Humility

Matthew 23 : 1 - 12

There is always one part of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises that I find challenging. It is the meditation on "the three kinds of humility". David Fleming in his contemporary translation of the text writes, "To be humble is to live as close to the truth as possible: that I am created to the likeness of Christ, that I am meant to live according to the pattern of his paschal mystery, and that my whole fulfillment is found in being as near to Christ as he draws me to himself."

The first kind of humility is "living out the truth which is necessary for salvation - I would want to do nothing that would cut me off from God. The second kind of humility is more perfect than the first - I would not want to turn away from God even in small ways, because my whole desire is to respond ever more faithfully to his call. The third kind of humility consists in this: I so much want the truth of Christ's life to be fully the truth of my own that I find myself, moved by grace, with a love and a desire for poverty in order to be with the poor Christ, a desire for insults in order to be closer to Christ in his rejection by his people.....

The third kind of humility is not something that all persons praying the Exercises would desire. It is something that God leads a person ("moved by grace") to desire. The person then prays that the Lord would choose him for the gift of this kind of humility....as long as this is for the greater glory of God.

Jesus so often had to bring to light the prideful and self exalting ways of the religious leaders of his time. Nothing new today when there are so many subtle temptations fired by the messages of glory and triumph. The heart of the matter is, "whose glory is being served?" The times I have gone for an Ignatian retreat, I don't remember being graced to ask for the third kind of humility. It did not strike me as something I could accept at the time. I was assured by the retreat director that this was fine. Perhaps, though, God gives us opportunities on and off to 'practice', through the trials that come our way. It is never easy to live among other broken human beings - relationships are often the acid test of our willingness to be humble.