Book 2, CHAPTER 2: Humble Submission
Comment: It is easy to be humble when everyone approves of our actions. Can we say the same thing when people hold us in contempt? Are the criticisms and hardships we endure deserved? Probably. We ask for justice but need to acknowledge our faults and the discipline due to us. Yet if we humbly submit to God’s Holy Will and keep our eyes on Him, we will make progress in the interior life.
Thomas strived for this balance between humility, submission, and positive self-image. He had a good, healthy love of himself and worked diligently to line out his many faults. May I be bold enough to do likewise.
Chapter 2, In Short.
1. God will sufficiently defend those with a good conscience.
2. When humbled for your defects, you pacify others.
The text of Book II, Chapter 2, Humble Submission
1. Do not worry about counting who is for you or who is against you. Rather, be mindful of the present and take steps for God to be with you in
whatever you do (Rm 8:31). If you have a good conscience God will sufficiently defend you. No one’s malice can hurt you if God helps you. If you know how to hold your peace and to endure suffering, you will, without doubt, see the help of the Lord. God knows the time and the way to best deliver you, therefore you must resign yourself to Him. God will help you as He chooses and at the same time will deliver you from confusion. When others know and hold us accountable for our faults, it is often very helpful for keeping us humble.
2. When you humble yourself for your many defects, you then easily pacify others and quickly satisfy those that are angry with you. God protects and delivers the humble, He loves and comforts the humble, to the humble He inclines Himself, on the humble He bestows great grace (Prov 29:23)- when you are cast down God raises you to glory.
God reveals His secrets to the humble, and sweetly draws and invites them to Himself. The humble, receiving reproach, are sufficiently at peace because the humble fix their gaze upon God and not upon the world. Never think you have made any progress in the interior life until you look upon yourself as inferior to all others.