232nd Meditation
“He knows of what we are made, He remembers that we are dust” (Ps 102:14).
How good and comforting it is that our Father knows us so well! Nothing is hidden from Him, and the wonderful thing is that we can always approach Him with confidence. No one can boast before God (cf. Eph 2:9), and that is good to counteract our pride.
In a few weeks Lent will begin, in which we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return (Gen 3:19). When people forget this, they need to be reminded that all that we are and have we have received from our Father (Jas 1:16-17). This certainty should help us to overcome all arrogance and to renounce pride and vanity completely.
If, instead of them, gratitude for our Father, who loves us so much and has created us in His image and likeness, enters our hearts, then we begin to live in reality. Then we no longer need to be constantly and clearly reminded that we are not capable of anything on our own, but we will be well convinced and aware that we are totally dependent on God. This is by no means a degradation of our personal dignity, as some people may feel; rather it is the joy of being sheltered in God’s love and of having been raised by Him to be His children.
True humility has nothing to do with servility – quite the contrary! It gives us great freedom, because it submits us out of love to a loving Father. Then God can exalt us and draw us to Himself. This is what happened to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” – she responded to the message of the Archangel Gabriel (Lk 1:38). And further on, she herself exclaims: “The Almighty has done great things for me” (v. 49).
So it is, because, as long as we do not close ourselves up in our own pride, God lifts up the “dust”. Therefore, praise be to our Father, who called us to life, forming us from the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7).