Advent, a time of humility

«The little one, because of his condition, receives the eternal one in his heart.». 

Christian spirituality has recognized the importance of smallness —a concept that integrates humility, poverty of spirit, and awareness of sin—as an essential condition for welcoming the redemptive action of God. This experience constitutes an ontological (in terms of being) and theological (in terms of God) disposition; and only when human beings enter into the truth of their creaturely being and moral misery can they open themselves to the divine gift that bursts forth in the mystery of the Incarnation. 

In this sense, the spiritual affirmation “To feel the smallness of being a sinner in order to have the need for the Child God to be born in my heart.” It succinctly expresses a profound theological logic: human beings can only embrace the mystery of the Incarnate Word when they recognize their radical inability to save themselves. The Incarnation—and its manifestation in the mystery of Christmas—can only be fully understood in light of human limitation and God's humbling of Himself. 

The biblical experience of smallness: anthropological and theological foundation

Scripture begins its revelation by showing human beings as dependent beings. The sentence “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19) is not a condemnation but an ontological statement that grounds human existence in radical dependence on God. The psalmist captures this disproportion by asking: “What is man that you should remember him?” (Psalm 8:5). The smallness In the Bible, it is not conceived as a despicable weakness, but as the place where God displays his grace. The recognition of one's own finitude is, therefore, a gateway to revelation and salvation. 

Throughout the history of salvation, God chooses those who do not possess attributes of greatness according to human criteria. This choice is not only pedagogical, but theological: salvation is truly a divine initiative, and its transparency is manifested in the smallness of the human instrument. Thus, Abraham is called in his old age (cf. Gen 12:4); Moses is chosen despite his stammering (cf. Ex 4:10); David is anointed, even though he is the youngest (cf. 1 Sam 17:14). Pauline theology summarizes it: “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Cor 1:27). Hans Urs von Balthasar observes that this pattern reveals God's “aesthetics”: a beauty that arises from humility and sacrifice (Glory. An aesthetic of God, 1989, pp. 20-23). Human smallness is not an obstacle, but a condition for divine glory to be manifested.

Now, in the New Testament, smallness acquires an explicitly soteriological value (that is, linked to salvation). Jesus declares that the Kingdom belongs to the “poor in spirit” (Mt 5:3) and that revelation is granted “to the little ones” (Mt 11:25). The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (cf. Lk 18:9-14) shows that justification does not depend on merit, but on the recognition of one's own misery. 

In fact, it can be stated firmly and without hesitation that humility is the truth of man before God, without which grace finds no place to rest; and only in this way does smallness then become a spiritual structure of welcome. 

Divine smallness that responds to human smallness 

The hymn of Philippians (2:6-11) constitutes the Christological key: the Word “emptied himself” (ekenōsen). The Incarnation is the voluntary lowering of the Son, who takes on the condition of servant. Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (On the Incarnation of the Word of God), teaches that the Word “He had no qualms about making himself small in order to lift us up from our smallness.”. This lowering of oneself is not humiliation but a manifestation of the essence of divine love: God is the one who gives himself to the lowest. 

The birth in Bethlehem also reveals a divine logic that contrasts with all human power: the manger is a sign of poverty, vulnerability, and fragility. Everything in the scene indicates that God has chosen smallness as a revealing language. Pope Saint Leo the Great affirms that the majesty of the Son of God assumes our smallness without diminishing his greatness (Sermon 6). The manger is, therefore, a theological icon: Man can only welcome God with humility, because God himself presents himself humbly.. 

The Incarnation happens because Mary recognizes her smallness: “He has looked upon the humility of his servant.” (Luke 1:48). His fiat is an expression of absolute availability, whose basis is not merit but poverty of spirit. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, in her work Story of a soul will interpret this attitude as the essence of his “little path”; for her, it is not so much a matter of rising to God through extraordinary deeds, but of allowing herself to be taken by Him from her smallness. 

