Oct 31, 2019 filed under Humility.

Jesus, logos of the universe

Paul always stops me in my tracks at Colossians 1:15-17. My eyes glaze over and I sit dumbfounded in wonder that Jesus “is the image of the unseen God;” that “in him were created all things…all things were created through him and for him. He is before all that is;” and “in him all things hold together in being.”

Here he is telling us mysteries that are beyond our grasp, but the very wonder of it speaks of love and power and eternity, and all the things you’d hope were involved in a relationship with God Almighty.

Paul’s words are especially powerful to mull when we’re in Adoration of the Eucharistic Jesus. Here he is, before our eyes, the one who holds the universe in being every second. He is the logos, the reason, the glue, the overarching principle of all creation “disguised as a little piece of bread,” as Mother Teresa put it.

Why would this Jesus come as a man, to die a criminal for little-old-us? Who are we? Because of his mercy, we are members of his body, the Church.

Something for nothing
Awareness of these realities is a great way to enter into humility, which is seeing ourselves as God sees us—as we really are. Humility has two sides: on one hand, we are nothing because we didn’t create ourselves and we can’t keep ourselves in being for a single second. On the other hand, God who is love has created us from nothing and raised us to the heights of dignity by giving us his own attributes: reason, free will, and immortality.

How glorious is this kind of humility! We have infinite value in the one who has loved us, and only in him.

If we can humble ourselves to give primacy to Jesus and give up selfish and fearful control of our lives, we get the universe and all heaven in return. This is no humility, but rather a goldmine of graces that we have access to with one simple word: “Yes.”

Love always,
Rose

8 Responses to “Glorious Humility”

  1. Margaret

    Thank you, Dear Rose,
    There used to be splendid collects, offertory and post communion prayers for special Masses for virtues such as humility, patience, charity etc. in the back of Daily Missals The Sts. have told us that these prayers, being prayers of the Church are most efficacious. The collect for humility reads: O God, Who resisteth the proud and showeth Thy grace to the humble, grant to us the grace of true humility of heart of which Thine only-begotten Son has shown us the example, so that we may never provoke Thee to anger by being lifted up in mind but by true humility, we may receive the Gifts of Thy Grace. (Google has all of these, with a few different words.)

  2. Tom Roberts

    Rose:

    Others may hear it sooner but I keep hearing it first in your column:

    He is the logos, the reason, the glue, the overarching principle of all creation “disguised as a little piece of bread.”

    Goldmine of graces

    That’s plenty to chew on at least until your next column.

  3. Diane Upham

    A precious and most beautiful writing for us poor mortals to cling to. You are a blessing, Rose.