the credit, we like the attention, we like the focus, whatever you want to say. And so, again, we just need to be very, very careful not to be too proud of our humility, because that just doesn't work. There's also a difference between being humiliated and being humbled. It often happens when a proud man is humiliated, he remains proud. He receives humiliations with anger and contempt, and actually winds up trying his best to avoid the trials. It can also happen that proud people can become humbled through their humiliations, because ultimately, the only way to humility is through humiliation. It's the only way. And remember, this is this is a virtue that primarily has to be achieved passively has to be done to us. So as we've seen, there are some things that we can do to work toward humility. But it's it's really something that has to happen to us. So when when we're proud, and then we're humiliated, what can happen is that the humiliations can teach us to know ourselves as we really are. And that knowledge of self then leads to a love of humiliation. And so so St. Bernard says, he is humble who converts all of his humiliations into humility, and says unto God, it is good for me that thou hast humbled me. Well, once again, how often do we actually do that? That just again demonstrates how much pride we really have. I don't know if you're anything like me as I've been going through these these notes on humility. The only thing that it's done is to prove that I don't have any. And and so it's which is really good for my humility to you know, I think last last time we even had something about here's here's what the beginners do. And I can't even say that I do that. And so it's like, wow, there is zero humility. Actually, kind of humorously goes along with my name. They, you know, when people came to America, they changed the name. So so tiered looks French. Now, it's actually not a French name, but it's perfect because all TA in French means arrogance. Somebody knew what they were talking about. It's built right in. It's a real problem. And so it's good to talk about humility. But unfortunately, that's about as far as I can take it because I can't live it in Ralla. You don't live it anyway. But anyway, going back to the humiliations, if we actually knew all that we gain from humiliations, we would actually thirst for them. No one but a disciple of Jesus can be truly humble, because there is no real humility without the grace of God. So again, this isn't just something on the natural level, we're looking for a supernatural virtue here. And that can only happen through the grace of God. And of course, it doesn't exist on the natural level in this world, because it's too contrary to our nature, which is so badly wounded by the sin of pride. So the only way to obtain humility then is to look at Jesus and ask it of him sincerely. And so it is not possible as we just heard, to attain real humility without the grace of God. On the other hand, if we can do that and ask God for this grace and cooperate with it, humility is an abyss, which attracts torrents of grace, and it attracts our Lord Jesus himself into the soul. So once this cycle begins, it will continue to grow as long as we can continue to cooperate. Just as we can say, as long as you're alive, you can grow in charity. So too, as long as you're alive, you can grow in humility. And once you can get this moving, it's just like the train pulling out of the station, it starts pretty slow. But once it gets going, then it just goes faster and faster. So once we can get the humility going, once we can see the importance and the good that God brings out of the humiliations, then we're more quick to cooperate with it. Then we can rejoice in it. And then we begin to see how things can move much more quickly. So humiliations may be painful at first, but the humility and the deeper union that followed with Jesus are something that are very, very sweet to the soul, and something that are just such a blessing for us. So Saint Augustine says that the kingdom to which we aspire is great, but humble, he says, is the way that leads to it. He said, of what uses our longing for paradise if we are unwilling to walk the path that is the path of humility, that is the only way that is going to lead to that kingdom. What a profound, I mean, it's one of those things that's just so obvious, it's profound. And so yeah, if you want to get to heaven, you have to get on the road that's going to lead to heaven. And so that's what we need to look at. How can we get there? How do we do this? Well, this is what the saints say about humility, and they say that we can certainly see in this way its absolute importance in Christian life, but once again, it may strike us as being too harsh, too difficult, whatever, and thereby causing us to even give up before we even begin because we're afraid. Like I told you in the first class, I talked to people about praying that that litany of humility and the number of people who've come back and said, I can't do it. It's too hard. I can't do it. They're afraid. They're afraid to be humiliated. They're afraid to be rejected and so on. And so they just won't even start. And so, you know, all we have to do is think about when we see somebody who's truly humble, we, you know, we're just attracted. We love that. We see the beauty of that humility and yet at the same time, we look back at ourselves and we realize that we're afraid of what it will require to achieve that kind of virtue. And therefore, we actually prefer to gaze on it from afar rather than to embrace it for ourselves. And so, you know, we can even convince ourselves that we're being humble by admitting that to try and be humble is too difficult for us to