Few souls are truly humble.
Wars, religious and political divisions, marital and family conflict, work tension, and character assassinations on social media do not begin in a vacuum. No, they begin in the heart…in a prideful one. A heart that seeks to rule and dominate others. A heart that seeks to prove that it is right and you are wrong. A heart attached to its own greatness.
Many in our world, including Catholics, do not spend enough time contemplating our Crucified Lord. We have not followed Him to Calvary. Christ was spat upon, yet He remained silent. He was stripped of His garments, yet He did not fight back. We have not let Christ’s life and words saturate our souls; instead, we are the first ones to throw the stones and pull the beam out of our brother’s eye. We don’t throw literal stones, but we fire away hostile attacks on others through our detraction, gossip, and other personal attacks, especially on social media.
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, pride is defined as an inordinate desire for one’s own excellence that exceeds the bounds of right reason. Quoting St. Gregory the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas also states that “pride is a most evident sign of the reprobate, and contrariwise, humility of the elect.” Pride is everywhere, and it has seeped into the Church because few are willing to do violence against it in their hearts.
Both traditional and non-traditional Catholics grapple with pride. For instance, those in the Catholic hierarchy who push for their own agenda, synodality, and a homosexual-friendly Church are ruled by the pride that they know better than Christ. At the same time, those in the Catholic Church who question whether the pope is the real pope or who seek to disobey the Holy Father lack the spirit of humility. The self-righteousness of the Pharisees continues to rule many hearts today.
A few true stories illustrate how pride rears its ugly head in our Church today. First, a layman once approached a priest whose parish at the time offered both a reverent Novus Ordo and the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). The layman attended the TLM and wanted to know which Liturgy the consecrated Host had come from, as he only wanted the Host from the TLM. Some might say this is not pride, but clearly something is amiss.
Second, a man introduced his girlfriend to his mom for the first time. Upon meeting the girlfriend, the mother asked her to change out of her jeans into a skirt, which she provided. The girlfriend was stunned! Each of us must check our motives to see whether we have a spirit of humility or pride.
Pride leads us down the slippery path to Hell. On the other hand, humility is the highway to Heaven. Humility is the virtue that helps us to see ourselves as God sees us, leading us to give Him all honor and glory. Ultimately, the most humble souls think less of themselves and try to focus on God and others. They rarely give their opinion unless asked and are the last to criticize others, for their imperfections are before their eyes. They aspire to be little in the world’s eyes.
In their new book, The Marriage Gap, Devin and Kim Schadt spell out the four fundamental core needs that spouses have and how to best communicate and understand them. A humble spouse longs to serve rather than lord it over their helpmate. I’ve heard in many traditional circles where the husband has never changed a diaper. I guess Christ should not have washed His apostles’ smelly feet then?
Pride has taken root in every vocation. For instance, when Catholic couples disobey Church teaching on contraception and IVF, they send a message to Christ that He is wrong and they are right. And when a bishop and priest remain silent on such hard teachings, including the Church’s teachings on Hell and sin, they put their own self-love of being liked above their flock’s eternal salvation.
Let’s be clear: only the humble souls will enter Heaven.
One of the great problems with our world is that we expect everyone else to be a saint, and yet we are far from perfection. All of us would do well to pray daily the Litany of Humility attributed to Servant of God Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, which I unpack in my book, Humility of the Saints: The Litany of Humility Made Flesh. The cardinal was a man of the greatest humility who prayed the Litany after every Mass he celebrated. On two occasions, he was close to being elected pope. I have a suspicion that he prayed that God would never call him to the papacy because he wanted to remain hidden. He had no agenda save Christ’s will.
As pride has infected many hearts both within and outside of the Catholic Church, we need the virtue of humility more than ever. And if we look closely enough, we will find the vestiges of the ancient serpent’s pride in our own hearts.
If we do not possess humility, we will become our “own supreme pontiff,” as Bl. Columba Marmion once described our Protestant brethren. When we lack the mind and heart of Christ, we become our own god. We look down and use others. And since we are not at peace with ourselves because we lack grace, our wounds are inflicted upon others. Sooner or later, we will imitate the first narcissist, Satan, rather than our humble God: Jesus, who went so far as to take on the appearance of bread and wine.
To transform the world and the Catholic Church, we must beg God and Our Lady for the virtue of virtues. “Humility, humility, humility” is what is most lacking in our souls.
Photo by Dembee Tsogoo on Unsplash
