Though I try not to be, I know I can be full of myself occasionally. That's why this quote from a book I picked up today by Fulton Sheen jumped out at me. It's good advice for people of all faiths:
"Pride is the child of ignorance; humility the offspring of knowledge.
Pround people think themselves to be better than they are, and when criticized, always believe their neighbor is jealous or has a grudge against them. The humble know themselves as they really are for they judge themselves as they judge time - by a standard outside themselves, namely God and His moral law. The psychological reason for the modern fondness for news which deflates others or brings out the evil in their lives is to solace uneasy consciences which are already laden with guilt. By finding others who apparently are (worse) than we, we falsely believe that we are somehow better 'than the rest of men' (Lk 18:11)...
Humble people are not rigid exacters of things to which they have no undoubted right; they are always ready to overlook the faults of others knowing that they have so many themselves. Neither are they greatly provoked at those slights which put vain persons out of patience, knowing that as we show mercy to others so shall we receive mercy from God. Before undertaking a task great or small, before making decisions, before beginning a journey, the humble will acknowledge their dependence on God and will invoke His guidance and His blessing on all their enterprises. Even though they be placed above others by vocation or by the will of the people, they will never cease to recognize that God has made of one blood all the nations that dwell on earth."
TonyRossiBlogger@gmail.com
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