handle. So, yeah, by ourselves, that is true. But with God, all things are possible. And so recall also that there is very little that is truly valuable that is easy. And so again, you think in your own lives of things that are that are most important and most valuable too, they're usually the things you had to work for and work hard for. And that's the same thing here. We're talking about the greatest thing of all, which is love. And the only way to get the love, the charity for God and neighbor, is to have the humility first. And so it's worth every bit of it. So all that having been said, you know, I commend to you the little way of Saint Therese, because that makes humility and the whole of the spiritual life accessible to the average ordinary person. So what a joy it is that God raised up a saint who doesn't require all kinds of rigorous penances and all these different spiritual exercises to be able to grow in holiness. And so what a gift of providence that it is only in our day that this simple way has finally come to light. God wants every last one of us to be a saint. And now here is a way that's accessible to everyone. To those who are heartier and enjoy the privations and the rigors of some of the saints, God bless you and embrace that and go for it. For everyone else, Saint Therese took what the great saints taught. She broke it down into simple terms that the rest of us can understand. And she blazed a trail on which anyone can walk, anyone. And that is the doctrine of her humility, her simplicity, and her spiritual childhood. So again, we don't have time to be able to go into all of that. But I highly commend that to you and recommend it because, again, it's just the simplicity. And when you read what she says, and it can all come down to one sentence, as she said, to do ordinary things with extraordinary love. And so it's that same point, not to be seeking anything great, but rather to be small. Anyway, a few practical points regarding the lived out reality of humility. First, the two virtues that our Lord wanted to teach us to practice above all others, our humility and charity. And so it is against these two virtues that the devil attacks the most. However, it is enough that he succeeds in conquering humility, because as Saint Augustine says, you cannot attain charity except through humility. Pride, he says, is always ready to take offense. And with this disposition to resent slight injuries, it is not possible for a person to live in charity. So when we find two persons who are prone to disagree, and for whom reconciliation is difficult, we can probably assume with great assurance that they're both filled with pride. So the connection between these two virtues is the reason why Saint Paul, after exhorting the Philippians to brotherly love went on to tell them, this is in Philippians 2, do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Putting this into practice for ourselves, we need then to stop blaming others for their pride when they cause us displeasure, but rather we need to learn to learn to blame ourselves for not knowing how to bear the displeasure with humility. Again, as always, it's easier to see the problem in somebody else. It's easier to point the finger, but we just need to look back at ourselves and say, wait a minute, yeah, that person might be filled with pride, but so is this one. And that's that's where we need to be able to learn to be to be humble. And so, you know, when, when, when we have riches, when we have lots of possessions, when we have a keen intellect, it's actually much more difficult for us to be meek, to be humble of heart, as Jesus asked us to be. However, overcoming the difficulty can actually add to the merit or to the virtue. And so, so there is really no merit at all in being humble when our condition is lowly, but there is great merit in being humble when we're surrounded by the incentives to pride, riches and learning and so on. So St. Bernard taught us that it is no great thing for a man to be humble in objection, but for one who is honored humility is all together a great and rare virtue. And so, so we have to strive for that for that lowliness and for that humility, but we also have to remember that, you know, it's, it's humility still has to be a choice. The fact that we're put into humble situations doesn't mean that we're necessarily humble because a lot of people in those humble situations don't want to be there and they're trying to fight it in every way that they can. And so, so that's, that's what we have to be very careful of. Father John Hardin talked about the fact that the most important thing in life is conformity to the divine will. That's what life is all about, you know, conformity to God. And that says you go through the levels of St. Teresa in prayer, you know, you get to the prayer of simple union, the fifth mansion, the prayer of conforming union, the sixth mansion, and finally the prayer of transforming union. That's when your will and God's will are one and the same. And that's not because God conformed himself to you, but rather because you conformed yourself to him or have been conformed because, again, that only happens passively. But anyway, this has to be the motive for all of our actions if we're going to grow in humility. And so wanting to do the will of God, our Lord allows various humiliations or sufferings in our lives, but they will only be translated into humility if we can accept them with the proper disposition, because it is not the humiliation alone or the suffering alone which makes the soul humble, but the interior act by which the humiliation is accepted and received through the motives of Christian humility and especially a desire to resemble Jesus Christ. Our