Humility – Shortcut to holiness and happiness

If you want to learn more about the virtue of humility, the shortcut to holiness, happiness, and peace of soul, keep reading. Specifically in this article I will discuss a hidden but important virtue that is needed to gain entrance to the kingdom of heaven both here on earth and when we die.

Once you are done with this article, you will have a deeper understanding of this wonderful virtue. But first a word of warning, the more you practice this shortcut, the holier, happier, and more popular you will be. Your life will never be the same again! You will also gain an eternal glory that far exceeds anything you can ‘lose’ from your ego’s desires, which are often thwarted and are actually the cause of much of our suffering and dissatisfaction with life.

The key to understanding this hidden but powerful virtue is simple; ‘before there can be glory, there must be humility’ (Prov 15:33).

Just as at least a touch of pride is necessary for every sin, so is at least a touch of humility necessary for any act of love and service to God or neighbor.

I’m sure you’ll agree that a proud person who takes credit for everything he has or does, or worse, takes credit for what he imagines he has or does, is as welcome and loved as a skunk. at a garden party.

On the contrary, a humble person is always wanted, loved and welcomed. People feel safe with humble people who don’t try to show how superior they are or look down on others.

The hearts of the humble are full of welcome and peace, they love naturally, almost without effort. It is this ability to accept others and love naturally that makes us love, love being God. The more we can imitate God, the holier we become.

Also, the more we love, the more we do God’s will on earth and that is where our true happiness lies.

One day when asked what virtue was the most essential to practice in order to be a saint, St. John Vianney answered; ‘humility, humility, humility’. Her words from him still ring true today! Even more so in the era of the generations of the ego of ‘I’.

The Bible tells us that when Jesus came to earth, the only thing he asked all of us to do was; ‘learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart’ and the reward of such humility he assured us would be the precious ‘rest for your souls’ (Mt 11:29) which so many are seeking often fruitlessly on this day and age.

It really is only by the grace of God that we can be humble as we are naturally proud and also prone to sin. We need to ask for this grace for ourselves and for others every day, the grace of humility, because Jesus warned us when he said: ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, with me in him, bears fruit abundantly, because apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).

Without Jesus and the grace he grants us through the Holy Spirit to be humble, we simply cannot do it. It doesn’t come naturally to us to be humble except in rare personalities.

Knowing and believing that we can do nothing without Christ is itself an essential element of true humility. Therefore, humility is simply knowing and living the truth that we need God at all times for our existence and also for our happiness.

Humility is also essentially true, we are creatures, God is our Creator, simple as that. We exist primarily to know, love, and serve God. When we deviate from this course, things start to go wrong for us, we sin and lose grace (the supernatural power to do good, to do God’s will). In short, we lose our chance to be happy.

Humility is also about being grateful to God for all his blessings and striving to be satisfied with God’s will in our lives. The words of Robert Louis Stevenson “The person who has ceased to be grateful has fallen asleep in life” comes to mind, and on the path of humility, dozing is always a step backwards!

Humility is therefore a shortcut to holiness and its blessed reward, which is the peace of the soul even here on earth and even in the midst of difficulties on all sides, as experienced by the Apostle Paul, who learned to be content no matter what. circumstances of his life. He was battered, shipwrecked and attacked on all sides but his humility kept the peace of his soul.

Through humility we also come to realize in a deeper way that God is our father, protecting us and loving us and keeping us in existence at all times; ‘In God we live and move and have our being’.

As such, we fear offending God through sin and this gives us true wisdom of heart because the ‘fear of the Lord is a school of wisdom’ (Prov 15:33). In fact, wisdom and humility are intertwined like the links of a chain and, as the Book of Proverbs says, only “in the humble” will “wisdom be found” (Prov 11, 2).

Therefore, humility is a humble virtue that helps us to climb to the high heights of holiness and union with a God who is love. The importance of humility cannot be underestimated when striving for holiness, that true, lasting and authentic happiness that we all seek deep down.

Jesus is continually calling us to humility that goes directly against the clamor for the world’s esteem and our own human nature that wants to be superior and exalt itself above others but paradoxically it is the true path to peace of soul.

So now that you know more about humility, you’ll be more willing to put it into practice. There is an excellent book on the subject by Fr. Cayetano of Bergamo called ‘Humility of Heart’. It’s a bit dated but an excellent resource.