Meditations on Humility Protect Us from Temptation

Leigh Ann Roman reflects on how meditating on the Litany of Humility draws us closer to Christ during the month devoted to the Sacred Heart.

For Catholics, June is a month devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. As I considered ways to draw closer to Jesus this month, my mind turned to the Litany of Humility. What better way to walk with Jesus than to pray this litany? The heart of Jesus is the throne of humility. Christ refused Satan’s temptation in the wilderness to deny his Father and rule the world. Christ suffered the ignominy of dying between two thieves as his kingship was mocked. But our Lord assured his persecutors that His kingdom is not of this world. Ours isn’t either.

During the month of June, when it can be tempting to be distracted by popular culture, let us look with fresh eyes at the Litany of Humility. This year, I decided to meditate on one of the 23 supplications in the litany on each weekday of the month. On June 1, I sat on an airplane following a wonderful writers’ conference and considered the first supplication:

“From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me Jesus.”

While I admit that I would like for my writing to be esteemed, the litany reminds me that my writing goals are really not about me. Instead, those goals are about the good that writing can do in the world.

As I reflect on each of the litany’s supplications, I see that the purpose of the prayer is to move self-seeking out of the center of my world and place God in the center where He belongs. As the first week of June went on, I asked Jesus to deliver me from the desire of being loved, extolled, honored, and praised. How can it be wrong to want to be loved? It is not, of course. But I don’t need to desire that love. God’s love formed each of us and holds us in existence at this moment. It is the bedrock of my life, which also includes the love of my husband, children, and friends.

When it comes to being honored or praised, I can happily ask Jesus to remove the desire for these from my heart. When I receive inordinate praise, it only opens the door to pride, which is among the worst of the Seven Deadly Sins. I know from experience that pride blocks the light of God’s love and never leads to good for me or others.

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The next section of the litany is really about being set apart—put on a pedestal. We ask Jesus to free us from the desire of being consulted, preferred, or approved. Basically, I am asking to be treated like everyone else. That is OK with me because it protects me from the temptation to esteem myself too highly.

The fear requests in the litany really hit home for me. The world can be a scary place. I happen to live in a high-crime city, for example. But the fears listed in the Litany of Humility are less about physical safety and more about the safety of one’s reputation. We ask Jesus to deliver us from the fear of being despised, humiliated, rebuked, calumniated, ridiculed, wronged, suspected, or forgotten.

For me, those fears represent a person building up their stock of emotional security in the wrong account. God is love. He will not despise, humiliate, or ridicule us. Humans might do that, especially if our ideas, actions, or values conflict with theirs. I am not suggesting that Catholics go about picking a fight with popular culture. But when one must take a stand, it is better to speak the truth in love and risk the ridicule of people rather than acquiesce silently and betray our faith and our Lord.

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The purpose of the prayer is to move self-seeking out of the center of my world and place God in the center where He belongs. #CatholicMom

The final supplications in the litany were originally the most difficult for me. We are to ask that Jesus grant us the grace to desire always to be second—or worse—last. In these supplications, I must ask that others be esteemed more than I, that others may be chosen and I set aside, that others may be praised while I go unnoticed. These seem like unnatural requests. But there is another way to look at it. Perhaps these are just different ways to ask to be preserved or protected from the temptation of pride. When viewed in that light, these are perhaps the most valuable of all the supplications.

Humility is the beginning of wisdom. Please join me on this path to wisdom as each day’s meditation leads us away from self, toward God, and into the circle of fellowship with all who are on the journey.