ST GASPER: A HUMBLE SOUL - NOVICE NIDHIN

“Before the Lord raises a soul to a higher plane he humbles it more, for god is no less a wise architect than most common laborers who know that a foundation must be dug more deeply the higher the building will rise.” St. Gasper Bertoni St Gasper was ahumble soul who practiced what he preached and preached what he experienced. He was humble enough to abandon all his life and his will to God and allow him to work in his life. From his childhood onwards he was a humble servant to God. He accepted all the sufferings and trials from God’s hand with more humility and total submission to God’s will. The bitter experiences he had in his life made him great in his future as we see in his words; “God humbles a soul to rise to higher plane”. He had the experience of loneliness at the age of nine when he lost his little sweet baby sister Mettilda. But this experience have had a great impact on his life, perhaps this was one of the reasons he later became an apostle of the youth reaching out to fill their empty lives with God’s love. The virtue of patients and abandonment are the fruits of humility. All these virtues we find in St Gasper. He had abandoned whole of his life to God and his role models for the abandonment were Holy Spouses Mary and Joseph. When we go through his life history we meet with two incidents where his perfect abandonment to God’s will and his humble acceptance of God’s plane are clearly present. First of all it is seen in his choosing of his vocation. Though he had many visible signs for the vocation to the priesthood he waited for 30 days to perceive the secret voice of God, because as he used to say to the seminarians; “Even though the signs of the divine election are quite clear, the humility and low estimation one has of himself makes it happen that the young man almost might not believe in that which he sees and against all that he feel regarding himself, and so has a great need of some kind of conformation.” Another great incident which proves his great humility and perfect holy abandonment is the foundation of the Stigmatine Congregation. He had received the inspiration to begin the religious congregation on Sep.1808, but out of his humility and patients he did not react to this inspiration quickly. He waited for eight years to know the will of god clearly. He kept it in the depth of his heart for four years without even discussing it with his friends. See how humble soul St Gasper was, out of his great humility he even refused to be known as the founder of the congregation. His life example as atrue disciple of Christ with real humility and perfect abandonment is an inspiration for all his followers. This is what St Gasper is in my heart, a true Christian apostle with great humility and perfect abandonment. When we discuss about humility we must keep in mind that this is the virtue of all the virtues and it is the most difficult virtue to follow or to be practiced. The postmodern world is,of competitions and victories. There is no sense of humility found among the present generation. Through the Medias especially through internet and Facebook what the young generation is spreading all over the world is the story of their victories. They never like to be put in to low levels. They want to be first always. In such a situation we must understand that as a religious we are called to be the least. Remember what Jesus exhorts to his disciples when they were quarrelling among themselves to find who is the best, He said, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (Mk. 10:35). To be heroes in front of god we must be zeros in front of the people. St Gasper is a best model for such humility. We see how courageous and humble enough he was, even to refuse to be called as founder of the congregation in such a situation that his congregation was honored and praised by all the people and clergy. Let us try our best to imitate this humble servant of god our father Gasper Bertoni.