In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Malvolio comments: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." Much truth can be found in this oft-quoted line. But it fails to identify what greatness means in regards to our Christian heritage and beliefs. Our point of view is much different. Listen to this story that took place with Mother Teresa. A group of European theologians once visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta. She said to them, "You try to do what I am doing, then you will be able to enjoy what I am doing." She took them to one of her childcare centers and picked up a child who was playing in the mud and gave the child a kiss. She waited for her guests to do the same. None of them did. True greatness is neither born in you, nor achieved by you, nor imposed upon you. It is, rather, the byproduct of the deeper qualities of our human nature. And one of those qualities is humility. The word "humility" means a modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance or rank. Probably a better adjective instead of “modest” would be “true” or “authentic”. We know that sometimes we “color” our opinion or importance in situations and self-assessment. Real humility does not imply self-deprecation. When you hear someone putting him or herself down, it often comes across as fake and not real. John R. Gunn wrote that, "The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your full height before some higher nature that will show you how small your greatness is." The prophet Micah reminds us to "Walk humbly with your God." Here is where we learn true humility. To walk with God, seeing ourselves by the side of His greatness, we see how little we are. And seeing how little we are is the first step toward becoming what we can and ought to be. We never become truly great, we never do our best work until we are "clothed with humility"; until, like our Lord and Savior, we are willing to live to serve others.
Msgr. Mike