St. Teresa of Jesus says: …he who is humble always walks in truth.” Once I read a short story where an example of humility described a simple attitude of life.

One hot afternoon on a beach, people noticed a young girl drowning. They quickly rescued her. The little girl was unconscious. An old man from a nearby cottage hurriedly reached for the girl laid down on the seashore. As the old man was about to hold the girl, a furious guy warned the people surrounding the girl to step aside, including the old man.

“I was trained to do CPR. Stay out of this! Let me do it!” the guy exclaimed.

The old man stood up and stepped behind the guy and watched quietly while the latter was performing CPR for the girl.

After almost a minute, the little girl regained consciousness. The people around them felt relieved and began applauding the guy. The old man, who looks very happy, gratefully congratulated the guy as well.

After two hours, however, the guy who saved the girl suddenly felt too much fatigue, experienced difficulty in breathing and became unconscious. A few minutes later, he woke up in an ambulance rushing him to the nearest hospital. Beside him was the old man he saw earlier at the beach now checking his pulse rate. The old man performed CPR on him while he was unconscious. This time he learned that the old man is a doctor.

“Why didn’t you tell me you’re a doctor?” he asked.

The doctor just smiled and answered: “It doesn’t matter to me whether you call me a doctor or not. A precious life is in danger. I became a doctor, not for fame, but to save lives. We had the same goal, and that was to save the girl. Nothing can surpass the feeling that you have just saved another life. There’s a lot of things to be protected other than our ego.”

How to be humble? How can we maintain humility in our lives?  On this 22nd week in the ordinary time both the Book of Sirach and the Gospel talks about humility.  It reminds us of how “God finds favor with a humble person.”  Maybe we can ask ourselves, am I humble? When you say yes, what are the things that you think that God esteem with you? When you say no, what are the things you think you need to work on to be humble? The book of Sirach will help us to evaluate our affairs with humility. Humility is not based in one aspect of our life, but on how humility is fully lived in our entire life.

In my journey I learned to understand other people, understand their opinion and their point of views without hurting my feelings. Somehow, I can’t avoid that my comments or reactions will not always be the same with others.  If you can’t please them, let’s learn to be patient. We can’t please them all. Maria is the only one who truly knows about humility.  The Lord is pleased with her not of her state in life but because her whole person; full of virtues inside and out.

At a banquet, humility is also necessary.  Sometimes we have to leave early to get the best seat in the place where we are invited but the gospel says that if we are invited always look for the humblest place, and not the place where leading guests are intended to recline. We must know where to sit and how we should carry ourselves in a banquet.

Humility has its own beauty. No matter who you are, it will appear in your own witnessing, in your own personality in the way you treat others and yourself. The world needs Humility, to seek the truth, to live with the truth, to educate the young of what is true. Let us rescue the world from spreading the fancy world of fake news. Let not the proud stand for us. Truth has its own feet to stand and be moral, truth is for real. We humbly ask God for this virtue to bless us.

Our Lady of La Vang Community