Crowns in the Garage

Allowing the virtue of humility to find you

 

Matthew 11:25-30

At that time Jesus exclaimed:  “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father.  No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

            I believe one of the hardest virtues to find and grow in is the virtue of humility.  It’s like trying to catch your own shadow: the harder you try, the faster it flees from you.  Anyone who boasts, “Yeah, I’m humble!” we can be sure is the one person who is not humble.  Whereas, the truly humble person will more likely say, “I’m still full of ego and pride.”  I would submit to you that we can never really find humility on our own; instead, humility has to find us.

            Have you seen the Youtube interview with the CEO of PepsiCo?  She’s an Indian lady named Indra K. Nooyi (of course she’s Indian: we’re taking over the world!).  When she was first named CEO, she went home early from work – which for her meant 10 p.m. – to tell her family.  Her mother was waiting at the top of the stairs.  Indra said, “Mom, I have some great news for you!”  Her mom said, “Let the news wait.  Can you go out and get some milk?”  Indra asked why she didn’t ask her husband who was already home, and her mom replied, “Well, he’s tired.”  So, like a dutiful daughter she gets the milk, returns home, slams the milk on the counter and erupts: “I had great news for you.  I’ve just been told that I’m going to be the CEO of PepsiCo.  And all that you want me to do is go out and get the milk?  What kind of mom are you?!”  Her mother answered, “Let me explain something to you.  You may be the president of PepsiCo.  You may be on the Board of Directors.  But when you enter this house, you’re the wife, you’re the daughter, you’re the mother.  Nobody else can take your place here.  So leave your darn crown in the garage and don’t bring it into the house.”  (She used a stronger word than “darn.”)  You see, Indra Nooyi wasn’t looking for humility, but humility was looking for her.

            In the gospel today we see why we are powerless to find humility: because it is a virtue that depends entirely on the decision of God to give us.  You see, God gives his gifts as it suits him, not as it pleases us.  Listen to these bewildering but beautiful lines from the gospel of Matthew, where Jesus says, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones.”  In other words, there are certain treasures of heaven (like humility) that we cannot barge through the gates of paradise and plunder.  Rather, we’re much more like beggars who sit outside the Pearly Gates and pray the King will bestow his gifts on us, like he blessed Indra Nooyi quite unexpectedly.

John Donne, a poet and priest in the 17th century, captured this conundrum in his famous poem.  Here are the first four lines:

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you

As yet but knocke, breathe, shine and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, o’er throw me, and bend

Your force, to break, blowe, burn and make me new.”

In other words, Donne is saying don’t be gentle with me, Lord, but use a battering ram to get past my hard heart and thick skull.  Sometimes, only by the blows of a battering ram can God help us to be humble.

            So is there anything we can do to become more humble?  If there isn’t, why not just give up?  Well, here are three things you can do.  First, ask God for the grace of humility and then wait patiently.  That prayer itself is a great act of humility because we acknowledge that we’re powerless to become humble by our own devises; ask the Three-Person’d God to batter your heart with humility.  So, first pray for humility.

Second, accept corrections and criticisms and advice from others cheerfully, not begrudgingly with a bruised ego.  Have I told you I’m writing a book?  It’s a collection of my homilies.  The money we raise from the book sales will go to help Catholic schools.  Folks, let me tell you something, if you want a short-cut to humility, try writing a book!  I have an editor who has ripped up the manuscript with loads of corrections.  Someone on our staff here also went through it with a red pen and bled all over it.  I asked Archbishop Peter Sartain (our former bishop) to write the Foreword.  I figured, he’s a friend, he likes me, he’ll tell me how great it is.  But together with the Foreword, he also sent me a long, laundry list of suggested changes!  If you ever want to write a book, you better leave your crown in the garage!  I gotta tell you: it wasn’t easy to accept all those changes with a smile, but of course, they’ve vastly improved the book.

Here’s the third thing, spend more time with your family.  Our family sees us when we’re not wearing our crowns.  Actually, they’re happy to knock that crown off our heads when we parade around the house wearing it.  It’s like that little boy in the story who yells, “The Emperor has no clothes!”  Our family sees us without crowns or our clothes; they see us as we really are.  Our families see us with curlers in our hair and before lipstick, before we’ve polished our shoes and starched our shirts, while we’re still moms and daughters, dads and sons, not CEO’s, not professors, not football stars or homecoming queens.  The more time you spend with your family, the better the chance that humility will find you.  Maybe that’s why some people DON’T want to spend time at home; maybe that’s why Indra Nooyi came home at 10 p.m.  There’s too much humility at home.

            Several years ago, Arkansas Razorback fans adapted the old Mack Davis song, “Oh, Lord it’s hard to be humble.”  Remember that?  It went like this: “Oh, Lord, it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way.  I can’t wait to look in the mirror, I get better looking each day!  To know me is to love me, I must be a heck of a man.  Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble, when you’re an Arkansas Razorback fan!”  Last year, our football team won zero conference games.  We were not looking for humility, but humility was looking for us.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!