Thursday, March 8, 2012

KNEELING by R. Guardini

WHEN a man feels proud of himself, he stands erect, draws himself  to his full height, throws back his head and shoulders and says  with every part of his body, I am bigger and more important than  you. But when he is humble he feels his littleness, and lowers  his head and shrinks into himself. He abases himself. And the  greater the presence in which he stands the more deeply he abases  himself; the smaller he becomes in his own eyes.  But when does our littleness so come home to us as when we stand  in God's presence? He is the great God, who is today and  yesterday, whose years are hundreds and thousands, who fills the  place where we are, the city, the wide world, the measureless  space of the starry sky, in whose eyes the universe is less than  a particle of dust, all-holy, all-pure, all-righteous, infinitely  high. He is so great, I so small, so small that beside him I seem  hardly to exist, so wanting am I in worth and substance. 

One has  no need to be told that God's presence is not the place in which  to stand on one's dignity. To appear less presumptuous, to be as  little and low as we feel, we sink to our knees and thus  sacrifice half our height; and to satisfy our hearts still  further we bow down our heads, and our diminished stature speaks  to God and says, Thou art the great God; I am nothing.   

Therefore let not the bending of our knees be a hurried gesture,  an empty form. Put meaning into it. To kneel, in the soul's  intention, is to bow down before God in deepest reverence.  On entering a church, or in passing before the altar, kneel down  all the way without haste or hurry, putting your heart into what  you do, and let your whole attitude say, Thou art the great God.  It is an act of humility, an act of truth, and everytime you  kneel it will do your soul good.