Real Humility
“The surest mark of true conversion is humility.”
So wrote J. C. Ryle (1819 – 1900), an Anglican Bishop, author and one of the great minds of the Anglican Communion.
What Bishop Ryle saw, I think, is just how difficult true Christian humility is. We are born proud, that is mostly concerned with ourselves, and humility is a lifetime battle that requires Divine aid if it is to be accomplished.
In Sunday’s Gospel lesson (Luke 18:8-14, click here to read it) we read the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. In prayer, the Pharisee mostly gives thanks that he is not like “other people,” especially this “tax collector.” The tax collector’s prayer is simple, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Jesus tells us that the tax collector is the one who goes home justified.
But Christian humility is also not just self-deprecating, woe-is-me, I am filthy rags, thinking. Christian humility understands that I am made and loved by God, declared worthy by Him, and that when God looked, he said “behold it is very good!”
Christian humility begins not with a low opinion of myself but a right understanding of God. In the words of C. S. Lewis, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.”
Where might you need to grow in humility?
This column appeared in the October 23, 2022 edition of St. John’s eNews. Click here for the complete issue.
If you are reading this at a different time, you may click here for the current eNews.