Awareness of sin as an opening to grace 

Theologically, sin is not just a simple moral error, but is conceived as a rupture in the filial relationship with God. St. Paul affirms that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23) and thus, awareness of sin is not pessimism, but theological realism. Spiritual tradition teaches that authentic contrition is both sorrow for the evil committed and hope for mercy. Psalm 51 expresses this tension: “You do not despise a broken and humbled heart.”. The recognition of sin opens up the inner space for redemption. 

In the parables of mercy (cf. Lk 15), the return of the sinner is described as a rebirth: the son “He was dead and has come back to life.”, for mercy is capable of restoring lost identity, especially when awareness of sin is truly the first step toward a response of the heart to the mercy of a God who continues to come out to meet us, but only those who recognize themselves as wounded can allow themselves to be healed. 

In ecclesiastical realities, it is appropriate to speak of the “birth of Christ in the soul”; Christians must make themselves “Spiritual Bethlehem”, a place where the Word can be born again. Smallness—as a recognition of sin and limitation—constitutes the “inner manger” of every believer. 

Teaching and tradition: humility as a condition for encountering Christ

However, what is it that makes this encounter possible? It also seems to be an encounter between two worlds: the divine and the human; the Creator and the creature; the Lord and the servant. First of all, it is vital to recognize the foundation of the entire edifice, and this foundation is humility. The edifice is prayer (cf. CCC 2559). without humility in moments of dialogue with the Lord, it is impossible for grace to act and, therefore, it will be impossible to recognize it as necessary for one's own life, to fight and overcome sin. We would continue to think that we are “supermen” who can overcome the Evil One with our own strength, something that obviously would not happen (cf. CCC 397-400). 

Secondly, in the midst of the smallness that characterizes me and should characterize us all in relation to the Creator, the Father and his Son, and the Divine Spirit that proceeds from them, we must strive to grow in the disposition necessary to welcome the mystery of the Incarnation as the way in which salvation is brought in fullness by God on our behalf and, by his pure initiative, constitutes man as someone privileged, making him participate in a mysterious way in the divine life (cf. CCC 457-460). 

A participation that, although great in meaning, never ceases to amaze us, especially when we discover that Christ is the only one capable of illuminating human reality, regardless of what it contains. It is he, who is the light, who reveals to man his greatness as a sanctified subject and adopted son of God, but also his misery, inasmuch as sin continues to seek to destroy the relationship between the creature and the Creator. In fact, Benedict XVI affirms and maintains that faith is born when man recognizes his radical need for God (General Audience, October 24, 2012). 

Specific spiritual provisions 

Therefore, the path to inner humility cuts across all of human reality; it is a key anthropological reality that is discovered, nurtured, matured, solidified, and bears fruit from Christ and not from man as an autonomous being. This journey cannot be made without the help of God's grace, his work in life, and the believer's complete willingness to a God who, at a certain moment in history, reveals himself and makes humanity and all creation his own in order to make everything new, to reestablish a work of salvation which, although limited in time, its purpose is to shine with the colors of eternity forever. 

Spiritual smallness—humility, poverty of spirit, awareness of sin—is a hermeneutical key to understanding the Incarnation and Christian life. God makes himself small to reach human beings in their misery; and human beings, recognizing their smallness, can welcome the divine gift. Thus, the manger becomes an anthropological and theological paradigm, because only in humility can God be born. 

To this end, so that “May the Child Jesus be born in our hearts.”, it is necessary to sow, care for, harvest, and cultivate: a) Humble and continuous prayer; b) Opening to the sacrament of Reconciliation and sincere confession of sin; c) Attitudes of absolute trust in God; y d) Lectio divina that reveals inner truth. 

The believer is called to be Indoor nativity scene: a place where Christ can continually become incarnate through grace. Smallness is a theological space where fertile ground (grace) germinates, where mercy transforms, and where the Word made Child renews human life.