on Humility

St. Teresa remarks to her sisters that humility is the foundation on which all the other virtues rest; St. Augustine said that the spiritual life depends on three things: humility, humility, humility.

But in a way, humility always puzzled me; it seemed that the more one "tried" to be humble, the more chance we had to be "proud" of our humility.  Finally, I am beginning to get a glimpse of true humility.

Mary said in the Magnificat:  My soul rejoices in God my Savior because He has done great things for me.

Humility has nothing at all with trying to be humble; it does not try to do anything, in fact.  The focus of the person who is truly humble is not on himself, but on God, who can and will do everything necessary in us and for us.

As Andrew Murray points out in his work on Humility, Jesus had the utmost confidence in the Father as the One Who did all of the work.  He saw Himself as the instrument through which God had total freedom to do His work.  His surrender to the Father was absolute---God had permission to do whatever He saw fit with the instrument of His only Son.  Jesus was not here to do great things, but only to bring men to the Father, who would do great things for them, as Mary recognized. 

The Son can do nothing of himself (Jn. 5:19).
I am come not to do mine own will, but the will of Him who sent Me (Jn. 6:38).
My teaching is not mine (Jn. 7:16).
I do nothing of myself (Jn. 8:28).
I have not come of myself, but he sent me (Jn. 8:42).
The words that I say I speak not from myself (Jn.14:10).
The words that you hear are not mine (Jn.14:24).

Andrew Murray points out that this is the life Jesus came to impart to us:

He teaches us where true humility takes its rise and finds its strength--in the knowledge that it is God who works all in all, that our place is to yield to Him in perfect resignation and dependence, in full consent to be and do nothing of ourselves.....Let us, above everything, seek the holy secret of the the knowledge of the nature of God as He every moment works all in all; the secret, of which all nature and every creature, and above all, every child of God, is to be the witness, that it is nothing but a vessel, a channel, through which the living God can manifest the riches of His wisdom, power, and goodness.

[Jesus] felt Himself the Servant of God for the men whom God made and loved; as a natural consequence, He counted Himself the Servant of men, that through Him God might do His work of love.

What a difference from "trying to be humble"---to recognize that God wants to do great things for us, if we will only let Him do what He wants in us and for us.  Yeaaaaaaaaa, God!