“Lord, my heart is not puffed up; nor are my eyes haughty. Neither have I walked in great matters nor in wonderful things above me.” What then? “If I was not humbly minded, but exalted my soul; as a child that is weaned is towards his mother so shalt Thou reward my soul.”
End Quote.
The next virtue after obedience is humility. And here we see all exhaltation of anyone but God (most especially oneself) as denounced by Holy Father Benedict.
All praise is directed towards God either directly by His qualities and deeds or indirectly through submission to the delegates of His will (e.g. following the fourth commandment, submitting to lawful authorities, etc.).
But as the Apostle says, “all praise, honor, and glory be to the Invisible, Immortal God, Now and Forever.” Hardly a rhetorical flourish, *all* here substantively means all. Granted, it doesn’t mean God cannot delegate as He did to Moses and Aaron to the disgruntlement of many proud souls during the rebellion of Korah in the wilderness. Humility is ultimately a recognition of God as above our thoughts and our ways, but it can be variously expressed in the economy of salvation. Angels are conceptual proof of this tendency-- likely rule (as per Classical Theism)-- towards mediation.
A Good practice of cultivating humility then is to want to see only what is good in others, especially virtues that exceed our own, while ascribing all blame to ourselves following honest assessment of our public and private frailties. Blessed are those who have the former and make good profit from humiliations in life, but there is perhaps greater merit in the quiet examination of the conscience where we confront our hidden faults especially.
If you think about it deeply, there is a lot that should discourage us about ourselves if we were to be evaluated on our own terms. Fortunately, we do not live on our own terms anymore but only in Christ.
And while men can do nothing, God can do all.
To be humble then is not to beat yourself up for the sake of masochism (which is vandalism of God's creation; i.e. your soul). To be humble is to be aware of God in each moment by all available and licit means.
God and Mary be with you!
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