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We need the virtue that acts as the “great antagonist” of the “most mortal of sins,” but to get it, “it suffices to contemplate a starry sky,” says Pope Francis.
“Blessed are the people who hold in their heart this perception of their own smallness!” the Pope said. “Humility is the gateway to all the virtues.”
The Holy Father considered the virtue of humility in the general audience of May 22, 2024, saying that with the reflection on this virtue, this series of catecheses will conclude.
Humility “restores everything to its correct dimension,” the Pope said, by way of definition: “We are wonderful creatures, but we are limited, with qualities and flaws.” This is what we need to shun the dangerous “delirium of omnipotence,” that does so much harm.
The word humility derives from the word for earth, humus, a reminder that we are dust and to dust we shall return.
It takes very little to free ourselves from arrogance; it suffices to contemplate a starry sky to restore the correct measure, as the Psalm says: “When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?” (8:3-4). Modern science enables us to extend the horizon much, much farther, and to feel the mystery that surrounds us and which we inhabit even more.
Mary’s unshakeable humility
Pope Francis noted how humility, from the beginning of the Gospels, seems to be “the source of everything.”
In insignificant Nazareth, the Angel finds “the chosen heroine,” who is “not a little queen who grew up coddled, but an unknown girl: Mary.”
In her Magnificat, she expresses her wonder at how God has chosen her. “God is – so to speak – attracted by the smallness of Mary, which is above all an inner smallness. And He is also attracted by our smallness, when we accept it,” the Pope said.
Mary is “careful not to take center stage,” Pope Francis continued, noting how her first act is to “go and help, to go and serve her cousin,” even though no one sees this gesture other than God.
Not even the most sacred truth of her life – being the Mother of God – becomes a reason for her to boast before men. In a world marked by the pursuit of appearance, of showing oneself to be superior to others, Mary walks decisively, by the sole power of God’s grace, in the opposite direction.
The Pope referred to Mary’s humility as a “virtù granitica”: a granite-like, unshakeable virtue.
Let us think of Mary: she is always small, always without self-importance, always free of ambition. This smallness of hers is her invincible strength: it is she who remains at the foot of the cross, while the illusion of a triumphant Messiah is shattered. It will be Mary, in the days leading up to Pentecost, who will gather up the flock of disciples, who had not been able to keep vigil just one hour with Jesus, and had abandoned Him when the storm came.
Thus, the Pope concluded, “humility is everything.”
It is what saves us from the Evil One, and from the danger of becoming his accomplices. And humility is the source of peace in the world and in the Church. Where there is no humility, there is war, there is discord, there is division. God has given us an example of this in Jesus and Mary, for our salvation and happiness. And humility is precisely the way, the path to salvation.
