Bringing Advent to Work - Part 3
Continuing our discussion about bringing Advent to work, we turn again to St. Vincent de Paul and his thoughts about the virtue of humility, written 350 years ago. Last time his comments caused us to almost draw back in horror at his description of humility as the lowering of oneself below everyone else
with the sense that one is really worse than others, and the refusal to
judge anyone. Can we really embrace humility if it entails this, especially when it comes to our jobs? Shouldn't we rather strive to stand out from the crowd in order to advance in our careers? How can we expect to get a raise if we communicate that we're worse than everyone else?
Since St. Vincent's comments were directed to religious, we could just stop right there and dismiss them as irrelevant to us living and working "in the world." It's all well and good for a religious to practice self-abasement not only in the carrying out of their charitable works but within their community. After all, they're not looking for a promotion or a bonus, right? But does it make sense for us Catholic men at work to be humble, in the manner described by St. Vincent when we're out there hustling to make a buck?
Rather than directly answer this, let's all take a step back and weigh the matter considering out own circumstances. Put some thought into it as we let our saint speak to us in more detail about the virtue of humility. Here's how he explains how we become remain humble:
"...we should search out what is wrong and what is lacking; this is an excellent way of remaining humble."
Now, wouldn't this benefit all of us? Couldn't it help us defend ourselves against that one-two punch to the gut of our soul: pride and selfish behavior? And in this holy season of Advent, it seems that putting some serious thought into what's wrong with and lacking in us could help us if we're serious about approaching the humble Babe in the manger this Christmas Day with an appropriate degree of humility. Doesn't it?
Applying this to our jobs, it also seems that our honest self-assessment won't preclude or belittle our ability to do good work, or even to accomplish great things. While pride may be a serious temptation when we're credited with good work, get a raise, receive a promotion, etc., it's not like you've got to give in to that temptation in order to succeed. Now, if I weighed those who behaved in a prideful manner as they rose up the ladder of success vs. those who exuded humility, the scale would tip to the prideful. But so what? We Catholics don't follow the majority when it comes to the virtues.
A quick example of how humility easily mixes with success, that springs to mind is a great athlete who isn't full of himself and displays a humble demeanor. While not always common, isn't it refreshing, even inspiring? Think of some example in your experience or your circle. Humility - even as described by St. Vincent - won't seem so incompatible with your desire to excel and get ahead. And if you do excel, you couldn't find better advice than this:
"However great the work that God may achieve by an individual, he must not be pleased with himself, nor indulge in any sort of self-satisfaction; he ought rather to be all the more humbled, seeing himself as a clumsy tool of which God has condescended to make use..."
As Catholics who take our spiritual lives seriously, we all should know by now that all the good in us comes from God. And so we should develop the habit of attributing anything we achieve to Him, not ourselves. With that habit firmly in place, St. Vincent's comment will make perfect sense to us - even his reference to the "clumsy tool of which God has condescended to make use," i.e., you and me.
What if you're concerned about your ability to embrace humility without it undermining your efforts? Or more importantly, if you're concerned with the simple fact that, even if we persevere in the practice of humility, our fallen human nature will inflame our tendency to give in to the temptations of this world and fall back into pride and selfishness? In that case, try this on for size:
"There is great reason you should distrust yourself, but there is much greater reason that you should trust yourself entirely to Him. If you feel yourself tend towards evil, you know that He - to an incomparably greater degree - tends towards good, that He can make you good and can do good by your means."
Turning away from any tendency to pride and selfishness ultimately requires completely turning away from ourselves and towards God. That includes thoughts about our faults, about how sinful we really can be. This might appear contradictory at first. Weren't we being advised to "search out what is wrong and what is lacking"? True, but consider that effort in the light of St. Vincent's further comment:
"...turn your eyes from study of your own sin to contemplation of His mercy, devoting much more thought to the grandeur of His love for you than to your unworthiness towards Him, to His strength than to your weakness. When you have done this, surrender yourself into His arms, in the hope that He will make you what He requires you to be, and will bless all you do."
