Humility

Monday 23^rd Week Ordinary Time, 13^th Sept 2021, Josephinum

Lk 7:1-10

I want to focus on the words of the centurion, 

words that holy Mother Church puts on our lips at every Mass:

• “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof”

I’d like to walk you through 3 phases of faith and humility, and for you to ask yourself where you fit in these phases, and maybe, where you have fit in your own past.

First phase:

For those of us raised after the cultural revolution of the 1960s,

Humility often does not come naturally to us:

• We were raised on self-affirmation
• We received little discipline 
• We were told we were good.

To my generation, 

we would tend to think:

• “Lord, actually I AM worthy, 
• and I just don’t need you to enter under my roof”

A second phase:

When I went to college I found the Lord,

• I came to know Him “personally”, as we say.
• But, if I’m honest, I still thought of myself as “worthy”.

And while I wouldn’t have phrased it exactly like this, I think it would be true to say that my attitude was:

• “Lord, I AM worthy, 
• But you bring added value to my life, added meaning
• So,
• For MY own sake, please do come and enter in”
• That is NOT the faith of the centurion
• That’s a “faith” that is a problem

Still today, I know this is a problem in my spiritual life:

• My self-affirmation
• My lack of being criticised as a child,
• My upbringing has been such that I struggle to say,
• “I am not worthy”

Yet, 

• I know my eternal salvation depends on having the ‘unworthiness’ of the centurion

We need to be in a third phase, one that has a humility born of faith.

Let’s connect those 2 things: faith and humility

• The words of the centurion expressed humility, :I am not worthy’
• But the Lord praised him for his “faith” –‘not even in Israel have I found such faith”

True faith recognises the Lord for WHO He is:

• He is God
• He is much greater than me
• He is pure; He is goodness,
• “me?  ‘’I am not worthy’
• Real faith SEES this
• Real humility ACCEPTS this

Where are you in those three phases of humility and faith?

• If you are one of the post-1960s generations who struggle to be humble, then pray
• Pray for what is MOST important:
• Not healing the body
• But healing what is wrong in your soul:
• but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed”