Showing posts with label Humility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Humility. Show all posts

Friday, November 1, 2024

In the Humility of Jesus Christ

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the humility of God, and so, the glory of God revealed. For humility is not merely something God does; it is not something he endured in some passing way. God is not merely humble. God is humility itself. 

Humility is self-giving, other-centered and cross-shaped — which is exactly what Divine Love is. Humility is but another way to speak of Love, and so, of God, for God is Love. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” says the Evangelist (John 15:13), and God in Christ is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for us.

I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep ... I am the Good Shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:11, 14-15)

In his letter to the Philippians, Apostle Paul hymns the depth and height of this great love and humility. It is, all of it, the glory of God unveiled. The humility of Christ is not the means to divine glory but is the fullness of the divine glory made manifest. Humility is what the glory of God looks like. And so Paul exhorts us:

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

In the humility of Jesus Christ is our freedom, and Lord Jesus invites us to follow him in this humility, so to discover our peace and rest:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30) 

Saturday, February 3, 2024

The Secret of Humility and Hope

All things — which is to say, everything that exists, that has being — are created by Christ, through Christ, for Christ, and in Christ (Colossians 1:15-17). So, everything is sacred, from the lowliest and most mundane to the most heavenly and exalted. All share in the same being, the one being that comes from God, who is not merely a being (not even the greatest of all beings) but is Being Himself. Further, all things in heaven and on earth share in the same destiny, set from before the foundation of the world, that, in the fullness of the times, all be brought together in unity and headed up in Christ.

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment — to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:7-10).

That being so, then whatever things we think are the most lowly and least valuable have the same source and origin, and the same destiny as do we. For we share the same stuff, the same sacred substance as they. We are a part of each other and participate in the same being with each other, sharing in the same existence with each other. This is cause for great humility, and for great honor and respect toward even those things that seem the least.

On the other hand, whatever things we think are most wonderful and exalted also share the same source and origin, and have the same destiny as do we. We share with them the same sacred substance, participating with them in the same existence. And this is cause for great hope for ourselves. 

The secret of humility and hope is that they go together. In hope there is humility, and in humility there is hope.