Humility is simple

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Meditation for the 2nd Sunday of Advent, year C2

He needs to grow and I need to decrease. (Jn 3:30)

Humility is simple. Humility is standing in the truth about oneself. Humility removes my exaggerated opinion of myself, but also humility lifts me from a false pit (it cancels the accuser’s whisper that I am a sucker). Every valley of untruth about myself is to be filled with God’s truth about me.

Every mountain of my exaltation razed to the ground. Simply put, John the Baptist calls me to stand in truth about myself, about my condition. Only then will my conversion work, built on truth – not on dreams. Only then will I have a chance to see God’s salvation – to see Jesus. To see His works and deeds in true light, to admire the Lord.

What does it take to look humbly into my spirit, my emotions, my mind, my will? Openness, allowing God to show and name what is in me. What is to change, what to remove, what to strengthen.

Openness has many names – openness to God, but also openness to other people. Communicating with other people is sometimes extremely difficult. We seem to speak the same language, and our words pass without reaching the interlocutor. I used to wonder why this is so, why I cannot explain what I mean, even though I am making myself clear. And I came to the conclusion that the culprit is different in terms of upbringing, religion, culture, reading or the lack of it. It’s just that my words have a different meaning than that of the other side. In order to try to engage in a constructive dialogue, concepts need to be defined. The word tolerance means …., the word acceptance means …, the word values means … It can take a long time to come up with a vocabulary and communicate.

The basic condition is mutual respect. When I hear the key word – catalyst triggering the programmed response, will I be able to refrain from sounding the alarm, pulling heavy artillery? I know it’s hard to achieve that without trying it is impossible. But I have to destroy these disturbing mountains, I have to cover up these pits separating me from my neighbor. Try and try to understand. Although I admit that sometimes it is impossible to understand.

I also have a reflection that I often get along well with people with different values, for example religious ones. It is great to talk about such common topics, but when it comes to exchanging opinions on the topics of faith, values - the wall. Two separate worlds. If someone has never touched the sphere of the sacred and is closed, there is no possibility of establishing any dialogue. Where faith comes in, it gets really hard. Because how do you explain that I believe? It cannot be measured and weighed. How do you explain the color green to someone when they’ve never seen any color?

I often tell myself not to let anyone instill hatred towards anyone in me. In order not to be carried away by the crowd that is stoning the harlot. To always see man and separate him from his actions. Man deserves respect, bad deeds criticize.

To achieve this, I have to control my emotions and use my mind. Emotions cannot rule my mind. I pray to God that there is a fuse in my mind to alert me when things go fast. I would like to be able to separate emotions, not to be provoked by loud slogans. Make decisions based on the values and criteria that derive from my faith.

The last days have brought big changes, the world has sped up a lot. Whether we are getting any closer to the events announced in the Book of Revelation, I do not know. War in the Middle East, conflict in Ukraine. A sea of people at the borders of the European Union. How to proceed in such times, how not to lose the deposit of faith? How can I defend the values I believe in? Fortunately, I am not the one who decides on a macro scale. In the micro scale, I always try to listen to my reason in addition to my heart. Do not make decisions rashly, do not get carried away by emotional slogans. It is always worth helping, but before I help, I look to see if that someone really needs my help, because sometimes those who are unable to shout or ask need it more.

A few months ago, an apartment was on fire in my neighborhood, there was an explosion, and a fire took place in neighboring premises. It looked terrible. At two in the morning, people ran barefoot in their pajamas to the yard. Several apartments were destroyed. The one where the fire broke out was completely burnt down. It so happened that the victims were the family of a person in my community *. We carried out a fundraiser, needed things, people from neighboring communities came to help renovate the apartment, everything from bedding to furniture was collected. Today the apartment is renovated, modest equipment allows you to live in. Could I help myself? Not. Several hundred people helped. The city gave the family a roof over their heads in a workers’ hotel during the renovation. One person doesn’t do much about these things, but acting together makes good things happen. As the administrator of my community says: God is good, we can make it.

It is good if no one is left alone in such matters that are beyond the capacity of one person, one family. Usually there is a group of people who start collecting money, helping and publicizing. Many times I joined such actions, supporting as much as I could. As long as we are together, we can do it. That is why it is so important that no one divides us. As Jesus said, a kingdom that is divided against itself cannot stand.

So we cannot afford internal quarrels in our country. Even if we disagree on cardinal points, let us respect each other. I have such a dream that two opposing demonstrations express their views, then greet each other and go quietly. We are not all the same (the world would be deadly boring if we were), we have different characters, experiences, we are at different stages of life and faith. We cannot afford to argue with each other. Dangerous events are circulating around our borders, we must stick together because together we have a better chance of surviving.