Humiliation is not masochism, but rather a path of imitating Jesus in His Suffering. These are the words of Pope Francis during his homily today at Casa Santa Marta.
According to Vatican Radio, the Pope began his homily reflecting on the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, in which a Pharisee by the name of Gamaliel who called on the members of the Sanhedrin to allow the Apostles to preach.
“For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God,” Gamaliel says.
The Holy Father explained that Gamaliel’s action of giving “time to time” is the correct way of acting instead of hatred.
“This is useful for us when we have wicked thoughts about others, wicked feeling, when we have hostility, hatred, to not allow it to grow, to stop it, to give time to time,” he said.
“Time puts things in harmony, and makes us see things in the right light. But if you react in a moment of anger, it is certain you will be unjust. You will be unjust. And you will hurt yourself, too. Here’s some advice: time, time in the moment of temptation.”
Holding on to anger, judgements and resentments, the Pope went on to say, ultimately leads the faithful in battling against God. The Jesuit Pope said that in giving time, one can give space to the Holy Spirit to act.
In the reading, the Apostles rejoiced that they were released after having been flogged and released. It was an act of humiliation, the Pope noted, that lead them to become like Jesus.
“Pride of being first leads you to want to kill others; humility, even humiliation, leads you to become like Jesus,” he explained.
“And this is one thing that we don’t think. In this moment in which so many of our brothers and sisters are being martyred for the sake of Jesus’ Name, they are in this state, they have, in this moment, the joy of having suffered dishonor, and even death, for the Name of Jesus.”
“To fly from the pride of being first,” he continued, “there is only the path of opening the heart to humility, to humility that never arrives without humiliation. This is one thing that is not naturally understood. It is a grace we must ask for.”
The 78 year old Pontiff compared this humiliation to the sufferings of today’s martyrs who suffer and are killed for bearing witness to Christ.
The pope said that humiliation gives joy not because of its beauty. “No, that would be masochism,” he said.
“It is because with that humiliation, you imitate Jesus.”
Concluding his homily, the Pope called on the faithful to imitate Jesus through two attitudes: closing what leads to hatred and wrath, and to be “open to God on the path of Jesus, that makes us accept humiliations, even very serious humiliations, with that interior joy that makes you of being on the path set out by Jesus.”
