HUMILITY: WHAT JESUS USED TO SAVE US!
First, think about Mother Teresa. She had good self-esteem. She even dared to speak against abortion at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1993 before her invited hosts President Bill Clinton, and Vice-President Al Gore, and their spouses. That’s guts, that’s self-confidence, and that’s HUMILITY! Turns out that all the saints understood that everything comes from God and that God is everything. Mother Teresasaid,“If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed you will not be discouraged. If they call you a saint you will not put yourself on a pedestal.”
To be sure, humility is often misunderstood. Some think it is synonymous with self-deprecation. Some think humble people lack confidence, when in fact, the most humble people are some of the most confident, and sometimes, some of the most prideful people are the most insecure. Others think humility is not attractive. But in reflecting, you find that humility is most attractive as you see the humble person is the one who listens and cares about others as opposed to the one focused on their self and trying to look good. True humility is in the person who wants to do something because it is right and they are not looking for praise.
When we look at the crucifix, we see a man who is humble and who is not about himself. We see a man who is for others!
In the fall of 1990, Mother Teresa addressed priests from all over the world in the Vatican Audience Hall about ways to cultivate humility:
- Speak as little as possible about yourself.
- Keep busy with your own affairs and not those of others.
- Avoid wanting to know things that should not concern you.
- Do not interfere in the lives of others.
- Accept small irritations with good humor.
- Do not dwell on the faults of others.
- Accept being forgotten and disregarded by others.
- Accept insults without retaliating.
- Be courteous and delicate even when provoked.
- Do not seek to be admired and loved.
- Choose the more difficult task.
"Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."(Matthew 20:28)