It is not a competition!
“The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”Jesus certainly has a way of turning everything upside down, or rather right side up, depending on your particular point of view. The greatest is the least, by the very fact of thinking he’s the greatest; and the least is the greatest, by the very fact of thinking he’s the least. The word ‘humility’ comes from the Latin ‘humus’, which means soil and is generally associated with words such as abject, ignoble, of poor condition, not worth much.
St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that “The virtue of humility consists in keeping oneself within one’s own bounds, not reaching out to things above one, but submitting to one’s superior.” St Augustine said that God accepts sacrifices only from the altar of humility. We humble ourselves by being ourselves. God exalts us for who we are.Humility is a gift not earned or self created. When we live courageously in the spirit of communion with others we open ourselves to see others from God’s perspective. Humility begins in the knowledge that we belong to God. It is the sense that all of God’s creation is important and that our existence depends on our relationship with others.
Humility is not an easy virtue to acquire; it does not come naturally to most of us; it is built upon a foundation of faith and respect for others. Humility does not call for us to reject or disparage our God given gifts nor does it require us to think of our gifts as less valued than the gifts God has given others. God has entrusted each of us with certain gifts and abilities and he expects that we use His gifts to their fullest.
God measures each of us on our own merit; it is not a competition. What others achieve is never part of the equation; before God, everyone stands alone. It is not what we do or accomplish in life that buys us a ticket to the ball but whether we used His gifts as He intended and for His glory.
