In Christ Is Humility – April 18-19, 2024 (116/365)

I find it nice that nowadays, one option for us to maintain communication and relationships with each other is not merely through the exchange of messages, but through the exchange of memes and funny clips.

Recently, however, it’s been different with a couple of friends of mine. I do have one friend in particular, whom I mentioned once or twice in the past identifies as Catholic but, in my mind, is more Christian that a lot of other professing Christians that I know… and sure, we’ve been exchanging memes, but he’s also thrown in a theological short clip or two.

This morning I woke up to his usual salvo of stuff shared to me, and one of them was of a priest who shared his 3 favorite (Catholic prayers) – I forgot the first one, the third one was the iconic (his words) Lord’s Prayer… but the second one caught my attention: It was the Litany of Humility, and I’d like to share it here today:

Litany of Humility

Author: Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val y Zulueta

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,

Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being loved,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being extolled,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being honored,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being praised,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being preferred to others,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being consulted,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being approved,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

I’m not sure if the text is properly grouped but I chose to arrange it that way, in order for us to take it all and, well, use it so we have even more perspective as to the salvation we have through Christ.

Now, I’m not saying that this litany is wrong – Surely, we would ask for the Lord’s help for us to be humble. We should, actually. No, while this does check my boxes because we’re brought to depend on Christ even more (based on the choice of words), I do also want to point out the other perspectives to it.

What am I talking about? Well, while through this litany spoken as is, we’re asking for protection, I’m also proposing that we’re also appreciating the impact of Christ’s finished work; That is, through Christ’s birth, death, resurrection, and ascension, we ought to consider, claim and appreciate that we no longer need to be so fixated on being esteemed, because through Christ, the Creator of the Universe already esteems us.

We no longer need to be so fixated, or so ‘thirsty’ to be loved, because in and through Christ, the Creator of the Universe already loves us – He loves us as a Father, and He loves us with an everlasting love.

Through Christ, we can make the bold and anti-religious claim that the Creator of all things seen and unseen extols us, honors us, and praises us – To extol anyone means to sings his or her praises, and to extol means to acclaim.

How can we, who have been so fixated on praising God and telling Him that He deserves all the praise – How can we say that He’s the One who acclaims us and praises us? Ridiculous!

I struggle with this one personally, because I agree that it is but Biblical for us to say that God DOES deserve all praise and glory – But I also ought to consider that (1) He praises us knowing that in the end He ultimately takes all the praise, and (2) He praises us, as the Creator who praises His creation – In other words, when we are praised, so He is praised even more.

Because of who Christ is and because of all He has done, we no longer need to wager so much on our being preferred and approved. The prodigal son and his elder brother were treated differently, but we witnessed just how much the Father loved them, the same. I may not have felt preferred or approved by my own dad at all times, but it’s not my feelings that matter – I believe my God, as my Father, was as my Dad – He prefers me, approves me with His best.

Finally, there’s the mention of ‘the desire of being consulted’ – We talk a lot about how we ought to consult the Lord before we take any action; On a personal note I’ve been going through 1 and 2 Samuel, and there’s a lot of moments where David (or Saul) took the extra time to consult with the Lord before they, say, made an attack against another army.

One definition of ‘consult’ is ‘(to) have discussions or confer with (someone), typically before undertaking a course of action.’; and as I read through that in particular I remembered that one Word that God shared:

“Behold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.”

This was spoken from the Lord through Isaiah… and this looks like God in discussion before taking action.

I suppose I inherited my Dad’s penchant for moving pieces and stuff around without letting people know… surprising them that what he set off to do has already been done, with the hopes of, well, entertaining them or amplifying the surprise.

Oftentimes I’ve talked about how I personally love to receive surprises, and I do enjoy when God surprises me, and us – however, all this is telling me that Christ paid a great price for us to understand and appreciate that the Lord does know the best for us at any given time: whether it’s wrapped as a surprise, or if He does talk to us about stuff before it happening.

In a way, we’re to ask for protection to desire all this… but let us not be surprised if He protects us by way of reminding us that He HIMSELF esteem us, love us, extol, honor, and praise us. He prefers us, approves of us, and we know this because He consults with us.

When we are concerned of external or internal forces and influences causing us to hunger for such things, let us be reminded of Christ – for through Him, and by His finished work, we are secure that the One who does matter loves us.

From the fear of being humiliated,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being despised,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of suffering rebukes,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being calumniated,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being forgotten,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being ridiculed,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being wronged,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being suspected,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

Indeed, we appreciate His finished work through this Litany. For by it, we are reminded of our being protected by desiring love, honor, and praise from anywhere else besides Him, and we know it is a sure thing, because Christ also covered the next ‘section’ – delivering us from fear.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.Hebrews 4:14-16

Simply put, He delivered us from the fear of being humiliated, because He Himself was humiliated to the greatest degree at the cross.

We can face the fear of being despised, because at the cross, He was despised – by all men. He suffered rebukes, He became calumniated (false and defamatory statements were made against Him), forgotten, ridiculed, wronged, and suspected – A foretaste of the perfect love He would unleash upon all, one that would cast out all fear we would have of we ourselves being rebuked, forgotten, ridiculed, and so on.

We are reminded, through this Litany, that we can boldly proclaim our being loved so greatly by the Creator of the Universe… because Christ, becoming sin, was hated so greatly by creation.

That others may be loved more than I,