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Ascending by humility

Ascending by humility

Dear friends,

Today I would like to share with you a little about ascending by humility. We can consider an airplane as the subject of our reflection. The airplane is made to fly. It is also meant to fly high and not to fly in the lower levels where there are dangerous objects which may obstruct its flight. In the same way we too are created to fly high. The very nature of our soul is to fly high. To fly, an airplane needs fuel. If it has no fuel, or its runs out of fuel during flight, the airplane loses altitude and when the fuel runs down completely, it loses altitude fast!

Now we come back to our soul. The fuel for our soul is humility. When we are truly filled with humble thoughts, we are already pointing in the right direction, which is upwards. Depending on the measure of our humility, the angle of our ascent increases. If we are downright humble, we fly straight up, at an angle of 90 degrees. The fuel is the amount of humble thoughts and considerations with which we fill our hearts. If we have no humble thoughts and considerations, we wont travel far. Each day our soul must travel a great distance towards God, who is perfection. And we also know that our flight must be upwards. 

For this let us concentrate on humility and again concentrate on filling ourselves with humble thoughts. Humble thoughts towards God by considering our own littleness (Psalm 131; Matthew 18:1-5); insignifcance (Job 14:2; Psalm 39:5-6) and finally humble thoughts toward our neighbour by not willing to raise ourselves above him or her but instead offering ourselves as an offering for their perfection and sanctification (John 3:30; Philippians 2:17-18; Ephesians 5:25).

How do we get humble thoughts? St. Paul gives us an answer, "The attitude you must have must be the same as Christ Jesus." In other words, we must consider Christ Jesus - we MUST LOOK AT HIM. If indeed we succeed in looking at Him, we cannot fail to be inspired. When we consider His Face, His Mind and His Attitude, the lights emanating from this consideration succeed in effecting an infilling within our own minds. At the same time, for this infilling to be effective, it is necessary, as the saints instruct us, that our minds be polished so that they can reflect the brightness that they encounter. If unfortunately, light falls on a rough surface, we know it does not shine; but if light falls on a polished surface, we know how much the suface shines! In the same way, when the Light of Christ falls on our polished minds, they begin to shine with the brightness of Christ!

Dear brothers and sisters, I would also like to bring to your attention the danger of flying low. We do indeed fly when we start to become humble, or in other words, when we start to recognise our need for God. But if we fly low, we run the risk of encountering dangerous objects which can severely obstruct our flight. These are the thoughts of pride, anger, jealousy, lust, gluttony, avarice and sloth, the seven capital sins. But if we again humble ourselves, or, in other words, if we fill ourselves with humble dispositions, we begin to ascend again to those realms where Christ Jesus is seated, at the right hand of God the Father, where peace, righteousness and joy has made a home!

Grace be with you all, and pray for me too, a poor sinner!

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