Dear Reader,
Everyone knows the story of the “Prodigal Son”. Everyone loves that story because whether or not they’ll admit it, everyone can relate to it. We are all drawn back to God, but a lot of people choose to follow what they believe God to be in their own image… Their own version of the “supreme deity”… OR, some people distract themselves with worldly pleasures so much so that they are “too busy” with their lives to pay attention to the draw of our Heavenly Father…
But… How SHOULD we approach our Heavenly Father when we are called into relationship with Him? Some might say with pride since we should be proud that we were wise enough to understand and brave enough to have answered His call… However, I think we should take a lesson from the father’s son in the bible story I mentioned above (by the way, this story is found in Luke 15: 11-32). Here is what I mean…
“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” – St. Augustine
If you have read this story, then note that just before the son returned home to his father, he was so poor, so broken that “…he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed…”. In other words, he went from the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor and scraping the bottom-of-the-barrel… Talk about a turn-around! The son realized, just as each of us should, that he could no longer survive on his own. He humbled himself before his father… He went to him and told his own father that he knew he was no longer worthy to be called his son and he intended on asking him to treat him as he would a “hired hand”.
With this in mind, I believe that we should approach Our Father as the son did in the story… We should approach Him knowing we are the lowest of the low, on our knees and full of humility… Just say that once to yourself: “full of humility”… Doesn’t that sound odd to hear yourself say that? I mean, it really is an interesting concept. How can one be “full” of something that, by definition, is the absence of something? Isn’t humility the absence of pride and selfishness? I believe that TRUE humility is to be completely empty of all pride, of all thoughts that are not of God, the denial of all of our deeds and accomplishments… To become humble is to empty our hearts and minds of all vanity and arrogance…
“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.” – St. Teresa of Calcutta
To put it bluntly… We are all prideful, vain, arrogant and self-centered creatures (yes you and I are both included in this statement)… I think that most of us would say that those traits are what make us “human”. Right? I mean, isn’t that our defense when we know we’ve sinned or done something wrong? “Well yes, I know that I just did something bad. I’m only human!” So logically the absence of those things that make us human make us what? What would it mean if we had none of those traits at all in a given moment? It would mean that we would be God… If we had the capability to remember every moment of our lives, I don’t think we could think of a single moment in life that we didn’t exhibit at least one of those traits…
So while we can never be totally without any of these traits, we CAN minimize them within ourselves in an effort to become more humble, which in turn brings us closer in relationship to God…
“Humility is the virtue that requires the greatest amount of effort.” – St. Rose Philippine Duchesne
So why do I bring all of this up? These thoughts bring me to the questions I have for this and my next blog entry… How should we approach God? What is the best way to show Him how sorry we are for our sins? This question has always been a puzzling one for me and the first time I was able to answer it with certainty was during what I believe to be one of, if not the, most humbling activities on the face of the Earth… The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation…
Until next time dear reader…
Your Humble Servant in Christ,
William
William's Catholic Journey 