Walk humbly with God

In the movie A Christmas Story, there is a dinner scene where Ralphie's little brother won't eat, and Ralphie and his father are requesting a second helping. We get the impression that this mildly chaotic dinner scene is routine for the family. Instead of sitting down to eat her meal, Ralphie's mother is busy attending to the family's desires. Ralphie, the narrator, comments on the scene, "My mother had not had a hot meal for herself in 15 years". A mother's care for her family is a simple example of living out St. Paul's instruction to the Philippians in today's second reading – "Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but for those of others" (Phil 2:3).


I have occasionally thought that a generous spirit of giving comes naturally to some people (such as moms); however, Paul's instruction would not be necessary if this were a natural way for humans to behave. Because Paul knows our human nature is tilted toward acting only out of self- interest, he encourages us to imitate Christ in the attitude of humility. We are reminded that to be humble is to have the proper view of ourselves and our place in relation to God and others. This essential teaching of Jesus is made clear in this passage, "And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:8). St. Thomas Aquinas called humility the preeminent virtue when he said, "Humility removes pride, whereby a man refuses to submit himself to the truth of faith.” It is impossible to contemplate the life of Jesus and miss the life lesson of humility.


I have heard it said that cultivating the virtue of humility creates the space for other virtues, such as love and charity, to flow in. The Church gives us many examples of Christians who humbly lived out the Christian calling to serve others to the limit. In recent history, St. Mother Teresa and St. Maximilian Kolbe come to mind. Meditating on saints who poured out their lives in the service of others in heroic ways is fruitful, but we must not let their extraordinary lives lead us to believe that we can't also be holy.  

St. Mother Teresa gave us mere Christians a practical way to strive for holiness when she said, "Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love." Doing small things with great love for the people in our lives and for those people we encounter is an opportunity to reflect the love of Christ.



Manuel Leon


Business Manager 

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