Blessedness begins with humiliation. Humiliation then gives rise to gratitude, and finally to faith. Faith that is produced by the avoidance of humiliation is not faith at all, but triumphalism. Whom the Lord would bless, he first abases. Faith is not some easy, onward and upward flight from struggle.
Faith is forged on the anvil of adversity.
When a child is born, people often compliment the parents on what a lovely child they have. The parents beam. And yet when they are honest with themselves, the parents know deep inside that it is not they alone who have produced the child, but God working in, with, and through them. The joy of becoming father or mother to a child is matched by the humility of knowing that you did not do it without God's help. The sacrament of holy baptism embodies this theme and carries it to its deepest level.