Lord obviously was perfect in humility. And that's that's the whole goal, conformity to Christ. And so that's that's what we want to keep striving for. So a soul is truly humble when it recognizes that its true position in the order of nature or grace is entirely dependent on the power, the providence, and the mercy of God. So finding nothing in itself, but what is God's, it appropriates it to itself only its own nothingness. And it adds nothing to do that to that nothing as it tries to add nothing, but rather it abides in that nothingness and it places itself there on the level with all other creatures without raising itself above them in any way. It annihilates itself before God, not so as to remain in useless inactivity, but rather seeking to glorify God continually by conforming with the exact obedience to his laws in the perfect submission to his will. That's what our task is all about is conforming ourselves that way. So again, we have to be very careful when we hear this to be seeking that balance, because we don't want to say, oh, I have to annihilate myself before God because I'm just a worthless piece of trash. No, I am nothing in and of myself. I have this immense dignity God is given. And that's where that balance comes in, because otherwise it can become something ultimately part of our pride. Once again, that, oh, look what I did. I annihilated myself. And isn't it, aren't I impressive? Well, again, you know, we can pat ourselves on the back all we want for being humble, but just proves we don't have it. So anyway, when we sin and we feel ashamed or disturbed because we've sinned, that actually, the saints tell us is a temptation from the devil who is trying to use our distress to pull us even into even more serious sin. The sorrow that we feel in offending God does not distress the soul, but rather it leaves the soul calm and serene because it has a sorrow united with humility, which then brings grace with it. However, to be distressed and overwhelmed by sadness, do either to the shame that we feel from the sin that we've committed or from some other disgraceful action or from our sub recognition of our liability when we just thought that we were too strong or too faithful. And there's no way that I would ever be able to fall. Well, once again, all of that is pure pride and it's born of excessive self love. So again, we, we feel disgraced and we feel so rotten and we think that that's humility. And the saints tell us actually that's pride, because we think that we're better than we actually are. We think that there was no way that we could have committed that sin. And one of the things that I have learned over the years, anytime when I would look at somebody else and say, I can't believe that person's, I don't know why they would do so, they know better than that. How is it possible that they would ever do something like that? Within a few weeks, I do the exact same thing. The Lord allows me to fall flat on my face and do the exact same thing that person did. And then all I can do is look at it and say, well, now I understand why they did. Doesn't justify it, doesn't make it okay, but now I get it. And so, so it's, you know, judge not unless you be judged. And that's what the Lord helps me to see over and over again goes back to that point that we talked about last week, we're not for the grace of God, that would be me. And that's what God lets me see regularly. So anyway, if we feel disturbed when we find our reputation being injured by others, or when we find ourselves falling into some action because we have too high of an opinion of ourselves, you know, that which, again, is a problem that we've got. If we honestly were to look into why we feel distressed our faults and that we feel why the distress is there, it's due solely to our pride, which, again, as I said, this persuades me that I'm actually better than what I am. And when Scripture says that the just man falls seven times a day, and somehow I think that I'm not supposed to be able to sin when somebody who is truly righteous falls seven times a day. So again, that's where we look at how proud we really are. So for the humble person, even though through weakness and frailty that person falls, he soon repents with sorrow, and he implores the divine assistance to help him make amends. So he's not astonished that he fell because he knows that he is capable of every evil possible, and that he would be doing sins that are even far worse if God didn't protect him with his grace. So that's what the humble person sees. You know, I'm a sinner, and if it weren't for the grace of God, I would be sinning way worse than what I already am. And if I just did this stupid thing, well, should I be surprised that I did it? Because look at how pathetic I really am. So after having sinned, therefore it's good to humble ourselves before God without losing courage and to remain in humility so that we don't fall again. If we're truly humble, we're not going to fall. It's our pride that leads us to that. So to afflict ourselves, to beat ourselves up after we've fallen, or to give way to depression, the borders on despair, that is purely a temptation to pride which comes from the devil, who scripture says is the king over all the children of pride. So if we're going to be proud, we're just giving right into the devil who fell from pride. And he tempted our first parents with pride. That's why they fell. So the heart of the humble person always remains calm and tranquil, free of fear from anything in this world that could disturb it. The humble man enjoys peace and quiet because he lives according to the rules of truth and justice, submitting his own will and everything to God's will. So again, the focus is on