Humility

Hello everyone!

I am currently reading, "The Spiritual Life" by Fr. Jean Nicolas Grou. I had picked up the book because I have been wanting to look at the basics of the spiritual life again, spending time to meditate on such basics and allowing God to really speak to me. Little did I know the density of the book, nor the beautiful revelations that would come from some of the quotes. In this post I will look at Chapter 1 particularly. This chapter challenges the reader to look at humility and understand what it is in order to grow in that path. Fr. Grou shows that humility is a balancing act between the knowledge of the souls worthiness and the souls unworthiness. He proposes also the idea that if, in true humility, we are called to holiness, to walk the path of Christ, then are we to say it is too much for our soul after what God has done to save our soul? The following are a few quotes from this short chapter.

"...religion humbles a man by teaching him that he comes from nothing...it raises him up and inspires him with great thoughts about himself, by teaching him what his nature is really capable of through the grace of God..."

"But that which puts the crown on the real greatness of man, and on the sad disorder of his abasement of himself, is the thought of what the salvation of his soul has cost God. The Word of God...united Himself to our human nature, took upon Himself our passible and mortal flesh, conversed with men, condescended to instruct them by His teaching and example, and finally, as a voluntary victim, sacrificed Himself for them to the Divine Justice...to reconcile them to God...That which our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did and suffered for all me, He did and suffered for each one in particular; and He would not have thought it too much to do if it had been a question of saving only a single soul."

"It proves that the dignity of a soul is beyond understanding"

"And if, so that we may save ourselves, God required of us the same sacrifice to which Jesus Christ willingly submitted Himself, could we say that He required too much?"