Truly Humbling Ourselves before God

“My heart leaps up with joy to the Lord, for He humbles only to exalt us.” This was one of the antiphons for Lauds, or Morning Prayer, on Wednesday morning. Last week, I was reading from the book of Job in the Office of Readings and the readings were of God’s admonition of Job after Job had spoken out against God (38:1-30, 40:1-14, 42:1-6). God responds to Job by asking him questions of who he is and on what authority he is able to judge the validity of a situation. He goes on to ask whether Job would condemn Him in order to justify himself and refuse to acknowledge the power of God. The reprimand may seem harsh, but God is only getting Job to realize who he is without Him so that in time Job can rid himself of his human will and passions and be exalted forever with God in heaven. These questions have lots of points for us to reflect on as well, especially when we feel angry about things in our lives and want to lash out against God.

In today’s world, it’s easy to feel entitled and even think that God would also want us to have anything we want in order to make us happy. But God’s idea of happiness for us is different than our idea, and He knows that only becoming holy will make us truly happy. God created us out of nothing, and He owes us nothing, yet He chooses to love us and show us how to become like Him in order to live with Him forever in heaven. We must shed our human way of thinking and doing things and put on Christ, becoming a new man. This starts with truly internalizing the fact that we are not God and are not to act as though we are. Again, He owes us nothing and so everything we get from Him from is grace and a blessing, whether consolations or trials. Of ourselves, we are nothing and it is only by His grace that we merit to be called His children. He truly sustains us.

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart today, we can meditate on all Its attributes, particularly humility, and we should seek to apply the humility showed by Christ in descending to earth to save us to our own lives. If Christ Who does deserve to be hailed as God and to act accordingly shows such humility, how much more should we who don’t deserve that accolade act with the same humility? Let us consecrate ourselves to His Sacred Heart and apply ourselves to practicing Its virtues so to truly become humble before God and so be exalted at the end of time.