God in striving to do his will. The proud man, on the other hand, is always perturbed and agitated because of the opposition that he has constantly to the divine will, to he wants to do his will instead of God's will. And so he's opposing the will of God consequently. Can't be at peace because we're not being who we were created to be as persons made in God's image and likeness. Saint Dorothea says, and I quote, The man who finds fault with himself accepts all things cheerfully, misfortune, loss, disgrace, dishonor, or any other kind of adversity. He believes that he is deserving of all these things and nothing can disturb him. No one could be more at peace than this man. So again, good thing to be able to look at for ourselves. Misfortune, loss, disgrace, dishonor, and any other kind of adversity. Do we accept them cheerfully? Look at Saint Paul when he wrote to the early Christians in his letter to the Hebrews and says, some of you were thrown in prison. Some of you rejoiced when your things were taken away and accepted it joyfully. Well, how many of us would do that if the government came in and took away all of our belongings? Are we going to rejoice in that? Are we going to accept it cheerfully? Are we going to scream and yell and holler about how unjust and so on it was? Yeah, it's unjust. That's not the issue. We can acknowledge that. But the humble person will just simply be able to be at peace and know that God has got everything in control. We don't need to get all upset. Not easy, obviously. So a point of warning for those striving for spiritual growth and that is that this can happen when one begins to grow in virtue. That is, the more he finds a sweet pleasure in himself, that is nothing more than pride once again. So at the beginning of the spiritual life, again, these different things happen. We have these new insights that we've never noticed before and so on. And then we find ourselves focusing on ourselves and how wonderful we are. And obviously that doesn't work. So Saint Augustine says that the more man thinks that he has reason to be pleased with himself, so much more I fear his self-esteem will displease God who resists the proud. So again, what an incredible statement. So the more a man thinks he has reason to be pleased with himself, so much more I fear this self-esteem will displease God. And so again, the scripture is very clear that God flees from the proud. He's drawn to the humble, but the haughty, he stays far away. So we want again that humility to draw near to God. So truth and justice then are the basis of the virtue of humility. Truth causes us to know ourselves as we really are and justice inclines us to act upon that knowledge. So again, we've seen a number of different statements about and definitions regarding humility. As I told you then, Saint Teresa of Avila, the church's master of prayer, tells us, as I said, humility is truth. For Saint Therese of Lisieux, humility, she says, is about turning one's eyes away from self, looking at the self as nothing and setting the eyes on God and on him alone. Therese found profit in every new proof of her misery and imperfection by turning more confidently to God and in trusting his divine mercy completely. This makes perfect sense, since faith in God's love and trust in his compassion are the only means by which we in our nothingness can ever truly be united to God. And so again, when we look at Saint Therese, one of her confidence is one of the great characteristics of the spirituality of Therese. Absolute confidence in God. And so again, if we look at our sins and think, well, my sins are too big or whatever, she actually said, if I sinned with a bigger sin, the bigger the sin, the more confidence I would have in running to God. And so she's saying, no, if we're humble and we do fall into something really big, we just have to have even more confidence in the mercy of God, more confidence to run and jump into his arms because we're so weak, because we're so pathetic, we have to be dependent on God. And all we do is keep proving it to ourselves. But then the devil turns it and says, see, therefore, you're too pathetic to go to God, you're too evil to go to God. That's not how God's looking at it. He's saying, no, look how weak you are, come to me. Remember, Saint Paul says that, well, God says to Saint Paul, in weakness, power reaches its perfection. So we want the strength of God, then we have to acknowledge our own weakness and depend on him. Saint Therese says that holiness does not consist in one exercise or another, but in a disposition of heart which renders us humble and little in the hands of God. So again, that's that spiritual childhood again. One way, again, that we can check our humility is to use how much we keep the focus on God as the gauge. Pride always wants us to focus on ourselves. Humility always keeps the focus on God. So again, we live in the most self-centered world and society in the history of the world. And so it's all about me. That's what it's all about. Look at what it's led to. Absolute misery. There are so many people that are miserable these days because all we're doing is looking at ourselves. That, as I've told you, that's what hell is. Hell is looking at yourself for the rest of eternity. Heaven is looking at God for the rest of eternity. Our time on earth is to prepare for eternity. So which way are you preparing? By looking yourself or by looking at God? The humble person looks at God, the proud person looks at the self. So the more our eyes are on the self, the less we love. And the more our eyes are on God, the more that we are able to love him and flowing from that to love our neighbor. So the closer that we draw to God and the more that we love