Humility as the Beginning of Prayer
Gospel Reflection for June 19, 2024
Today’s Gospel is a frequent one, especially during Lent and on Ash Wednesday. It makes explicit mention of the three core tenets of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. And yet, here in Ordinary Time, we find the Gospel being given to us again. Just like last week, I previously wrote on this Gospel, and you can find that here. For today, I want to concentrate on what Our Lord tells us about prayer:
"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” Matthew 6:5-6
This short catechesis on prayer speaks to the heart of prayer and how we should approach God. It is not to be done for vanity’s sake, puffed up with pride so that others praise us for being holy. Contrary to this, the heart of prayer is actually humility.
The Interior Life is ordered toward uniting the soul with God who is his life. God calls us to be His own and to enter into an ever-deepening relationship with Him through prayer. The one thing that must begin this journey into the heart of God is a profound humility in response to God’s grace. We must understand and have a deep reverence for the fact that prayer is first a work of God done through grace in us. We then respond to that grace through humility, and we can then begin the long road to Contemplation in God.
Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange speaks beautifully about this requirement of humility in his text Christian Perfection and Contemplation. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange is one of the greatest spiritual writers of the last 500 years and he pierces the depths of prayer and the interior life using the methods of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John of the Cross. Following St. Thomas and St. John, Garrigou teaches us that there is no good in us that does not first come from God. The most basic of these goods can be seen in prayer. Any time we spend time in prayer with God, it is a response to His grace that He has given to move us to prayer.
Garrigou writes:
“According to this doctrine, all that is good in us, naturally or supernaturally, has its origin in the Author of all good… This teaching of the great doctors of grace lifts our mind to a lofty contemplation of God’s action in the innermost depths of our heart… This doctrine should lead those who understand it well to profound humility, to almost continual prayer, to the perfection of the theological virtues and the corresponding gifts of the Holy Ghost.”1
The beauty of this doctrine on grace is that we must reflect on the profound mystery that apart from Christ we can do nothing.2 When Christ tells us this in the Gospel of John, He was not speaking metaphorically. He was speaking truly. We cannot do any good, naturally or supernaturally, without the help of God, this includes prayer. Thus, in the face of this great mystery, we must approach prayer in a state of humility, asking God for His great mercy to move us to pray daily for all that we need.
Returning to the Gospel for today, Christ gives us the example of the opposing vice, the sin of Pride. The hypocrites are mentioned as praying in a prideful way in that they seek to be praised by man for their lofty “holiness.” St. Thomas gives a very grave warning to those who pray in this way. He says, commenting on this verse:
“By hypocrites is understood pretenders who do everything for human praise. And although this vice is to be avoided in every work, nevertheless it is especially to be avoided in prayer… because prayer is a certain sacrifice that we offer God from our innermost hearts… A sacrifice is not allowed to be offered except to God, but it is offered to men if it is done for human glory. And such prayers are idolatry.”3
No doubt, Garrigou consulted St. Thomas on this passage. We can see the dichotomy illustrated by these two great mystics: Prayer when done for prideful reasons and to glorify oneself in the presence of men is idolatry and so to avoid this, prayer must be done beginning in profound humility.
Christ gives us the remedy. We are to retreat into the inner room. Not necessarily an inner room of our house, but the inner room of our heart. Prayer, as Garrigou tells us, is to be done in the innermost depths of our hearts. Your heart is your great castle. The Lord comes knocking at the door of your castle and it is your choice to let Him in. We are called by God to allow Christ to enter our inner room, our Interior Castle, with profound humility, and allow Christ to dine with us. It is here that Christ shows us the depths of the mystical life and moves us ever closer to contemplation and perfect unity with Him. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. Allow Him to move you to welcome Him in.
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Christian Perfection and Contemplation: According to St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John of the Cross, (Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishing, 2003.) 96.
Cf. John 15:5.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, C. 6, L. 2, 572. Emphasis is mine.
The state of humility for entering into prayer is described in Scripture as being anxious for nothing by casting all of our care on God (cf. Philippians 4:6-7; 1Peter 5:5-7; James 4:5-10). Our prayer needs to be done within this type of humility toward God. This is how Christ enters into the inner room of our heart for a deep relationship with Him.
Thank you! Your words are always inspiring, sometimes convicting, and always helpful!!!