Humility is a much misunderstood virtue.  Many think of it as weak and spineless, too lacking either in courage or convictions to protest against injustice or wrong.  But humility really consists in looking at life and at oneself from God’s point of view, instead of from one’s own, and in acting accordingly.  St John Baptist was a truly humble man.  That was why he denounced King Herod to his face without having any personal motives of his own.  He was just doing God’s will.

Humility is seeing the obvious – or rather what ought to be obvious.  Humble disciples recognise that they are dependent on God their Maker for everything – their talents, their abilities, indeed their very existence.  It is as plain as daylight to them that every worthwhile thing they do reflects no credit on themselves.  It is just a gift which has come to them from the hands of God to whom they owe their very selves and their very lives.  Thus humility puts people in their proper place in relation to God.

So St Paul punctures the empty bubble of self-conceit with his pointed logic, “For who makes you different from somebody else, and what have you got that was not given to you?  And if anything has been given to you, why boast of it as if it were something you had achieved yourself?” (1 Corinthians 4:7) (1)