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When St. Augustine was asked to name the three most important virtues, he gave an interesting answer: \u00a0\u00a0First, he said, humility; second, humility; third, humility.\u00a0 Humility is God’s favorite thing; he longs to find it in us.\u00a0 But just what is humility.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are all kinds of interesting stories about truly humble people.\u00a0 Here is just one:\u00a0 It seems there was a cocky, successful, young French businessman traveling by train to Paris, many years ago.\u00a0 He was sharing a compartment with on old man who looked like a peasant – simple clothes, short hair, and a weather-beaten face.\u00a0 The up-and-coming businessman noticed the rosary gripped in the old man’s hands, and the devotion and concentration expressed on his face.\u00a0 The young man thought he would have some fun, so he said, “I see that you still believe in that medieval bunk about praying your beads. \u00a0\u00a0Do you also believe in all the other myths the priests try to teach us?”\u00a0 “Yes, indeed”, the old man answered, “Don’t you?”\u00a0 “Me? Do I believe in all that ridiculous superstition”? \u00a0\u00a0The young man laughed out loud; then he said: \u00a0\u00a0“I gave that up in college.\u00a0 And if you want to be smart, you should throw those beads out the window and start studying some real, scientific truth.”\u00a0 The old man answered, \u00a0\u00a0“I don’t understand what you mean. Maybe you could help me”.\u00a0 The young whippersnapper felt he had been a little harsh, so he answered, \u00a0\u00a0“Well, I could send you some articles, if you like. \u00a0Do you know how to read”?\u00a0 “More or less”, the old man answered.\u00a0 “Good – so where should I send the material?”\u00a0 The old man fumbled in his coat pocket and then handed over a card.\u00a0 It bore a simple inscription: \u00a0\u00a0Louis Pasteur – Paris Institute for Scientific Research.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clearly Louis Pasteur’s humility didn’t hinder his greatness.\u00a0 So, humility is not shying away from and denying ones talents. \u00a0\u00a0Rather what true humility is can be understood by discovering the unifying idea that undergirds the eight Beatitudes, which we just heard, and which summarize Jesus’ teaching about how to live. \u00a0\u00a0Looking carefully, we see a common denominator: The person who is blessed is the person who is not thinking about himself all the time. The poor in spirit and those who suffer persecution \u00a0They gracefully realize that they are not the center of the universe – God is.\u00a0 The clean of heart realize that other people don’t exist just for the sake of their pleasure.\u00a0 The peacemaker is concerned about the needs and problems of others.\u00a0 The merciful is concerned about the suffering of others.\u00a0 The mournful is concerned about the damage his sin does to the Church, the world, and other people.\u00a0 The meek care more about getting things done than getting credit for doing things.\u00a0 Those who hunger for righteousness realize that their life has a higher purpose, that it’s part of a bigger story.\u00a0 So, underlying all the Beatitudes is this fundamental attitude that puts God and others ahead of self.\u00a0 It looks out at the world instead of staring in, fixated on self. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now if the essence of humility is thinking more about God and others than about oneself, \u00a0\u00a0Growing in humility means training ourselves to do just that, and it is a life-long project. \u00a0Prayer is essential here, by turning our attention towards God.\u00a0 Reading the Bible is essential as well, because it presents us with Christ’s perfect example of humility. \u00a0But I want to talk about one other way to express our humility:\u00a0 Praying for the souls in Purgatory. \u00a0Something all of us need to realize is that very, very, few people die so full of the Love of Christ that they are ready to see the face of God.\u00a0 Rather, most of us die without having been completely purified from our self-centered habits and desires, no matter how old we have gotten.\u00a0 If we die in friendship with Christ, we will enter eternal life with him in heaven. \u00a0\u00a0But we can’t make that entry until the last remnants of self-centeredness have been purified.\u00a0 Purgatory is the name the Church gives to that process of purification.\u00a0 The Church has also taught us that we can pray for the souls in Purgatory, and we can even help speed up their purification. \u00a0\u00a0We can help the souls in Purgatory, relieving their suffering and speeding up their entry into heaven, in many ways. \u00a0Simply lifting our hearts to God, and offering our daily sufferings up for the souls in purgatory will help them, if we desire it.\u00a0 Certain prayers, like an act of faith, the Rosary, or the Creed, can be offered up in this way as well.\u00a0 Teaching someone about Christ or Christian doctrine, doing an act of kindness with a spirit of faith, or giving up a small pleasure (like sugar in our coffee, or salt on our French Fries), are all actions that we can offer up for someone else.\u00a0 So, like a good mother, the Church has made it easy for us to help our brothers and sisters in Purgatory. \u00a0And whenever we do, we are opening our hearts to God and to others, thereby exercising the pivotal virtue of humility, the key to holiness and happiness. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This week, let’s give God the pleasure of doing our part to grow in his favorite thing, humility.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time Zeph 2: 3; 3: 12-13; 1 Cor 1: 26-; Mt 5: 1-12a Dc. Larry Brockman When St. Augustine was asked to name the three most important virtues, he gave an interesting answer: \u00a0\u00a0First, he said, humility; second, humility; third, humility.\u00a0 Humility is God’s favorite thing; he longs to find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[20,18,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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[1]<\/a> Homily material taken extensively from e-priest notes for January 30th<\/sup>, 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"