Humility

 During Ronald Reagan’s first term as President of the United States, a politically ambitious young man landed a job in the White House.  After his first day on the job, he decided to call his mother.  “Mom,” he said proudly, “this has been a big day for me.  I actually shook hands with the President!  And, you know what?  I’m calling you from the White House!” His mother’s response, however, wasn’t quite what he had expected.  “Son, this has been a big day for me too,” she said.  “At last I managed to clean out the attic!”  
       This weekend in our Gospel, Jesus invites us to be Godlike in our concerns and in our compassion.  He invites us to forget ourselves.  We are not to be so insecure that we need to have our dignity acknowledged, but we are to be self-forgetful in a positive sense. We are to look outwards to the needs of others, rather than just inwards to gratify our own egos and petty concerns.   
       Thus, if we truly have a real sense of who God is, we will always acknowledge his greatness and our lowliness.  That is true humility - not a mock sense of unworthiness, but a healthy groundedness.  Only the fool allows himself to become puffed up with pride.  Only the fool is so full of his own self-importance that he forgets who God is.  Only the fool commits idolatry, for he makes a god out of himself!   
       Actually, it is the poor, the lowly and the needy that remind us of the real truth about us all.  We all depend on God!  We are all poor in his sight.  The wise person is the one who relies on God, not on himself.   
       Many things can take the place of God: fame, popularity, wealth, power, influence.  But these are all things that will surely pass.  There is no lasting security in any of them.  As Jesus spells out so clearly, true, lasting happiness lies only in associating with the needy and the helpless.  It comes from doing what we can to help them, not in hope of a reward, but simply because they remind us that we are all human.  We are all in the same boat.  We all depend on God’s mercy.   
       We must never be tempted to set ourselves up as objects of worship, for no one is rich in the sight of God.  The poor remind us of our duty to each other as sisters and brothers in Christ.  They show us our absolute need to acknowledge God as God!!