The importance of being humble when praying comes from the fact that prayer without humility is not true prayer. The Lord makes this clear when he says that the Pharisee spoke a prayer to himself. Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that humility is truth. And the naked truth about human beings is that we all are sinners, creatures in need of the forgiveness of almighty God.
The prideful person sees himself as the source of his virtue or goodness. There were no better stereotypes in our Lord’s time to describe humility and pride in prayer than a public sinner ̶ the tax collector̶ and a Pharisee. The Lord ends his parable saying that the tax collector went home with God’s blessing while the Pharisee did not. The explanation is that by acknowledging his sinfulness and need of pardon from God, the tax collector was spiritually closer to experiencing salvation than the Pharisee was.
The tax collector humbly took the right step toward conversion while the Pharisee, because of his pride, was miles away from being in the same circumstance. Humility in the presence of God is, therefore, the proper attitude. Two famous examples of tax collectors who converted are the Apostle Saint Matthew and Zacchaeus.
I would now like to briefly mention four practices that may help us learn and cultivate humility in prayer. First, the brief examination of conscience we engage in when we do our nightly prayer. The famous American monk and spiritual master of the 20th century Thomas Merton called this practice a Fire Watch. A fire watch was a routine of a monk in his community that involved walking through the monastery by night and stopping at various stations to check for fires. In the same way, we are to examine the slumbering monastery of our souls at night in order to stay ahead of our hidden faults.
Secondly, the participation in the sacrament of Reconciliation may help us cultivate humility. It takes courage and humility to confess our sins to a priest. It takes even more courage and humility to confess our recurring sins to the same priest. Confession is a beautiful moment of prayer where we meet our loving Savior who is present sacramentally in the person of the priest.
The third practice involves the posture of our bodies in prayer, specifically the posture of kneeling. Our postures in prayer both express and promote our intention and spiritual attitude. The Lord tells us in the parable that “the Pharisee took up his position” while “the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast”. Kneeling in general is a human gesture of submission. In our Christian tradition, kneeling is an acknowledgement of our condition as creatures before God. Kneeling signifies penitence for sin, humility, reverence, and adoration.
Thirdly, the posture of kneeling at certain moments at Mass expresses and promotes our humility in prayer. I would like to take this opportunity to mention a moment during Mass when the assembly should kneel and is not kept here at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.
The directive from the Bishop of Raleigh is that the assembly is to kneel following the conclusion of the Lamb of God until the beginning of the Communion procession. I would like to encourage you to start following this directive from our bishop. I will initially make a signal to you when the moment arrives. Keep in mind that those who are prevented on occasion because of health may instead sit at those moments in which we are to kneel. Our kneeling at that moment at Mass signifies both reverence and adoration.
Fourthly and lastly, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament may also help us cultivate humility. The Mass is the Church’s supreme act of adoration. Pope Benedict taught that “Eucharistic Adoration is simply the natural consequence of the Eucharistic celebration”.
Let us humbly ask our Lord to give his grace to practice humility in all the forms of our personal and communal prayer.