This is the first of two posts for this week. This post is by Michael Beard, MMU Campus Minister.
Humility has been on my mind frequently as of late. Someone once disabused me of the notion that humility was self-denigration denial of my gifts; rather, humility is quite simply the recognition of one’s own limitedness, and in the Christian context, that means recognizing one’s status as creature and God’s status as Creator. To quote the priest in the film Rudy, “There is a God, and I’m not Him.” To live in humility is to continuously uncover what that concretely means in our daily lives, both in how we interact with the world and how we think.
Andrew, brother of Peter, is one of my favorite non-Jesus folks who helps me understand how a dope like me can live out how Jesus calls us to live. For Catholics, this Sunday (1/17) we hear from John’s Gospel account how Andrew met Jesus for the first time. John the Baptist (JtB for short) points Jesus out to him and another disciple of JtB, and they go and seek Jesus out. When Jesus asks what they are looking for, Andrew does not answer grandly; he doesn’t even directly answer Jesus’ question. Instead, he simply asks, “Lord, where are you staying?” Andrew was probably intrigued and bewildered by John’s description of Jesus as God’s sacrificial lamb (“Behold, the Lamb of God”); I don’t know what all he made of it. Regardless, it compelled him to learn more about this person. Jesus invites him closer, and Andrew’s new encounter convinces him: he has found God’s anointed one.
Often we can’t put a finger on what we want, nor do we have an arsenal of GRE and SAT words to most precisely and eloquently articulate what is welling up within our hearts. Many folks who look to become Catholic don’t have a clear or coherent reason at the beginning of their journey; they had some sort of encounter that left them wanting to experience more. It could be a powerful spiritual experience that motivates them, but it could easily be a small something—the tiniest blip on the radar—that made them do a double-take and left them curious. Most ministers facilitating somebody’s journey into Catholicism wouldn’t expect elaborate essays on why somebody would want to become Catholic; they’ll meet them where they are and journey with them as they discover what resonated in their heart. That’s how it is in our relationship with Jesus, too: Jesus will meet us wherever we are and journey with us as we discover and fill the yearnings of our hearts.
Andrew repeatedly offers a model for how to approach life as a follower of Jesus and a believer in God. Rather than got caught up in the impossibility of a task, or his inability to formulate a perfect answer, he simply offers what he has and what’s available. He doesn’t have a precise answer to Jesus’ question; so what? He offers what words he can, and Jesus meets him and guides him to where he needs to go. They don’t have enough money or resources to feed thousands of people (John 6); so what? Here’s what they do have, and maybe God can work wonders with it.
It’s the same for all of us. With Christian humility, the temptation to despair at limitation, mortality, humanity, sinfulness, etc. will be far more possible to fight. The call to holiness, relationship with Jesus, and for going forward is simple: offer what is to God, knowing this is the same God who has worked wonders and who loves more deeply than we can fathom. By Jesus’ grace, trusting in Him, we can rejoice in our littleness rather than let it hinder us. As Paul says, we can do all in Christ who strengthens us.
This takes on a particular salience this week: as we remember the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; after the killings and shootings of this summer (and many, many years); in the midst of events at the capitol building. In the face of hatred, evil, violence, etc., the temptation to despair might be strong. The temptation to pretend everything is fine is also strong. Humility helps us to engage with the world, recognizing it for what it is, and engage in the concrete ways that we can. What can we commend to the Lord? What small things can be done with great love? God puts us exactly where we need to be—what are the concrete circumstances of our life, of our day, of our relationships? Simply because we cannot individually in a single month or action dismantle structures of sin that have had generations of development and myriad people enforcing it does not mean we are without effect.
Similarly, what weighs at you, nags at you, tempts you to despair? Is there a restlessness in your heart, a yearning, an ache, or something inexpressible in words? Place it in God’s hands in prayer. These are not the grandest of actions, but the smallest of seeds can grow mightily. There are any number of saints (including Andrew) in whose lives and actions one might see this point illustrated. One might well see it in the life and fruits of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as well.
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