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I’ve been learning a lot about false humility the past couple of years through reading the works of different saints.
Most of us, especially those of us that have committed grave sins, try to live out the virtue of humility by living out this false sense of it.
“I’m just the worst. I don’t deserve Jesus’ love or forgiveness.”
“There’s no hope for someone as bad as me. I’m just a lost cause.” (Sigh)
“I’ve done so many bad things, I can’t even begin to ask Jesus into my life.”
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
That last one is Peter after doubting Jesus when He told Peter to keep fishing after a fruitless night.”
I love Jesus’ response. He doesn’t play along with the pity party. He doesn’t try to overly console Peter. He just says, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
God already knows all we’ve done. It’s no surprise to Him. He didn’t come to save people with just some minor sins. He’s not so weak in power that He’d ever say, “Oh, boy, sorry, pal. Your sins are just too big for me to forgive. Guess you’re out of luck.”
We aren’t honoring God with false humility. We think we are, though. The I’m-so-bad-I’ll remove-myself-from-God schtick doesn’t give God any glory or show your littleness. In fact, it says, “I’m beyond your help, God.”
Don’t be afraid to come to Christ, Catholic Pilgrims, with all your hurt and all your sins that need forgiven. He’s not going to turn you away.
Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Thursday.
*Picture is from the Sea of Galilee.
Because I live on an Air Force base, weekday evening Masses tend to have a lot of civilians present who don't normally come to Sunday Mass because they live off base. The evening Ash Wednesday Mass is always full of unfamiliar faces of people getting off work and coming over to Mass before going home. Sometimes people don't quite get off work in time and so they are a little late. Yesterday, after Mass, a few people had gotten there late and missed getting ashes. Standing in the back, I heard them shyly ask Father if they could get some and he smiled and said, "Oh, don't worry, it's not required." I think he thought they believed they had done something wrong. They smiled and replied back, "Would it still be okay to get some?" "Of course, come with me." There is something about Ash Wednesday that speaks to the human heart almost more than any other holy day. I think the answer to why is found in something I read yesterday. "To take the ashes is to confess kinship with this world of dust, to declare our readiness to abdicate pretensions to omnipotence. Standing before God in this way, I profess that I am not God. I admit the chasm that separates me from Him. I accept the uncomfortable otherness of God. He is what I am not, yet my being bears His mark. I crave a completion no created thing can give. I walk this earth as a yearning incarnate. I am at home, yet a stranger, homesick for a homeland I recall but have not seen." --Bishop Erik Varden Our ashes remind me of us our littleness and our bodily mortality and I think Ash Wednesday is that day, where as lost as we may be, we still want to return and be reminded that we belong to God. Have a blessed Thursday, Catholic Pilgrims.
Continue Reading"Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return." This life is a pilgrimage to our eternal destination whether you realize you are on it or not. The goal should always be to journey towards our true home--Heaven. I pray that you live the faith boldly this Lent and travel well. Have a blessed Ash Wednesday.
Continue ReadingYou all know that I'm a convert and that my cradle Catholic husband and I fought a lot in our early years of marriage on whether to be Catholic or Protestant. I had such a hard heart during those years. For one, I thought I knew everything about Christianity, which is so laughable, because I barely, if ever, read the Bible, I had a Sunday-class level of understanding of the Faith, and I really didn't go to church. I thought Catholics were a small, cultish group of Marian worshippers, so that was the extent of my understanding of Catholicism. Because of my hard heart, I just could not understand anything my husband was saying to me when he would try to explain the Catholic Faith. His words just ricocheted off my forehead. Nothing was getting in. It's like where Jesus asks his disciples today in Mark, "Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened?" So, I had this one Sunday when we were attending Mass where I decided that I was going up to receive Communion even though I wasn't Catholic. Nobody was gonna tell me what to do. As soon as I consumed the Eucharist, I felt sick. I went back to my pew utterly bewildered at what just happened. For me, it was just a symbol. If that was true, why did I feel awful? It was in that moment that the ice around my heart started to melt. I vowed never to take the Eucharist again without being Catholic and I started researching and trying to understand the Church's teachings on Holy Communion and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The second I "got" it, I knew I had to become Catholic immediately. It's not that I figured the mystery of the Eucharist out completely, it's that I came to understand that Christ was serious when He said, "This is My Body; This is my Blood." I realized that everything Christ did had to be elevated over what foreshadowed Holy Communion in the Old Testament. It could never be equal to and, most certainly, it could never be less than. It is impossible to understand anything with a hard heart, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank God that He finds ways to break through. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Tuesday. *St. Rose Catholic Church, Lone Pine, CA
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