Born in London on October 10, 1865 – Venerable Cardinal Rafael María José Pedro Francisco Borja Domingo Gerardo de la Santísima Trinidad Merry del Val y Zulueta, or more simply Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, held many important positions within the Church.
The son of a Spanish nobleman who was descended from Irish merchants, Merry del Val held doctorates in both Philosophy and Theology as well as a license in Canon Law. He was ordained in 1888, was made a monsignor in 1891, sent as Apostolic Delegate to Canada in 1897, named titular Archbishop of Nicaea in 1900, and served as the secretary of the 1903 conclave that elected Pope St. Pius X. That pope named him Cardinal Secretary of State; while his successor, Benedict XV, appointed him Secretary of the Holy Office. He died during surgery for appendicitis in 1930, and his cause for canonization was opened in 1953.
A prayer, titled The Litany of Humility is often attributed to him. And if he didn’t write it, he most certainly made it more well known.
At the front of the church are prayer cards, if you’d like to take one home and pray it. I first discovered it in 1993, and found it difficult at first to pray.
Humility is not something that is very well appreciated in modern times. And if you find yourself struggling with it, too, don’t give up. Keep praying.
Today is Palm Sunday.
And we just heard the lengthy reading of the Passion from St. Mark’s Gospel.
The Old Testament reading from the Prophet Isaiah is a foreshadowing of Our Lord’s Passion, written roughly 700 years before Christ.
The Epistle reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, is considered to be an ancient Christian hymn … a Creed of sorts … praising the Humility of Jesus Christ, and attempting to recognize the great emptying He experienced in surrendering His Divinity and becoming a mere human.
The word St. Paul uses for “emptied” is the Greek word ἐκένωσεν from the verb κενόω … which implies a total self-emptying, and giving rise to the Theological term “kenosis” is defined as “[t]he voluntary renunciation by Christ of his right to divine privilege in his humble acceptance of human status.”
Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen has compared it to a human being becoming a snake, or in a homily to children to becoming a puppy. It's still you on the inside, but you're sort of trapped.
Nonetheless, as we enter into Holy Week 2021, let us reflect upon the great humility of God … first in His incarnation as a fetus at the Annunciation, His birth as an infant at Christmas, and now in His total annihilation at the hands of wicked men in His Passion and Death.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – in the Most Blessed Sacrament … another of His great expressions of His humility … let us pray that we might have a share in His kenosis and divest ourselves of any obstacles that might keep us from living out the fullness of our life in Christ, both here and in eternity.
