May 13, 2018

7^th Sunday of Easter:

Humility: the Key to Unity

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

Today’s Gospel places us in the Upper Room, at the Last Supper and we hear part of what is called the Lord’s “Farewell Discourse.” It is, in effect, the Lord’s testament to his apostles, and it reveals the fervent desires of his heart. In it we find that his desire and prayer for the apostles and the Church is “oneness” or “unity.” Oneness is one of the four identifying marks of the Church. But unity must be cultivated and we know through her history, the Church has suffered many divisions--so contrary to the desire of the Lord. This is why the Church is committed to ecumenism, to heal those divisions and bring about unity.

Don’t we desire unity in our relationships, within our families, our parishes and our nation? Throughout our country, many dioceses are merging parishes! Have you heard about that? We know nothing about that here! Uniting parishes together causes such tension and tumult. It feels like the “end of the world!” Cultivating unity is a can be a formidable challenge.

What is the key to unity? How can we achieve it? St. Paul perhaps provides the answer in his letter to the Philippians: “Do nothing out of contentiousness or out of vainglory, but in humility let each one regard the other as his superior, each one looking not to his own interests but to those of others.”
Humility is key. As long as I think of myself as better than others and that I must come first, unity will always elude us. Without humility very little comes together. Unity grows in proportion to our humility.
St. Jose Maria Escriva composed a series of statements he called, “signs of a lack of humility.” Today let’s call them, “roadblocks to unity.” So many of these “hit home!”

• Thinking that what you do or say is better than what others do or say
• Always wanting to get your own way
• Arguing stubbornly when you are not right and you know that you are not right
• Giving your opinion without being asked for it
• Despising the viewpoint of others
• Not being aware that all your gift and talents, you have on loan from God
• Praising yourself in conversation so that you might point out your honesty, professionalism, wit or skill
• Speaking badly about yourself so that other will have a good opinion of you
• Making excuses when corrected
• Hiding faults and sins from your confessor so that he may not lose the good opinion he has of you
• Being hurt that others are held in greater esteem than you
• Refusing to carry our menial tasks
• Wanting to be signaled out

The virtue of humility is based on the truth about ourselves. It means “having the right estimate of ourselves.” It involves keeping in balance two truths: on the one hand to acknowledge God has indeed blessed me with many gifts and these I will use wisely and well. On the other hand, I acknowledge that I am not perfect. I have my defects, my sins. I am in need of God’s mercy. In this way we do not make ourselves to be more than I should be nor less than what we are.

We all have people in our life that help us grow in humility. Mothers are such people! They know and tell us the truth about ourselves! Some years ago, when I was a priest already five or six years, on my day off at home, I recall doing something silly. My mom, arms crossed, just looked at me shaking her head, and said, “You know, you spared some good woman by becoming a priest.” She had a knack for keeping me humble!

However, we come to humility, let us bring it into our families, our parish, our committees, our clubs…through it we can come to unity and help to fulfill the fervent prayer of our Lord.