Pope Benedict Washes the Feet of 12 Laymen on Holy Thursday. PHOTO: Merco Press
I keep asking everyone to be sure to let me know when you have your “Aha” moment with Rick Santorum. Everyone has their “Aha” moment, the moment in which they suddenly realize that Rick Santorum is not at all the person they thought he was and/or that he is the best person to take on Barack Obama. Mine was when I heard his response to a question about children in poverty at a townhall in New Hampshire. (Start listening at about 9:30 in the video here.) That was when I knew he’s the only one who can soundly beat Barack Obama with the pro-family Catholic argument for subsidiarity that less government and more family strength is necessary to adequately address the problem of poverty for children. That was my “Aha” moment.
It was only later that I found out…he’s an incredibly nice guy who does not have any inkling of a notion that he might be “above” anyone else. Humility. Yes, humility is what I’m talking about. Like when he called me out of the blue to ask about my health. Yes, I have his cell number. Um..wow?
We might also call it the “Vanuatu Factor”.
FilmLadd discusses:
Say what you will about Santorum’s chances, but I’d rather have a guy who can do this sort of riposte than the “fundamentally and dramatically reinvented” Blofeld from James Bond. He sounds like the sort of guy that, if he goes off the rails and talks about launching space mirrors to warm up the earth, we could call him up and say, “Dude! WTF?”
I imagine President Santorum would take such a call from Stacy McCain, and he might actually listen to the “WTF!” part. Would Blofeld listen to anyone telling him he’s acting like an idiot? Like previous flavor of the week, Hermie the Love Bug (“Look ma, I’m breakin’ all the rules! I’m not going to listen to anyone about how to run my campaign!”), I don’t think Blofeld would even take a call like that unless it was part of a book tour to pay for Callista’s jewelry. Do you?
Read more to find out what we mean by the “Vanuatu Factor”.
This is known in Catholicism as “Humility“:
Humility in a higher and ethical sense is that by which a man has a modest estimate of his own worth, and submits himself to others. According to this meaning no man can humiliate another, but only himself, and this he can do properly only when aided by Divine grace. We are treating here of humility in this sense, that is, of the virtue of humility.
The virtue of humility may be defined: “A quality by which a person considering his own defects has a lowly opinion of himself and willingly submits himself to God and to others for God’s sake.” St. Bernard defines it: “A virtue by which a man knowing himself as he truly is, abases himself.”
Have you had your “Aha” moment yet? You will.
