Meditation for July 5, Public Appearance

It is too commonly believed that humility consists only in re­maining hidden. That is certainly its most ordinary manifestation. It is possible, however, that one's office or duties place her on the candlestick. If that be so, then, true humility does not consist in burying oneself, in seeking impetuously to get out of sight, but rather in remaining fully in evidence without, however, becoming conceited.

Does not Our Lord give us an example of this when in the very midst of His Hidden Life, He left His obscurity to speak to the doctors, even to question them?

It is far more humble, or at any rate, far more humiliating to be on the candlestick when it is necessary than under the bushel. There are certain desires for humility which do not spring from humility; certain withdrawals into the hidden life of which God does not approve, particularly when it is not one's duty to remain hidden, but to appear in public.

The ideal of humility is to hold ourselves as nothing inwardly so that if circumstances draw us from obscurity into the limelight, we shall remain as humble before a great public as behind four walls.

Humility, like all the virtues, is an interior power, and should, therefore, be able to adapt itself to any circumstance, remaining true to itself whether in the shadow or the light.

"O Jesus, Teacher of the Doctors, teach me not to hesitate to appear when necessary, if there is a possibility of Your glory or an indication of Your will; teach me also to disappear and remain hidden if that is the manifest will of Your Providence for me."

_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)