3 November 1990
Rome, Italy

My dear Sisters,

The final sentence in today's Gospel is magnificently illustrated by the life of the Saint whom the Church is honoring today. "He who humbles himself shall be exalted." (Lk 14:11).

In our own day St. Martin de Porres has undoubtedly been exalted. I am sure you have been struck by the number of statues of him one finds in different churches of the world. His exaltation has taken place in our day. It is only twenty-eight years ago that he was canonized and given a feast day, a memorial, in the universal calendar of the Church. Over the past thirty years people have made novenas to this humble lay Brother of the Dominican Order, who was born two years before St. Vincent and who died some twenty years before him. He resembles St. Vincent in his great love for the poor and also in the practical measures he took to relieve the sufferings of the poor of Lima. Like St. Vincent, he was a man of action. Unlike St. Vincent, he wrote little or nothing. If he were to have written a spiritual testament, there is little doubt but that he would have emphasized the importance of those two characteristically Vincentian virtues, humility and charity.

St. Martin de Porres is what we call a popular saint. It is difficult for us to explain why some saints are "popular" saints, who find that great numbers of people pray to them for a vast variety of favors. We can be certain, that it does not worry the saints in heaven whether one is more popular than another. They would very much share the sentiments of St. Paul in the opening sentence of the first reading of today's Mass. What matters is that Christ be preached, what matters is that people turn to the saints so that they may find their way more easily to their Father in Heaven.

The humble shall be exalted. By all accounts St. Martin de Porres was illegitimate and was a deeply humble person. Because he was so humble, people perhaps feel at ease in his company and, feeling at ease in his company, they speak to him about what is closest to their hearts and ask him to pray for them.

St. Martin de Porres exemplifies well what St. Vincent asks a Daughter of Charity to be--a humble loving servant of the poor. We know that St. Vincent gave much importance to humility in all that we do for the poor. He did so because that was his conviction and the fruit of his own meditation on the manner of life lived by the Son of God when He came on earth. St. Vincent must also have been convinced that it was all-important that the poor would feel at ease in the presence of a Daughter of Charity. What a Daughter of Charity does for the poor must come, not only from a loving heart but from a humble heart. In a very striking sentence at the end of a conference to his missionaries, St. Vincent shares with them his own conviction that, however charitable a man may be, if he is not humble, he does not have real charity. (cf. Coste XII, Fr. ed., p. 210).

As Sister Servants, would you agree with me that to be in authority today can create difficulty in the exercise of humility? Community meetings are a feature of our Community life today and I have known some Superiors within and outside our Vincentian family who have told me that these community meeting often cause them special anxieties.

You, as Sister Servants, are conscious of your role of being servants, of being open to listening to what each Sister may have to share. That openness on your part calls for humility. True humility is a strong virtue, as both Our Lord and His Mother Mary have shown us in their lives. You may often be called upon to point out to a Sister during a community meeting that her opinion, however strongly held, is not in accordance with the Constitutions and traditions of the Company. To do this with humility, with love and with firmness may not be easy. Nowadays, more than in the past, you may be told by the Sister that it is you who are wrong. Then you feel hurt. The hurt may prompt you to force your opinion strongly, or perhaps to do nothing. It is humility which will enable you to proceed along the road quietly, presenting the ideal, while being sensitive to the feelings and views of the Sister.