Humility, the path that leads us to God Lk 11,47-54

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LUKE AND MATTHEW record in their Gospels the famous “woe” speech in which the Lord reproaches the scribes and Pharisees for the inconsistency of their lives. The Master sharply accuses them because they cared more about appearances than about living according to the truth. “Woe to you, teachers of the law, for you load men with burdens they cannot bear, yet you do not lift a finger to help them. Woe to you, for you build monuments to the prophets your fathers killed! (…) Woe to you, teachers of the law, for you have taken away the key of knowledge! (Luke 11:46-47, 52).

The words they hear from the mouth of Jesus Christ do not soften them; on the contrary, as Scripture says, “they began to attack him fiercely and to question him about many things” (Luke 11:53). The Lord certainly spoke to them sternly. But if they looked within themselves with a little courage and sincerity, they would understand that Jesus’ accusations are just. On the other hand, humility allows us to accept the admonition and to embark on the path of conversion that the Lord asks of us. It is “a path that leads us to God and, precisely because it leads us to him, it also leads us to the essentials of life, to the true meaning of life, to the most reliable reason why it is worth living. Only humility opens us to the experience of truth, to authentic joy, and to knowledge that has value. Without humility, we are isolated from understanding both God and ourselves.

In other Gospel passages, we see how Jesus is touched by the simplicity of children who come to him and have not yet learned to lie; the weakness of lepers who ask to be healed without being bound by what they say; the sincerity of those who ask because they want to know the truth. The Master values ​​authenticity and sincerity. That is why on another occasion he will preach: “Let your speech be ‘Yes, yes,’ ‘No, no.’ Anything more than that comes from the evil one” (Mt 5:37).

Examination of conscience: recognizing the voice of the Lord ...

The Pharisees’ and scribes’ tendency to justify their attitude is as old as man himself. When God sees with surprise the garment of leaves that Adam has put on and asks him if he has eaten from the tree, the first man makes excuses: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate” (Gn 3:12). His reaction is to accuse Eve in order to relieve his conscience of what has just happened.

Father Javier Echevarría tells us that Saint Josemaría “always fought against all kinds of excuses that prevented the fulfillment of duties, even if they did not involve serious offenses to our Lord. (…) Love is evident in these details. For this reason, he radically rejected five reasons that he did not hesitate to describe as diabolical, but, I thought, I didn’t care, tomorrow, or later. “A desire for an attentive, watchful heart leads one to listen to God’s voice in all these small struggles.

Examination of conscience helps us know ourselves better and recognize the challenges God addresses to us every day. If we realize we have not been able to respond, we can ask our Lord for the grace to start again the next day. As Saint Josemaría said, “Our Christian life must be quite normal: trying to fulfill our daily tasks well and, by fulfilling our daily duties, to carry out our divine mission in the world. – Or rather, trying to carry it out, because sometimes we fail. When we examine our conscience in the evening, we must say to the Lord, “Today I offer you no virtues, only faults, but with your grace I will still triumph in the end.”

The courage to look into our heart is essential.

THE CALL and the following of Christ closely link us to the need to examine ourselves in the love of God. In prayer, we must fearlessly face our weaknesses through a sincere examination of conscience, which allows us to name what is happening to us and give it a name and surname. In one of his first pastoral letters, Blessed Alvaro advised us to “make a conscientious examination of conscience.” In other words, he encouraged his children to courageously look into their hearts and find the causes of their weaknesses.

This effort to know ourselves better can help us grow in freedom, as it reveals the Lord’s constant gaze and action in our existence and encourages us to live authentically. On the other hand, “forgetting God’s presence in our lives goes hand in hand with ignorance of ourselves, of the characteristics of our personality, and of our deepest desires.” In this examination, we can revive the ideals by which we want to be moved and ask God for the grace to help us live according to our vocation. In this way, we can stay close to the Lord and avoid what leads us away from him. When Jesus called the first apostles, they “left everything, everything! And followed him. Sometimes we find that, even though we want to imitate them, we cannot leave everything because our hearts still cling to something: a mistake in life, something we are unwilling to give up and offer to the Lord. – Do you examine your heart deeply? Nothing should remain in it that is not His; if not, we do not love Him well, neither you nor.

The Virgin Mary knew how to direct her feelings toward the mission the angel announced to her: to be the Mother of God. From that day on, her whole life, even the smallest details, would revolve around this vocation. She can help us make our entire day an expression of our love for her Son, and that love extends to those around us.