Nope, I’m not the most humble person on planet Earth, if that’s what you’re wondering.
Your next thought might be: “Then why are you telling me how to be more humble if you’re not any humbler yourself?”
I’m glad you asked!
Because everything I’m about to share didn’t come from my own brain—it came from saints who lived it, and from the One who is humility Himself.
Here, let me explain by telling you a story.
Yesterday’s Homily Was Entertaining—and Providential
The priest who gave the homily yesterday?
He’s not just a great storyteller—he also happens to be an actual textmate of Pope Leo XIV. I kid you not. They were colleagues once, and they’ve kept in touch ever since!
So you can imagine the kind of spiritual wisdom that’s just… casually dropped into his Sunday homilies.
Towards the end of Mass, he began speaking about humility—right as I had this blog post in draft mode.
He said,
“My novices tell me they want to be more humble. I tell them—don’t.”
I was like…what?
Then he explained:
“There’s one man in the history of the world who owns that word. Jesus Christ. He was on high, and He stepped down for you and me. That is humility.”
So if we want to be humble, we don’t need to worry about becoming humble—we just need to copy Jesus.
Don’t obsess over whether you’re humble. Just follow the One who is!
Then Father added:
“We need to channel God. His energy. His aura.”
That’s when something clicked. I realized… wasn’t that exactly what St. Louis de Montfort was saying all along?
In True Devotion to Mary (Part II, Chapter 2, 2nd Motive), the saint writes:
“[Devotion to Mary] makes us imitate the example of Jesus Christ… and practice humility.”
Jesus Is the Answer on How to Be More Humble
Here’s St. Louis pondering on Christ’s great humility:
St. Louis de Montfort invites us to consider the unthinkable:
“This good Master did not disdain to shut Himself up in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, as a captive and as a loving slave, and later to be subject and obedient to her for thirty years. It is here, I repeat, that the human mind loses itself, when it seriously reflects on the conduct of the Incarnate Wisdom… He did not will to come into the world at the age of a perfect man, independent of others, but like a poor little babe, dependent on the care and support of this holy Mother.”
From here, we learn that if we want to be like Jesus, we too need to depend upon this sweet virgin, for She is our Mother through Christ.
How can we follow Christ’s example of dependence on Mary in our daily lives? St. Louis’ answer is clear: by asking for Her intercession.
Of course, we can always pray directly to God. But God so loves humility of heart! Recall what He says in Matthew 5:3,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
So when we seek Mary’s intercession, we endear ourselves to God and He comes flying to us. As the Saint explains further,
“If you abase yourself, thinking yourself unworthy to appear before Him and to draw nigh to Him, He descends and lowers Himself to come to you, to take pleasure in you and to exalt you in spite of yourself. On the contrary, when you are bold enough to approach God without a mediator, God flies from you and you cannot reach Him. ”
Why Would God Hide in a Piece of Bread?
Let’s return to Bethlehem—literally “House of Bread.” (I know, right! Surprised me too.)
Jesus’s heavenly throne is the Highest—He could have chosen splendor and be born on Earth as a king in a rich castle. But He didn’t.
Instead, He chose to be born in a manger, surrounded by animals.
Fr. Donald Calloway reflects that the word manger comes from the Latin manducare, meaning “to eat.” Even in His birth, Jesus was pointing to the Eucharist.
I once heard a religious sister tell a story. As a child, she debated with a non-Christian friend about whose God was greater.
Her friend said: “My God is so powerful, He can’t be contained!”
She replied: “My God is so powerful… He can make Himself small enough to fit inside a piece of bread.”
St. Gertrude the Great heard something similar from Jesus:
“Compare the size of this [the Host] with the size of the human body, and judge then of the greatness of My love… so My mercy and charity in this Sacrament reduce Me to this state, that the soul which loves Me is, in some sort, above Me.”
He makes Himself smaller than us so we can approach Him. No longer distant. Not intimidating. Just quiet… and near.
At the end of the day, this is what it’s all about: love.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 25, says:
“The love of our Lord must always be made accessible, so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective than to arrive at love.”
God makes Himself small—like us—so we might dare to draw near. Small enough to meet us in our lowest moments.
I once read a saintly reflection where Jesus said something along the lines of:
“I would rather wait years in the tabernacle for a sinner to return, than have that sinner wait even a moment for Me.”
His mercy is not in a rush—but His love is always ready.
If you feel inspired by this blog post, consider praying the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She’ll show you the easiest and fastest way to encounter Her Son.
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