Fear of humiliation

To have supernatural life might be very appealing; to carry one’s cross is much less appealing. There are lots of people willing to follow Christ to Mount Tabor, there are very few people willing to follow Him to Calvary. Yet Calvary is a step that we have to go through in order to reach Eternal Life.

When Christ first gave this message, some people were so overwhelmed that they become Christians and it is said explicitly in the Acts of the Apostles “When they were mocked and whipped and tortured, they rejoiced because it was a privilege for them to suffer with Christ”. That was the beginning of Christianity and why that period was such a glorious time was because people were so conscious of the gift of the supernatural that they despised all human advantages, security, money, honour. They embraced suffering with joy because Christ had suffered and died for us.

Unfortunately, people discovered that to suffer is unpleasant and in order to enter Heaven we not only have to accept suffering, but humiliation. After all, Christ was humiliated to the greatest possible extent. We have to accept humiliation, but if there is anything that we dread, it is humiliation. We fear suffering, but probably we fear humiliation more than that.

—Dr Alice von Hildebrand, The Secular War on the Supernatural