I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get more comfortable with what seemed like a rather stark, jarring, if not impossible task of incorporating the virtue of humility into our daily work without in any way giving up the need to excel and succeed. Indeed, next time we'll see how St. Vincent de Paul's deep understanding and practice of the virtue of humility did not prevent him from achieving astounding success in his own endeavors in this world.
For now, we close with our special Advent aspiration:
Since St. Vincent's comments were directed to religious, we could just stop right there and dismiss them as irrelevant to us living and working "in the world." It's all well and good for a religious to practice self-abasement not only in the carrying out of their charitable works but within their community. After all, they're not looking for a promotion or a bonus, right? But does it make sense for us Catholic men at work to be humble, in the manner described by St. Vincent when we're out there hustling to make a buck?
Rather than directly answer this, let's all take a step back and weigh the matter considering out own circumstances. Put some thought into it as we let our saint speak to us in more detail about the virtue of humility. Here's how he explains how we become remain humble:
"...we should search out what is wrong and what is lacking; this is an excellent way of remaining humble."
Now, wouldn't this benefit all of us? Couldn't it help us defend ourselves against that one-two punch to the gut of our soul: pride and selfish behavior? And in this holy season of Advent, it seems that putting some serious thought into what's wrong with and lacking in us could help us if we're serious about approaching the humble Babe in the manger this Christmas Day with an appropriate degree of humility. Doesn't it?
Applying this to our jobs, it also seems that our honest self-assessment won't preclude or belittle our ability to do good work, or even to accomplish great things. While pride may be a serious temptation when we're credited with good work, get a raise, receive a promotion, etc., it's not like you've got to give in to that temptation in order to succeed. Now, if I weighed those who behaved in a prideful manner as they rose up the ladder of success vs. those who exuded humility, the scale would tip to the prideful. But so what? We Catholics don't follow the majority when it comes to the virtues.
A quick example of how humility easily mixes with success, that springs to mind is a great athlete who isn't full of himself and displays a humble demeanor. While not always common, isn't it refreshing, even inspiring? Think of some example in your experience or your circle. Humility - even as described by St. Vincent - won't seem so incompatible with your desire to excel and get ahead. And if you do excel, you couldn't find better advice than this:
"However great the work that God may achieve by an individual, he must not be pleased with himself, nor indulge in any sort of self-satisfaction; he ought rather to be all the more humbled, seeing himself as a clumsy tool of which God has condescended to make use..."
As Catholics who take our spiritual lives seriously, we all should know by now that all the good in us comes from God. And so we should develop the habit of attributing anything we achieve to Him, not ourselves. With that habit firmly in place, St. Vincent's comment will make perfect sense to us - even his reference to the "clumsy tool of which God has condescended to make use," i.e., you and me.
What if you're concerned about your ability to embrace humility without it undermining your efforts? Or more importantly, if you're concerned with the simple fact that, even if we persevere in the practice of humility, our fallen human nature will inflame our tendency to give in to the temptations of this world and fall back into pride and selfishness? In that case, try this on for size:
"There is great reason you should distrust yourself, but there is much greater reason that you should trust yourself entirely to Him. If you feel yourself tend towards evil, you know that He - to an incomparably greater degree - tends towards good, that He can make you good and can do good by your means."
Turning away from any tendency to pride and selfishness ultimately requires completely turning away from ourselves and towards God. That includes thoughts about our faults, about how sinful we really can be. This might appear contradictory at first. Weren't we being advised to "search out what is wrong and what is lacking"? True, but consider that effort in the light of St. Vincent's further comment:
"...turn your eyes from study of your own sin to contemplation of His mercy, devoting much more thought to the grandeur of His love for you than to your unworthiness towards Him, to His strength than to your weakness. When you have done this, surrender yourself into His arms, in the hope that He will make you what He requires you to be, and will bless all you do."
I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get more comfortable with what seemed like a rather stark, jarring, if not impossible task of incorporating the virtue of humility into our daily work without in any way giving up the need to excel and succeed. Indeed, next time we'll see how St. Vincent de Paul's deep understanding and practice of the virtue of humility did not prevent him from achieving astounding success in his own endeavors in this world.
For now, we close with our special Advent aspiration:
Divine Infant of Bethlehem, come and take birth in our hearts!
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