Devotions from Living The Lord’s Prayer by Albert Haase

“The way toward God is the way of downward mobility.  St Benedict said, “Our proud attempts at upward climbing will really bring us down, whereas to step downward in humility is the way to lift our spirit up towards God.”

This  means that we need to renounce our own desires and will and also accept ourselves in honest acknowledgment of our inferiority.  This is vastly different than a form of low self esteem. That is only false humility and promotes worthlessness and self-humiliation. Putting ourselves down is just as wrong as raising ourselves up.

  Real humility on the other hand, is nothing else but a man’s true understanding and awareness of himself as he really is.  He faces reality squarely. As St. Francis use to say, “What a person is before God, that he is, and no more.”

Pharisaical pride takes personal credit for everything: talents, gifts, accomplishments and abilities. It demands to take a bow and have an encore. Pride raises the ego up as it lowers the grace of God. IT steers us off the path.

Truly humble people recognize who God created them to be, what gifts and talents God has graciously given them, and how God has acted in their lives. 

May we put God where God belongs in our lives: at the very center.  He is the One who does the speaking and acting through us. He is the One who accomplishes all the good in our lives in spite of our sinfulness.