May 12


Humility: Distrust in Oneself and Trust in God

To be humble it is necessary to live distrusting of oneself, but trusting in God. (OOCC, X, p. 543; STA, 152)

If a person totally denies all his talents and abilities, and considers himself as someone worthless, he is not a humble person. Humility does not consist of denying the God-given talents and abilities a person possesses. On the contrary, if a person believes that he is capable of doing everything and trusts in himself alone, he also lacks the virtue of humility. Humility consists of neither an absolute distrust in a person’s abilities, nor in an absolute trust in oneself. A humble person, in fact, distrusts himself in the sense that he knows his weaknesses as a human person, and that he is prone to fail. But he trusts his ability to accomplish what God wants of him because he trusts in the Lord and his power to make everything happen in his life. Hence, a humble person is one who understands himself and his achievements in relationship to God. Though he faces challenging situations in his life with a certain amount of uncertainty of his success, he moves with the hope of doing all that life demands of him because he knows the Lord is his strength. St. Vincent Pallotti approached every arduous task he had undertaken, every taxing situation he faced, and every testing difficulty of his life, with the above-mentioned attitude and achieved great things for God while remaining humble as a person.

What is my understanding of being humble? In order to be humble, do I deny my God-given talents and abilities? Do I place absolute trust in myself without taking any recourse to God as I face challenging situations? Am I dependent on God while acknowledging my talents and abilities?

Lord I am not proud and haughty. I don’t think myself better than others … I am quiet now before the Lord, just as a child who is weaned from the breast … O Israel you too should quietly trust in the Lord – now and always. (Ps. 131: 1-3)