Ave Maria Meditations
THE MAGNIFICAT: THE HUMILITY OF MARY
The humility of the Blessed Virgin and the meaning of humility.
Wherever she went, the Blessed Virgin was a bringer of joy: For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy, says St Elizabeth, referring to John the Baptist with whom she was then with child. Hearing such praise from her cousin, Our Lady replied with words which have become that most beautiful hymn of jubilation: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
In the Magnificat is to be found the deepest meaning of true humility. Mary considers that God has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. Thus, He who is mighty has done great things in her. On this scale then, one of grandeur and humility,is passed Our Lady’s entire life. What humility, that of my holy Mother Mary! She is not to be seen amidst the palms of Jerusalem, nor – excepting the first one at Cana – at the hour of the great miracles. But she doesn’t flee from the degradation of Golgotha: there she stands, ‘juxta crucem Jesu’, by the Cross of Jesus – His Mother. She never sought the slightest personal glory.
The virtue of humility, so evident in Our Lady’s life, is truth, the true recognition of what we are and are worth in the eyes of God and of our fellow men. It is also an emptying of ourselves to allow God to work in us with his grace. It is the rejection of appearances and of all superficiality; it is the expression of the depth of the human spirit; it is a condition for its greatness. Humility is founded on the awareness of our position in the eyes of God and on the wise moderation of our always excessive desires for glory. It should never be confused with timidity, faint-heartedness or mediocrity. It is not opposed to our awareness of the talents we have received, nor to the full use of them with rectitude of intention, for humility does not diminish, but broadens one’s outlook.
Humility recognizes that all the good in us, whether in the order of nature or in that of grace, belongs to God alone; for of his fullness we have all received. God is all that is great in us; of ourselves we are defective and weak. We come before God as debtors who do not know how to discharge our debts, and for this reason we go to Mary as the Mediatrix of all graces, to the Mother of mercy and tenderness to whom no one has ever had recourse in vain: abandon yourself full of confidence in her maternal womb; ask her to obtain for you this virtue which she prized so dearly. Don’t worry about not being heard. Mary will ask it for you from that God who exalts the humble and crushes the proud, and, since Mary is all-powerful with her Son, you will most certainly be heard.
The foundation of charity and the fruits of humility.
Humility is at the root of all the virtues, and without it none of them can be developed. Without humility everything else is like a huge heap of hay which we have piled up, but which with the first gust of wind is blown over and scattered far and wide. The devil has little respect for those devotions which are not founded on humility, because he knows well that he can get rid of them whenever he pleases. There is no possibility of sanctity without an effective struggle to acquire this virtue; without it, it is not even possible to develop an authentic human personality. Furthermore, a humble person has a special facility for making friends, even with people of very different tastes and of varying age-groups, which is a great help in all kinds of personal apostolate.
Humility is, in a very special way, the basis of charity. It gives it consistency and makes it possible: the dwelling place of charity is humility, says St Augustine. To the extent that a person can forget about self, he can take an interest in other people and attend to their needs. Many sins against charity have been provoked by previous faults of vanity, pride, selfishness and the desire to stand out from among others. And thus these two virtues, humility and charity, are the mother virtues and the others follow just as chickens do the mother hen. A humble person hates to put on airs, to show off. He knows well that he is not in the position he occupies, whatever is, in order to shine or to receive compliments, but to serve, to carry out a mission. Do not sit down in a place of honor but when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place. And if a Christian is to be found among the places of honor, occupying a preeminent position, he knows that this position of excellence has been given to him by God so that he may become useful to others, from which it follows that in as much as the witness of others ought to be pleasing to him, so much the more should he contribute to their good.
We ought to be in our proper place, always conscious that we are in the presence of God and resolutely refusing to allow our judgment to be distorted by ambition. Much less should we let ourselves be propelled by vanity or the mad scramble for higher and higher positions for which, perhaps, we have not the competence, and which later on will lead to humiliation, thereby creating in ourselves the dismaying conviction that we have got ourselves into a situation for which our gifts have not fitted us. This does not mean that God has not called us to make the best use of our talents and to make many sacrifices in using our time well. On the contrary, humility is opposed to a lack of the right intention in one’s work, a lack that is a clear symptom of pride. The humble person knows his place, however exalted or lowly it be. He feels he belongs there and is happy in his work. He knows his limitations and possibilities, and does not allow himself to be deceived by mere ambition. His qualifications are the right ones for his job, to a greater or lesser degree: he is never a dead weight, holding others back. He carries out his work as well as he might, as a member of a team.
Another manifestation of humility is the avoidance of negative judgments about other people. The knowledge of our own weakness will prevent us from entertaining a bad thought about anyone, even if the words or conduct of the person in question give good grounds for doing so. We look on others with respect and understanding which, when necessary, will naturally and normally lead to fraternal correction.
Ways of acquiring this virtue.
Among the ways of attaining humility is, in the first place, ardently to desire it, to value it and to ask God for it. Then our aim should be to foster docility in resolutely carrying out the advice received in spiritual direction, to receive fraternal correction joyfully and thankfully, to accept humiliation in silence for love of God, to obey quickly and wholeheartedly and, above all, to strive to attain this precious virtue through the exercise of charity in continuous details of cheerful service to others. Jesus is the supreme example of humility. No one has ever had a dignity comparable to his and no one has ever served mankind with such tender care as He: I am among you as one who serves. If we imitate Our Lord, we will accept others as they are and pay no attention to all those little annoyances which, in themselves, are of little importance. Humility disposes us to patience, and helps us to be patient with our own defects and with the defects of the people around us. We will render many little services in the course of our daily lives without expecting anything in exchange; and we will learn from Jesus and Mary how to get along with everyone and to understand other people, defects and all. If we try to see others as Our Lord sees them, it will be easy to accept then as he accepts them.
When we meditate on those passages of the Gospel that show the shortcomings of the apostles, we will learn not to be impatient with our own failings. Our Lord takes them into account just as He also takes into account time, grace, and our own desires to improve in this or that virtue or in some particular aspect of our character. Let us finish our prayer in contemplation of our holy mother Mary by asking that she will obtain for us from her Son the virtue of humility which we need so much:
Turn your eyes towards Mary. No creature ever surrendered herself to the plans of God more humbly than she. The humility of ‘ancilla Domini’, the handmaid of the Lord, is the reason we invoke her as ‘causa nostrae laetitiae’, cause of our joy … Mary, in confessing herself the handmaid of the Lord, becomes the Mother of the Divine Word, and is filled with joy. May the rejoicing that is hers, the joy of our good Mother, spread to all of us, so that with it we may continually go to her and greet her, our Holy Mother Mary, and thus become more like Christ, her Son.
Fr. Francis Fernandez (In Conversation with God)
