This type of thought can, without great effort, keep us properly humble. We suffer a great deception when we step onto the stage to look down on others, believing the praise and acknowledgements attributed to us without passing them through the sieve of humility. It is wise and prudent to get right the value we have in the balance of public opinion but it is insensitive to believe everything they say about us when they praise us. How often the old refrain is fulfilled which says: ‘Not for you but for bread, the dog wags his tail!’
Pope Pius XII, on the occasion of the canonization (7th May 1950) of St. Anthony Mary Claret affirmed that ‘he was able to be of humble origin and glorious in the eyes of the world, of modest appearance but most capable of imposing the respect of the great ones of the earth’. In effect, Claret was elevated to a position we would call ‘social’ which many ecclesiastics would consider a privilege: together with the great ones of the earth, in close proximity to the nation’s royalty, with enormous influence in the appointment of bishops, managing great institutions (e. g. El Escorial). But he did not see it like this. He did not seek it, he rejected it. Repeated times he tried to get out from under such a burdensome office.
He was aware of being nothing but an instrument in the hands of God. He used the image of a donkey, evoking the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, triumphantly acclaimed when he was coming to his most resounding humiliation, his death on the cross. Claret, frequently acclaimed by the multitudes and frequently calumniated and persecuted too, maintained a spirit of humility and equanimity. The praise he attributed to Jesus, which he applied in all his missionary activity. The severe setbacks he accepted with a patient disposition, identifying with Christ
Do you seek importance or are you rather an instrument of God through the activities you carry out and through your relationship with the people, in the family, etc.?