Wednesday, April 22, 2020
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The Importance of Meekness . . . Rejecting Idols
Paul warns that small, easy temptations lead to a great, cataclysmic fall. What begins at first quietly and even innocently, will later lead to ruin. We can never hear this lesson too much.
What helps us to maintain the meekness of Christ that we work so much to find and maintain? It is the Eucharist of thanksgiving in the living Christ that is the antidote against the temptation to serve our personal idols. It is this gift of self from Christ that redeems and transforms us. We become too full of ourselves when we believe that we do not need Christ’s protection as we move through our days. We lose our humility in God when we believe that we can handle our personal obstacles alone. Pride is perhaps the first sign to ourselves that we are beginning to tread in dangerous territory.
From today’s MAGNIFICAT Mini-Reflection (335). Pride sets subtle snares. Whenever we imagine that we are in control of life – our own or someone else’s – we have fallen prey to the ancient whisper in the Garden: “You shall be like gods”. Mortality is the enduring reminder that we become like God not by our own power but by the power of the cross.
From Sirach 10 in the Morning Prayer and intercessions today: Odious to the Lord and to men is arrogance, and the sin of oppression they both hate. The beginning of pride is man’s stubbornness in withdrawing his heart from his Maker; for pride is the reservoir of sin, a source which runs over with vice. The roots of the proud God plucks up, to plant the humble in their place: he breaks down their stem to the level of the ground, then digs their roots from the earth.
This from Matthew 23:12: Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Temptations come to us on little cat feet, becoming part of our daily self and routine without our noticing, disassembling our humble relationship with God. St. Paul warns his listeners that the first little steps into our addictions are the beginning of idolatry. Whatever we do to excess that excludes God from our living and from our decision-making . . . these minuscule openings into idolatry must be investigated and put away. These little wooings, these seemingly insignificant acts that we believe have no effect upon us are . . . after all is considered . . . our first steps away from God, away from the Garden . . . and into the arms of one who delights in our fall.
Humility keeps us close by the creator. Meekness reminds us to reject our idols. Quiet obedience in the Spirit brings us home to Christ. Today we spend time reflecting on our meekness . . . and how this gift of discipleship binds us forever to God.
Tomorrow, discipleship and the gift of broken-heartedness . . .
Image from: http://www.understandfasting.com/the-answer-to-pride/
Cameron, Peter John. “Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 2.24 (2011): 335. Print.
First written on February 24, 2011. Revised and posted today as a Favorite.
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