Newsletter

Geoff’s Shell’s Coordinator letter two weeks ago had a wonderful exhortation about deepening the virtue of humility in our lives. He started with a sentence from Phillipians 2- the well-known exultation of the humility of Jesus and His obedience to death. With Palm Sunday tomorrow, what better topic to write about in this letter than the “Humility of God”!

The humility of God is really about God’s love and fidelity to the world, even when the world turns away from Him and denies Him. The persistent mercy and love He shows to mankind is indeed a mystery rooted in humility. Cardinal Ratzinger once wrote:

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves…” (Philippians 2:3)

Recently, I was meditating on the principle of “humility” in the Christian life. I realized that for me (and I suspect for many of us), the natural tendency, once I think I know something, is to clutch onto it for dear life. After all, I thought of it, didn’t I? So it must be true!!!

The “deadly sin” for which humility is the antidote is pride, which C. S. Lewis (in keeping with many of the Church Fathers) describes as the primeval sin, the sin of Lucifer. Small wonder that the Evil One is so skilled at tempting us mortals toward that tar pit. The frustrating characteristic of pride is that, no matter how advanced we may be in the Christian walk, that sin always lurks close at hand. We may achieve some degree of mastery over gluttony, envy, sloth, but pride? That is always but a stone’s throw away….