One of the greatest challenges about being a Christian, is
the challenge of how we live the virtues. And, among one of the hardest virtues
to live, is that of humility, because it demands from us something we are not
used to, it demands that we ask ourselves how we stand before and in relation
to God. And, based on that, if we are not living the virtue to its fullest, it
asks us to redirect all of our praise and all of our honor to God alone.
St. Paul, in our second reading, puts it well, he says: “we
should…boast not of ourselves but in the Lord.”
In fact, there is a great story I once heard about this
which I would like to share with you now.
It is a story about a mountain climber who wanted to climb
the highest mountain, and he prepared himself incredibly well, so well, in
fact, that he wanted all the glory and all the fame for himself. So much so,
that he decided to climb the mountain all alone.
Now things were going well until one night when it got so
dark he could see nothing, since even the stars and the moon were covered by
the clouds. As he was climbing, about to reach the top of the mountain, he
slipped and he fell, falling at a great speed. In fact, he could only see black
spots as he went down and all he felt was the terrible sensation of being
enveloped by gravity.
As he was falling his entire life literally flashed before his eyes, and he remembered all the good things and all the bad things that he had done. He felt his death was imminent until, suddenly, he felt the rope that he had tied to his waist pull on him very hard.
As he was falling his entire life literally flashed before his eyes, and he remembered all the good things and all the bad things that he had done. He felt his death was imminent until, suddenly, he felt the rope that he had tied to his waist pull on him very hard.
He was hanging in the air with only the rope holding him and
keeping him from falling any further. At that moment, he could think of nothing
else except to scream out: “Help me God!”
He heard a voice from the sky answer: “What do you want me
to do?” He replied: “Save me God!” The voice responded: “Do you really think
that I can save you?” The man replied: “Of course I believe You can.” The voice
then told him: “Then cut the rope tied to your waist.” There was silence and
the man decided he could not do it, and so he held on to the rope with all of
his strength, hanging there, refusing to cut the rope.
The next day the rescue team said that the climber was found
frozen and dead, his body was hanging from the rope and his hands holding it
tight…only ten feet from the ground.
All he had to do was let go, all he had to do was trust, he
had to become humble accepting the fact that if he wanted to conquer that mountain,
despite what he thought, he could not do it alone, that if he truly wanted to
succeed, he had to allow the mountain of his pride to be conquered first.
In fact, this is what Jesus is reminding us of in our Gospel
today, that when we are lacking anything we seek support, and when we lack that
which is most fundamental to us, we then come to see what is most important in
our lives and, as a result, we realize we need to rely on God, we need to rely
on the only One who can help us, the One who, indeed, knows better than ourselves
what we truly need.
In fact, a great saint by the name of St. Francis of Assisi understood this well, to the point that he gave up all of his possessions, begged for food, endured sadness and was persecuted for being a Christian, embracing all of these things because he realized something important, he realized that when we allow ourselves to become vulnerable, when we allow ourselves to become like Christ, it makes us dependent upon the same Christ who lived the reality of those Beatitudes daily.
In fact, a great saint by the name of St. Francis of Assisi understood this well, to the point that he gave up all of his possessions, begged for food, endured sadness and was persecuted for being a Christian, embracing all of these things because he realized something important, he realized that when we allow ourselves to become vulnerable, when we allow ourselves to become like Christ, it makes us dependent upon the same Christ who lived the reality of those Beatitudes daily.
The Beatitudes then show us where true happiness lies, that
true fulfillment only begins here on
earth, but reaches its summit, the top of the mountain, as it were, in Heaven,
in fact, the word “beatitude,” like most Church words is a Latin word and it
simply means “fulfillment.”
That is why when we change our view, when we look at the
world with the eyes of humility, when we seek to practice the essence of those
Beatitudes, we then come to see that when we are hanging at the end of our own rope, as it were, when our own
pride has brought us to a place we don’t want to be, we need not fear, we need
only let go, knowing that if it is not a cliff or someone there waiting, it
will always be the hand of God ready to catch us if only we cut the rope and
fall in faith.
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