301. Fifteenth Thursday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 281 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Humility is the source of peace of soul.

“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Why, asks St Augustine, do we become weary if not because we are mortal men, fragile and weak, who carry around bodies of flesh, and fight with one another?

The vocation we have received from God makes us sowers of peace and joy. To all mankind we bring the gaudium cum pace, the “joy with peace” that Christ has promised us as part of the hundredfold - a joy whose roots are implanted in suffering, in the Cross; and a peace which is the peace of Christ, and which comes from our being identified with him. Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Peace is a consequence of humility. It is the inner harmony that comes from the awareness of our own shortcomings as well as of God’s gifts. Humble people are realistic in the interior struggle: they know they make mistakes, and admit them; they attribute to God alone the divine effectiveness of their labours. My daughters and sons, if you act in this way, how many obstacles will disappear! How many unpleasant moments we will avoid! If you ever have a hard time of it and you realize that your soul is filling with uneasiness, it is because you are clinging to yourselves. Our Lord came to redeem, to save, and he was not concerned about anything but that. Are we going to be concerned about fostering our pride?

If you centre your attention on yourself, you are not only taking a wrong road, but besides, you will lose Christian happiness in this life. You will lose that joy and cheerfulness which are nonetheless incomplete, because happiness will only be complete in heaven.

Pride takes away peace because it makes us live in a false world, far from God. If the soul imagines that it can achieve something unaided, then the failure which it is bound to experience causes it to be uneasy, restless and anxious. Humility, on the other hand, leads us to God, and to his Son, Jesus Christ. And there we find peace.

The effort to acquire humility does not entail a brutal, tense, or anxiety-filled struggle; it means asking God to make us humble, and recognizing that in the concrete reality of our day we can do nothing by ourselves, but with God’s help we can do all things. We need to listen to Jesus’ invitation: Come to me … learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart. Peace, St John Chrysostom wrote, has gone up to heaven. If we wish, we can make it come back again. It is enough that we rid ourselves of pride and arrogance … and learn to be humble.

In the words of the Psalmist, the Lord leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. A humble attitude makes the soul want to go to Christ.

Peace in the interior struggle and in the face of difficulties.

Deliver me from my enemies, O my God, protect me from those who rise up against me. Our worst enemy lies within - pride. When we realize we are God’s children, our Founder says, the soul becomes deified. Its new life contrasts so sharply with its former one, and with what it so often finds around it! …

I cannot hide from you, my daughters and sons, the fear that in some particular case this deification, without a deep basis of humility, could lead to presumption, to the corruption of true hope, to pride, and, sooner or later, to spiritual ruin, on being faced with the unexpected experience of one’s own frailty.

I usually give the example of the dust which is stirred up by the wind until, high in the sky, it forms a golden cloud, as it reflects the light of the sun. In the same way, divine grace raises souls very high, and we reflect all the marvel of goodness, wisdom, power and beauty that is God. If we realize we are but dust and wretchedness - completely worthless - God will do the rest. This is something which greatly consoles me.

Neither should we get upset by exterior trials because, as St Augustine teaches, grace is given to those who hope in God. Cry out under the hand of the enemy. Ask God for his help. If there is one who fights against you, there is also one who fights for you, who looks down upon the battle and will come to your aid in the combat. This is surely so if you retain your hope, for God hates the proud person, who trusts in his own strength. And what should you cry out under the clutch of the enemy except: “Miser ego homo” - wretched man that I am. Such must be your cry when you call out, if ever you do call out, under the hand of your enemy.

An atmosphere of peace is necessary if our interior struggle is to remain optimistic and joyful. Humility will keep us untroubled, in spite of our own mistakes and exterior difficulties. As our Founder wrote: We all make mistakes, even in areas where we have been fighting for years and years. If our ascetical struggle disheartens us, then we are proud. We must be humble, and we must want to be faithful. It is true that servi inutiles sumus (we are unworthy servants), but with those unworthy servants God can do great things in this world if we, on our part, do one thing: if we make the effort to stretch out our hand and take the hand which God, with his grace, offers us from heaven.

Only by relying on grace will we be at peace; only if we place our hope in God, and not in ourselves.

Humility in self-giving to others.

It is impossible for anyone to give themselves to others, to be effective in the apostolate or at ease in family life, when they are engrossed in their own problems and disproportionately worried over their own mistakes. That sort of attitude produces only mistrust, touchiness, selfishness, sadness and ineffectiveness. And do you know, our Father asked, what is behind all this, what the source of it all is? Lack of humility: pride. “I’m not loved, nobody cares about me, my talents are not recognized, nobody realizes what I can do and how much I am worth…” Here we have a soul which could be wonderfully at peace, very happy and contented, and which nevertheless, through pride, through wanting to stand out and be the centre of attention, to get special treatment, becomes miserable and unfruitful If ever a soul heads down that road, and fails to open up and be humble, then, besides suffering itself, it will make others suffer too, and will make no progress whatsoever.

Ego cogito cogitationes pacis, et non afflictionis: the plans I have for you are plans for welfare and not for evil, says the Holy Spirit So whenever you lose your peace, whenever you and I lose our peace, at that moment it is as if we had separated ourselves a little from God. We must regain our peace as quickly as possible; we must think thoughts of peace, things which give us serenity and make us effective in our work with souls in the world.

The life of loving service to our brothers and sisters and to all mankind consists in relying on God, not trusting ourselves, always being sincere, giving ourselves unstintingly… From this comes true humility and identification with Christ, being ipse Christus, Christ himself. This is the key to happiness. God asks us to fill our hearts with apostolic zeal, to forget about ourselves in order to be concerned, in earnest sacrifice, with the whole of mankind. Most of the people who have personal problems have them because they get wrapped up selfishly in themselves. Give yourself, give yourself, give yourself! Give yourself to others, serve others for love of God: that is our way.

When God sees our struggle, when he hears our humble cry, he will listen. And we will be able to say with the Psalmist: Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Our apostolate will bear fruit. We will be as our Father wanted us to be: sowers of peace and joy.

Our Blessed Lady is a wonderful example of humility and charity. Mary’s humble song of joy, the Magnificat, recalls to our minds the infinite generosity of the Lord towards those who become like children, towards those who abase themselves and are sincerely aware that they are nothing.