Humility

Since the days of Christ Our Lord, the Church has been teaching that humility is the first virtue. Saint Ignatius Loyola presents it in his Spiritual Exercises, under the title: "The Two Standards". Loyola was a military man. To him, "Standard" meant "Flag".

Our Lord wants to bring you under his flag. He does this in three steps. First, he gives you poverty, like a gift. From poverty comes humiliations. From humiliations comes humility. And after that – all the other virtues!

The devil, the source of all evil, wants to bring you under his flag, and drag you headlong into hell. He does this in three steps. First, he gives you riches, like a gift. From riches comes honor. From honor comes pride. And after that – all the other vices!

The Filipino is poor. That is a blessing, a gift of God. From that poverty comes humiliations. We are looked down upon as a third class nation, the bottom of the barrel, even in Asia. From these humiliations comes humility. And after that - all the other virtues!

One of those virtues is the joy of living. God himself promised that. He said: "I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly! I have come that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete!" That is why the Filipino smiles, in the midst of hardship. . . . .and all the world wonders why.

That humility shows in everything we do. A young priest was driving through the mountains of Mindanao. Four boys were with him. About noon, their jeep broke down. While they were trying to repair it, a friendly family along the road invited them to lunch. They accepted, gratefully.

Almost at once the family served the boys with roast chicken. To the hungry priest, that roast chicken looked awfully good. He waited. But they did not serve him anything. The mother of the family said: "Father, just wait. We have something special for you. Just wait." The priest said: "I would be happy with the roast chicken." But the mother shook her head. "No. For you, we have something special!"

The priest waited. Finally the mother came in, triumphantly, with sardines. Some poor boy ran two kilometers to the nearly town, to buy the canned sardines. The family felt that the sardines must be much better than the roast chicken, because the sardines were imported! The chickens were just running around in their back yard. The chickens were their own. They felt that anything which was their own must be inferior to something that was imported! This is humility!

Once I myself, with Bishop Jesus Varela, was blessing a convent in the Bicol Region. The Bishop warned me: "The nuns are very poor. We’ll have lunch there. But never mind – we’ll have a good dinner." In the convent, after the blessing, the nuns themselves apologized. They said: "We are sorry! But we can only serve you what we can gather from around the convent."

At lunch time they sat us down outdoors. Our table was the flat stump of a great tree, which had been cut down. We were surrounded by beautiful trees, with a cool fresh breeze blowing in from the sea. A nun came out of the convent kitchen with a large lobster, for each of us! The second course was a salmon steak, about an inch thick. Both cooked wonderfully! For desert they brought out a pineapple, hollowed out, and filled with fresh fruit.

If anyone ordered a meal like that in New York City, the cost would be astronomical! But the nuns apologized because the lobster came from the sea close by, and the salmon was given to them by poor Filipino fishermen, and the fruit was growing all around the house. They felt that these things, which came to them free, must be disappointing to a foreigner.

This is humility! The mountain family that served the sardines, and the Sisters who served the lobster and salmon and fruit, were rich in that beautiful virtue, and they did not even know it!

Humility cries out from every joke that the Filipino tells. Scientists in a space program invented a rocket that would circle the earth at tremendous speed. When they launched it, they wanted prestigious people in it, to insure maximum publicity. They chose Ronald Reagan, who was at that time President of the United States. And Kruschev, who at that time was a power in Russia. And from Asia they chose Cardinal Sin.

They were rocketing around the world, so fast that they never knew where they were. But at one moment Reagan said: "We are over the United States!" The others asked: "How do you know?" Reagan, with stars in his eyes, said: "I can feel it!. . . .I can feel it!. .

I can feel the spirit of Freedom!"

A little later Kruschev stood up, electrified, and said: "We are over Russia!" They asked: "How do you know?" He clenched both fists. There was a steely look in his eyes. He said: "I can feel it!. . . . .I can feel it!. . . . I can feel the spirit of Discipline!"

All of them were quiet for some time. But suddenly Cardinal Sin gasped, and said: "We are over the Philippines!" The other two leaned toward him, saying: "How do you know?" The Cardinal, wide-eyed, said: "I put out my hand!. . . .I lost my watch!"

And then there was the Filipino who was T.N.T. in the United States. He was desperate, because he could not hold any job. The police had a picture of him. Whenever he was hired, a policeman would appear, and he would run, because the cops might recognize him from the picture.

Finally he found a job that was just right! He was hired to be a chimpanzee in a circus. They gave him a chimpanzee outfit, so he was completely disguised at all times. He was very happy with this job. All he had to do was to climb up the bars and flip around, and be active like a chimpanzee. He wanted to keep this job, so he was really working at it.

But one day he overdid it, and he flipped over the bars into the cage of the gorilla! This big monstrous gorilla came after him. In his panic, he forgot that he was supposed to be a chimpanzee and cried out: "Saklolo!"

The big gorilla stopped, looked down at him intently, pointed at him with both forefingers, and said: "T.N.T. ka rin?"

If you notice, we do not laugh at other people. We treat others with reverence. We talk to every stranger as if he were a friend. When we laugh, we laugh at ourselves. . . . .that is humility.

* * *

There is a daily texting service called: "One Minute With God."

You can reach it on Globe by texting: "Reuter@2978"

You can reach it on Smart by texting: "Reuter@326"