Dear People Whom God Loves,
When I was a freshman in high school, I had an elderly lady as our Latin teacher. All of us in our great adolescent wisdom thought she was completely out of it. We gave no heed to the things she said.
I do remember two things that she said. One of them was, “All comparisons are odious.” I didn’t have a clue about what that meant. But I remember it.
When we compare ourselves to others, whether we think we are better or worse, we cannot see ourselves as we really are. When we don’t know ourselves as we really are, we don’t live a spiritual life. Whether we are doing a lot of good things or a lot of bad things, we are not entering into spirituality.
Spirituality is our continuous struggling with our humanness. Struggling with our angel and our beast. Struggling as saint and sinner. Struggling with our purity and lust, our honesty, and dishonesty. You get the point.
Spirituality requires that we gradually become more and more aware of all of this that is human. It requires that—as we become aware—that we neither praise ourselves nor put ourselves down. It requires that we face all of it squarely…neither exaggerating or minimizing it.
As we see all of this with more clarity and gentleness, humility comes from the inside and not from willpower. It we try to “talk and will” ourselves into humility, it only becomes another sort of pride. With this clarity and gentleness comes compassion for ourselves and others. Our souls become soft. The manner in which we deal with ourselves and others changes dramatically.
When St. Bernard was asked, “What are the four cardinal virtues?” he responded, “Humility, humility, humility, humility.”
This seeing ourselves as we really are is blocked by the degree that we compare ourselves to others and by the degree that we try to impress others.
Seeing ourselves honestly requires taking time to be quiet and rest in the Love who holds us. We must allow Love to love us. Sometimes this process is hastened by a blow that knocks us off our high horse or, perhaps, our low horse.
This old teacher that we thought was a fuddy-duddy was incredibly wise. I ask her forgiveness.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
Leave a Reply