It remains of exceptional importance to us that we have finally learned to view the great events of human history from below, from the perspective of those who suffer. The point is that, within this view from below, we should not place ourselves on the side of the eternally dissatisfied, but rather respond to the needs of life in all its dimensions.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Humility is recommended to you, that you may not become an unfeeling person: He, God, became man; you, O man, acknowledge that you are man: all your humility consists in recognising that you are man. Now, since God teaches you humility, he says: "I have not come to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me." The proud do their own will. The humble, however, do the will of God.

St Augustine

In these days we have turned our gaze towards heaven, towards the communion of all the saints, and prayed for the souls of the departed. Let us hold our gaze upward for one more moment, that we might pause before the figure of an extraordinary saint of the Church's renewal after the Council of Trent - St Charles Borromeo.

Anyone standing on the shore of Lake Maggiore in Italy can very easily catch sight of the 35-metre-high statue of St Charles Borromeo, dating from the 17th century. This sculpture of the Archbishop of Milan in the act of blessing has one distinctive feature: it can be visited from the inside, thanks to an internal staircase. Whoever climbs the many steps can look out over the surrounding panorama through two openings positioned exactly above Charles's eyes. These two openings - Charles's eyes, through which he observed and lived out his mission - were humility and zeal. What fundamentally marked Charles's life and set him on the path of holiness, the path of humilitas, closer to the earth, was the death of his brother Federico, who died in Charles's arms.

The loss of his brother deeply shook this man's soul. God made use of this event to shape Charles in a humble disposition towards himself and his mission, as well as in zeal for the souls entrusted to him. St Charles's inner life seemed to become humbled, simplified. Through this event, God was spiritually preparing him for his mission. When the Lord calls a soul to a mission, he gives it strength, courage and prophetic zeal. From that moment on, all the knowledge and influence he had counted for nothing. He understood that he was transient, mortal, and this brought him down to earth. To reality. To simplicity. He chose the simple episcopal motto Humilitas. In this word is written the life of every Christian. Everything is summed up in this motto of Charles's. The noun humilitas shares its root with the adjective humilis, which can be translated as humble, but also as down-to-earth, or of the earth, since it derives from humus (earth).

Into his rich pastoral life, Charles set out literally from the earth, from below. Kiko Argüello, the initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way, said in one catechesis that it is very interesting to look at the world from below, to have a perspective on the world from the floor, not from above but from below. To see the feet of people passing by, to be the last. That is, in fact, the answer to the question of how to love the Lord. To be last, to consider oneself last, as the Fathers of the Church, the desert hermits, used to say. "To consider oneself last and worse than all."

God's wondrous preparation in the heart of St Charles began with humility, from the earth, which very quickly produced zeal. Pride cannot lead to zeal. If pride is at the top of the evil pyramid that rules the world, then true humility is at the top of God's pyramid, which holds the power of life. Likewise, if sloth is at the bottom of the corrupted pyramid, then zeal is at the bottom of the holy pyramid.

The conclusion is simple: humility comes at the end, that is, at the top. Everything begins with zeal. Through zeal, wrath diminishes, moderation in food and drink is strengthened, envy melts away, lust is calmed, greed is lost, and finally pride dies. At the beginning is zeal, and at the end is humility. Humility may outwardly resemble sloth, but inwardly it is most deeply connected with zeal. In the same way, pride is in fact a false zeal. Behind false zeal, pride lies hidden.

In the book Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI, we find a discussion of zeal. The first chapter of the second volume of the book. Christ was consumed by zeal for the House of the Lord. Zelus domus tuae comedit me. This zeal led him to his voluntary death on the Cross. The Pope says that this is true zeal, unlike the zeal that kills another.

Jesus Christ, through St Charles, shows us that our greatest fault is pride, and calls us to zeal, sending the Holy Spirit to be poured out into our soul and to set it ablaze with zeal. Zeal in small things. In insignificant things. In things that seem worthless. Especially those that are worthless in human eyes. In hidden things. We know that saying of Christ's from the book of Revelation: You are neither hot nor cold; so, because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. Be zealous and repent!