We’ve all heard the Teddy Rosevelt’s line: Nothing worth having comes easy or one of the many variations of: Hard work pays off and You reap what you sow.  The thing about hard work and the underlying truth that each of these is trying to convey is that hard work has to be hard.  There is no easy way around it because if by some means we find a way to make the job easy, then it is no longer hard.

As I write this on the Memorial of St. Monica, I also recall the prayers of the Mass for today which recalls the tears that she shed for her son and the great work that those tears accomplished.  There is a fundamental reality that to bear the fruit and rewards of the work of tears, there has to be tears shed.

Unfortunately, this idea seems quite foreign and contrary to our modern culture that wants to avoid suffering at all costs and is committed to the belief that there is a solution to end all of the suffering and hard work in life.  Our faith stands in contrast to this.  Our Lord gives us the promise of poverty and the Cross.  He tells us that life is supposed to be hard—and that is a good thing because the best and truly great things come through this hardness.

This week’s Gospel account and Old Testament reading call our attention to humility.  Jesus tells the wealthy and all of the dinner guests to not take the open seat at the head of the table, but to sit in the open seat that is furthest away.  Sit in the lowest place; account yourself among the lowest and not with the highest.  That is, be humble, because in your humility, then you may be raised to greater heights.

The thing about humility is that is comes through humiliation—if one is never humiliated, then it is hard to become humble—and humiliation is not enjoyable.  No one stands humiliated in front of others with an air of celebration, shouting with joy and joined with the applause of those gathered around him.

Becoming humble is an embrace of the hard and difficult.  It is not simply finding yourself at the last seat at the table and being comfortable with it, but being put in a position where we feel the slights and the judgments.  Becoming humble is being upset when your opinion is not respected, bothered by not getting what you deserve (no matter how small what you think you deserve is), unhappy when things don’t go the way you planned, and the frustration of whatever other way God is humbling your heart.  It has to be worked at and it is not easy work.

If you want true humility, be prepared to feel the pinch and the pains.  It is a true grinding of our ego.  But all of this is because the fruit of humility is union with our Lord Himself.  That we may be joyful in the hardness.  Just think: Have you ever known the humble of heart to despair?