Humility in Christ

Humility is hard.  Jesus Christ frequently calls us to be humble, and it is hard.  In Sunday’s readings, Jesus is once again calling us all to be humble, especially in prayer before God.  Very often, we can find ourselves extolling our greatness before God and lamenting others’ faults.  The scriptures very clearly tell us that this is not the way to eternal life.

In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us with the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee.  Both are praying in the temple, but each is praying in a radically different manner.  In this parable, the Pharisee is praying in the temple with eyes raised to heaven.  In reality, he is not so much praying as informing God of his own wonderful qualities and accomplishments while putting down someone he thinks unworthy, the tax collector.  In juxtaposition, the tax collector is truly praying by acknowledging his sinfulness and asking God for mercy.  Jesus tells his disciples that the tax collector, who humbled himself before God, was the one who had his prayers heard.

Taken in light of the first reading from Sirach, the scriptures are clearly telling us that God listens to the prayers of the humble man, not the haughty one.  He listens to the prayers of the man who leaves his ego and his own notions aside.  He “hears the cry of the poor,” and God answers those prayers (Psalm 34:7a).  Our heavenly Father wants us to come to him in prayer, acknowledging our inadequacies and seeking his help with a humble, contrite heart.

Creating a humble heart within yourself encompasses more than prayer.  It involves actions and attitudes.  Perhaps we do come to prayer acknowledging our sinfulness and asking for God’s mercy, but our daily actions betray that prayer.  Maybe we pray and put all of our sins and failures at the feet of the Lord, but our attitude towards our neighbor negates that prayer.  To truly come before God with a humble heart and have our prayers heard, we must let those prayers truly change how we live our lives.

Changing our lives and adopting this radical humility is hard.  So often we resemble the words of Mac Davis more than the scripture readings, “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way” (Mac Davis, “It’s Hard to be Humble”).  Often times, we think of ourselves as lacking faults and having superior opinions to others, but this is not a humble attitude.  For those in positions of authority, it’s hard to adopt humility when faced with the prospect that decisions you made did not work out according to your plans.  It is difficult to humble yourself and change those plans.  For those under authority, it is hard to adopt humility when your opinions are not listened to and acted upon.  It is hard to humble yourself and obediently accept those decisions that are out of your control.  While the examples could go on for eternity, it is clear that humility takes hard work.

This humility that begins in prayer and radiates out to our actions and attitudes is the heart of Christian life.  In our baptism, we are called to live life in Christ, who gave us the ultimate example of humility.  Jesus Christ “humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8-9).  He did not approach His Passion and Death by extolling his greatness to the Father.  Rather, He let himself be humiliated and crucified so that you and I may have eternal life.  His prayers reflected His actions and attitudes.  They were unified in humility, and they merited salvation for mankind.

This is the kind of humility to which Christ is calling each of us.  It is a radical shedding of self in prayer, action, and attitude.  It requires coming to the Father in prayer without an agenda and in total trust and reliance in his unfailing mercy.  It requires conforming our actions to the spirit of humility adopted in prayer.  It requires transforming our attitudes to see others before ourselves.  Perhaps this means we must acknowledge that a decision we made was not well received and is in need of changing.  Maybe we are being called to listen more attentively to the needs of others rather than our own wants or opinions.  It could be that we must let go of vanity in how we dress or appear.

Whatever it is that is holding you back from this radical call to humility, give it to Christ on His Cross.  Let Him free you of this burden.  Conform yourself to Christ, so that you may approach the Father with a spirit of humility like the tax collector.  For if we truly do this, we know that the Lord will hear and answer our prayers and that one day, like St. Paul, we may gain the “crown of righteousness” in heaven (2 Timothy 4:8).