Walk humbly with your God

In today’s first reading,  Micah 6: 1-4, 6-8,  the prophet spells out what the Lord requires of us:  Only to do the right and to love goodness and to walk humbly with our God.  God is not asking that we engage in a strict, ascetical penitential life but that we choose what is right, embrace goodness, and live a life of humility.  No heroics, just simple living, doing good things throughout the day: helping a person struggling to bring a load of groceries up the stairs, preparing a meal for the people I love,  doing the laundry, pitching in to get the dishes done so the whole family can relax, making a phone call to a friend, helping a child with homework, taking time to  listen to what kind of day our spouses/community members had, listening to someone overwhelmed with grief, doing an honest day’s work, saying “thank you” to the person who bags my groceries, etc.

As I reflected upon the phrase “walk humbly with your God,” I was touched by the image.  How can any one of us,  mere human beings, walking side by side with God, strut  about like  peacocks, saying by our demeanor: look at us, how great we are! And yet, how often do we not do that.  This is God walking beside us day and night, counseling us, affirming us, challenging us, comforting us, strengthening us.

 I then looked up Eccles. 3: 17, which reads:  “My child, be gentle in carrying out your business, and you will be better loved than a lavish giver. The greater you are, the more humbly you should behave, and then you will find favor with the Lord; for great though the power of the Lord is, he accepts the homage of the humble.