him, also then the more clearly we see our own faults and imperfections. Because they show up. Like if you're wearing a bright white shirt or if you're wearing black, things show up. Everything shows up on them. And so the closer we get to God, the brighter the light is to be able to see our faults. Then this will lead us to a greater awareness of our own nothingness before God. And therefore, we can then ignore and forget ourselves as we grow in humility because we recognize that nothingness. So along these lines again, Saint Therese says, we must never be discouraged by our faults. I am happy to see how imperfect I am. And again, I'm happy that I failed us because, but I am never astonished by it. I say to myself, I am back at the first step as before, but I say it in great peace without sadness. It is so good to feel oneself to be little and weak. How many of us could say that? We live in a society that says, no, you've got to be big and strong and complex and so on. She's saying no little and weak and simple and so on, just the opposite as always of what the world upholds. The way of God, the way of the spiritual life is exactly the opposite of the way of the world. And so whatever the world is telling us, assume the opposite and you're going to have it. So to be astonished at something that we did or just to be discouraged by a fall, that's part of our pride. So again, pride is looking at our own selves. And if we look at our own self rather than looking at our Lord, who is the Lord of love and mercy, obviously then we're going to be depressed and discouraged because there's no hope in the self. If we're looking at ourselves rather than God, the hope is in God, the courage is in God, the love is in God, not in myself. So yeah, if I'm going to be looking at me, yeah, I'm going to be depressed. I'm going to despair. That's again, that's what the souls in hell are doing. It's pure despair, because all they're doing is looking at themselves, because there is no hope in the self. Our hope is in the Lord. So Saint Therese makes a point which seems so obvious, but which most of us have not learned. She said, and I quote, when we really see our wretchedness, we no longer wish to look at ourselves, but only at our beloved. Isn't that obvious? I mean, if there's something that's hideously ugly, why would you want to look at it when you have something that is beautiful to look at? That's the point. If we're looking at ourselves and we see our own sinfulness, our own wretchedness, our own weakness, and how pathetic we are, we're not going to be wanting to look at ourselves. We can look at God. It's truth and beauty and goodness in its fullness. Why would we want to be looking at ourselves? If we do not have humility, thoughts like that are actually going to lead us to depression and despair again. You see all these things. If we look at ourselves and we see these problems, a lot of it is our pride. We need to get the focus off the self and get it out. That's why Jesus commanded us to love God and love neighbor, because that's the putting the focus where it belongs. When we began this whole consideration of humility, we quoted Bergamo who said that Scripture is clear that humility is a gift from God and that no one can possess it unless it is given by God. However, that said, on the day of judgment, there will be no excuse for not having possessed humility because we've been taught and we know that we can obtain it by persevering in prayer. And if we have chosen not to use the means to attain it, it will be our fault for not having asked God for it and for that reason for having not obtained it. So our Lord instructs us to ask and we will receive. What is needed for obtaining this virtue of humility is to ask it of God with great insistence, Bergamo says. In this prayer we have the means and now all we need is the disposition. So again, that's where the trouble comes. Are we willing to accept? In our heroic moments in prayer, we'll say, oh, do anything you want. I'll accept anything. I'll accept the cross. Oh my goodness, he gives us a hangnail and we begin to scream. We wouldn't be able to carry the cross. We wouldn't be able to handle the humiliations. But God knows that. He will just build you up. If you go into the weight room on the first day, you don't put 500 pounds on the bar. You start out with 100 or whatever it is and you start building yourself up. God knows that. He's not going to put too much on you and expect that you're going to somehow be able to carry it. He's going to push it just like if you want to grow in strength in the weight room, you have to keep adding more weight and you turn red and you grunt and you groan and you sweat. And eventually you get used to it and then you have to put more weight on again. God will keep doing that. He'll keep pushing you as hard as you can be pushed. But he's not going to give you too much. Feel like it's too much sometimes, but with his grace all things are possible. And that's what we have to keep in mind. So this is all about conformity to Christ, seeking union with Jesus, conforming ourselves to the will of God. And God is absolute, perfect humility because God is absolute, perfect charity. So that's why if we have humility, we will have charity, the charity that casts out all fear, the charity that is the true love of God and the love of neighbor. And so the foundation for that pinnacle of charity, for that tower of charity that we are trying to build, the foundation is humility. And the depth of our humility is equal to the height of our charity. The Lord be with you. May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever. Amen. Thank you, Father. Thank you, everyone. God bless you all. Merry Christmas.