Issue Nr 55, March 2009

Newsletter

It is God who makes the music

by Serge Bosom

 

One of the greatest composers of all times, Johann Sebastian Bach, once said: “It is God who makes the music, I only write the notes”. J.S. Bach knew very well that his ability and talent to compose music was God‟s pure gift, and he was only the instrument.

During, but this year I focused mainly on the gift of humility and how important it is, if we are to make progress on our Spiritual journey; so I will share in this article a few of my thoughts.

So, what is humility, and why is it so important? The word humility comes from the Latin „humus‟ which means ground or earth. This gives us a clue to its meaning in the Christian life. We can sow seeds and grow many things in „humus‟ when it is good ground or earth. When we have humility we are truly like good earth in which the seed of the word of God can take root and grow strong. True humility is the recognition of where we stand before God; it is recognising, like Bach did, that all our talents, natural abilities and gifts come from God. When we acknowledge that, our Good Lord can do great things in us through his grace.

“Humility is Truth”, so said St Teresa of Avila. So we must give thanks for the many blessings and gifts God has given to everyone of us in His immense lave and generosity; and let us learn from Jesus who said “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29).

To grow in humility and to become truly humble is often a struggle in the spiritual life. Because of our fallen nature and original sin, which is the sin of pride from which came disobedience, we are all bound to find it difficult in becoming truly humble. Humility is the first of many lessons set before us in the school of sanctity, and very difficult lesson it often is! There is no holiness without humility, it is the alphabet out of which every other virtue is built up. Humility is truly the soil of the garden of the soul, it is the “good earth” on which the Divine Sower sows his seeds.

The Saints made it to Heaven because they loved God, they prayed and consequently became humble. Therefore, to become humble we must first seek to fall in love with God, which requires a daily conversion, getting to know God as much as possible by going to Mass daily, reading the scriptures, reading the lives of the Saints who have so much to teach us, listening and putting into practice the teaching of the Church and becoming a simple servant in the vineyard of the Lord. We must put God first, our neighbour second and ourselves last! And we must really pray, kneeling before our God, recognising our nothingness and sinfulness, then we will come to know that we are rich in Him and from Him, yet poor in ourselves. “Let us bow and bend low, let us kneel before the God who made us” (Psalm 94(95)), “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

To become humble, we must get to know ourselves. And this self-knowledge is difficult, because pride which is always lurking in the background is there to blind us, and so, we ought to feel hatred and an abhorrence of pride. In order to eradicate pride and all the other ills that affect our souls, we must pray of course, but we must also make a regular examination of conscience, preferably at the end of the day, asking the Holy Spirit to inspire us, and our Blessed Lady to help us. A daily examination of conscience is extremely important, without it, how can we possibly get to know ourselves and make progress in the Spiritual life? St John of the Cross for example was constantly looking at the purity of his intentions and on everything he did and said; he wanted absolutely nothing for himself and everything for God. A more recent Saint, St Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, constantly emphasised the importance of a daily examination of conscience. He said: “Take care of the daily examination: find out if you feel the sorrow of love, for not getting to know our Lord as you should” (Furrow 142). A daily examination of conscience will also obviously point to regular confession, where we can receive the mercy, forgiveness and compassion of our Good Lord, who is the perfect physician, longing to help us, to heal us and to give us His Peace. Many lessons on humility are learnt in the confessional! And humility leads to love for God and for the Church. Pope John II once said: “If you love Jesus, love the Church!” This love for the Church is inevitably expressed in obedience to everything that the Church teaches, and love for the Church also shines particularly in the liturgy and reverence towards the Blessed Sacrament. Participating in the liturgy is the most important Scriptural activity and since our faith revolves around the Holy Mass, it is absolutely central! At the beginning of his Pontificate, Pope Benedict clearly indicated how he intended the liturgy to be celebrated: with much love, beauty and reverence! And even more specifically he has shown how he wishes Holy Communion to be received: kneeling and on the tongue; as he clearly believes this expresses much more love and reverence – “He must increase, and I must decrease”. Kneeling is a specific way of expressing humility, as well as adoration, contrition, etc. Pope Benedict, when he was Cardinal wrote in the “Spirit of the Liturgy” (which is one of his most brilliant books) “Kneeling is the right, indeed the intrinsic gesture – the man who learns to believe also learns to kneel, and a faith or a liturgy no longer familiar with kneeling would be sick at the core” – Furthermore, Pope Benedict who is an accomplished musician (he plays the piano) has also stressed the importance of good music in the liturgy, he also regards the liturgy as one of the main tools of evangelisation. Another important fact is that humility is absolutely vital in the work of evangelisation, it is one of the chief means of converting souls, since humility has a special charm that comes directly from Christ, it has something of the Divine in it and can be very attractive. Like all good works, the conversion and salvation of souls is really the work of the Holy Spirit and he often employs weak and unworthy instruments. O, how happy and grateful we should be in the Sion Community if he employs us! What a grace if he associates with us in proclaiming the Good News! What a grace it is to bring souls to God, to please Him and make him happy, and God in his generosity will give us more than we can possibly imagine!

We read in Ecclesiasticus 2:17-20 “My son, be gentle in carrying out your business, and you will be better loved than a lavish giver. The greater you are, the more you should behave humbly, and then you will find favour with the Lord”.

And finally, one last thought, my wife had an ear infection recently and almost completely lost her hearing for a couple of weeks. Suddenly life became very different for both of us and, so I thought how easy it is to take things for granted and how thankful we should be to our Good Lord for our five senses and any other abilities. That set me thinking about poor Beethoven who became completely deaf at the end of his life. Can you imagine a musician and a composer who could not hear his own music? How awful that must have been! Yet Beethoven composed his greatest works when he was deaf, how could such a thing be possible? Of course it is God who makes the music, and just like Bach, Beethoven only wrote the notes! Praise God!

And so, to conclude, here is the litany of humility which I found in one of my old prayer books.

Litany of Humility

Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved ...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others ...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised ...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ... That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease ... That others may be chosen and I set aside ... That others may be praised and I unnoticed ... That others may be preferred to me in everything... That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should …