Humble and Contrite
Reflections on humility, contrition, and mercy based on today's readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022026.cfm
The key teaching from today’s readings is expressed perfectly in the words of the Psalmist: “A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.”
There is a certain paradox in this teaching. It is the paradox that we have every reason to be supremely confident so long as we do not place this confidence in ourselves.
We are affirmed that the Lord, with certainty, will not spurn a heart that is humble and contrite. But are we humble and contrite?
Are we really sorry for the wrongs we have done? Are we sorry about the good we failed to do? Are we sorry for the many ways in which we fail to be all that we could be?
The answer, in simplest terms, is usually no. So often, we do anything possible to avoid feeling this type of sorrow. Not only are we not contrite; we are actively trying to avoid contrition.
And we do so because we lack humility. For a prideful heart, such sorrow would be a threat to all that is most sacred, namely one’s own self-image.
However, for the humble of heart, sincere sorrow over one’s sinfulness is a simple reminder of who we actually are and how gracious the Lord has been to us. In remembering these things, the humble are able to become all that they were made to be.
Pride distorts our perception of reality — it leads us not to sorrow over our sin, but to justification of it. And, in the worst cases, it will even lead us to present our sin as if it were itself a virtue.
Pride convinces us that it is by our own effort, and through our own efforts, that we can somehow achieve the love of God. Surely, such a belief fundamentally distorts both the nature of love and God.
Humility, on the other hand, recognizes that there is nothing we could ever do to earn such a gift. Realizing that this gift is a product of the Lord’s generosity and not our own merits, the soul is then free to finally feel contrition for its wrongs.
Our sins do not become scandals in the sense that they remove the foundation on which our faith is built — our illusion of perfection. Instead, sins become occasions to experience the Lord’s generosity in ever-new and personal ways.
We never sin for the sake of receiving additional grace, as St. Paul tells us. But since we cannot help but fall into sin, we can at least be honest about those sins and sorry for them before the Lord.
Once again, contrition over sins and humility in one’s heart interpenetrate each other — one cannot exist without the other. And a genuine relationship with the Lord cannot exist without both.
For many, pride insists upon continual efforts to treat religion as a sort of means to earn one’s own salvation. It is tragic that for those who suffer from this disorder, religion does not only fail to make them holier, but makes them insufferably self-righteous.
On the other hand, there are the humble of heart who realize that all of religion is a training of the heart so that it feels more genuine contrition over one’s sins and rejoices more deeply at the realization of salvation from those sins. The Lord truly does not spurn those who are humble and contrite.
May we all ask for the grace to recognize our sins, to feel sorrow for them, and to receive the unfathomable generosity of God’s mercy when we bring these sins before the Lord in a spirit of humility.