Basis of Humility
Humility has a double basis: truth and justice. Truth facilitates seeing ourselves as we really are; justice leads us to act according to that perception.
These two elements appear in the classical definition of St Teresa of Avila, “Humildad es andar en verdad” –”Humility is to walk in truth.”
(a) Humility is truth: the truth about ourselves, and our dependence on God.
(b) Humility is to walk; to walk means to act as we should. After acknowledging the truth about ourselves, we must be consistent, making our actions match the reality of our condition.
In the years before he founded Opus Dei, Blesed Josemaria Escrivá felt intimations from the Holy Spirit but didn’t know yet what were God’s plans. “The Lord wants something; but what?” he asked himself. And he began to repeat these two invocations with humility:
- “Domine, ut videam!” –”Lord, that I may see!” “The cry of Bartimeus, the blind man in the Gospel, became Msgr Escrivá’s leitmotif. Hundred of times a day he would ask for light.”#1 “Lord, what do you want me to do? And we may also say, “that I may find the truth about my life, my vocation, my mission.”
- “Ut sit!” –”That it may be!” “And Msgr Escrivá would add, again taking his inspiration from the Bible, `Here I am, because You have called me’ (1 Sam 3:5).”#2 Once we know our vocation, we, too, must accomplish it.
Our Lady is the humblest of all human beings. When God asked for her cooperation in the work of Redemption, her answer, a paragon of humility, was:
- “Ecce ancilla Domini” –”Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” She was manifesting the truth about herself, and her relationship to God.
- “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum” –”Be done unto me according to your word.” Her humility came to full bloom in her desire to do the Will of God, to walk in truth.
HUMILITY AND TRUTH
Humility Is Truth
The following was the frequent prayer of St Augustine: “May I know Thee; may I know myself.” By this prayer, he asked for humility, which is true knowledge of God and of oneself.
Humility means to be aware of our worth before God and before men; to know that we have nothing good in ourselves, but only misery and nothingness. Humility means to empty ourselves and to allow God to work in us with his grace.
* Humility is born of knowing God and knowing oneself. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 184)
* It is very difficult to define humility, but perhaps if we examine the words of our Lady and their deep significance, we may–within the limits of our understanding–be able to deduce some fundamental elements. First of all there are two special traits, two great coordinates, as it were, that immediately strike us in the Magnificat:
(a) Acknowledgment of a truth, of a fact, namely, that God had done great things to her, and
(b) Thankfulness for the gift, for the grace, implied in the truth.
That is to say, there is first of all an attitude of mind, and then an act of the will derived from this attitude.
The will is moved by the intelligence; thus, we can see that, in regard to humility, the first and most important thing, the thing which we may call the essence of humility, is that it must be based on truth. That is precisely the definition given by St Teresa: “Once I was considering why our Lord attached so much importance to humility. Without seeking it, the answer suddenly enlightened my mind: Because God is the absolute Truth, and humility is to walk in truth. It is a fact that nothing good comes from us, only misery and nothingness; whoever does not understand this walks in lies. The one who understands this best walks in truth and pleases God who is All Truth.”#3
But there is an even higher authority than St Teresa. Christ defined himself as “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). And he also said: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29). Thus, the Lord is humble; there is a relationship–of essence–between truth and humility. This relationship can be put to the test. If the essential relationship between humility and truth–it has been demonstrated–does exist, then there must be a similar relationship between their respective opposites: pride and falsehood. If we say that humility is truth–which is correct–then it must be also correct to say–as it is–that pride is falsehood.
We know from theology that the devil is characterized by pride. It was pride that gave him his demoniac mark, that transformed him from an angel full of grace to an angel full of sin. There is a passage in St John which describes a discussion between our Lord and the Pharisees, one of the most heated and violent discussions our Lord ever had. In the course of it, Christ said: “You are of your father the devil.... He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father thereof” (Jn 14:6).
There is, then, a strange and mysterious relationship between lying and pride; both these sins –which are fundamentally the same thing–are related to injustice; in the same way that humility and truth are directly related with sense of justice. (F. Suarez, Mary of Nazareth, 2)
* Nothing but humility is of any use here; humility is not acquired by the intellect alone, but through a clear perception of the truth, which helps it to understand that we are nothing and that God is everything. (St Teresa, The Way of Perfection, 32, 13)
* Humility makes a man subject to the rule of reason in every field. It prepares him to get free access to spiritual and divine blessings. (St Thomas of Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 2-2, q. 161. a.5)
* Humility has nothing to do with self-deprecation. It is not thinking little of oneself, it is rather not thinking of self at all. As long as we can feel humiliated, we are not perfectly humble. For the feeling of humiliation arises from our conceiving ourselves to be in a state or situation inferior to what we consider suited to our dignity. And there is nothing in us belonging to ourselves for which we can claim esteem or consideration. “What have you that you have not received?” (1 Cor 4:7).
All good comes from God; all evil comes from the instability of the created will. To realize this is to be in the truth; to be consistent with such realization is to be rightly disposed.
To make claims to consideration and special treatment–not consonant with this disposition of ours–is to step outside the true order of things; it is to stand in error. Of Satan, the personification of pride, our Lord uses these words: “He stood not in the truth” (Jn 8:44).
There is a close affinity between truth and humility, as between pride and ignorance. Progress in real intelligence is always progress in humility. To be humble is to be in rectitude; the Old Testament calls the perfect fulfillment of God’s Will serving him in truth (cf. 1 Sam 12:24).#4
* Imitate the example of John the Baptist. The Jews thought he was Christ; he denied it; he did not take on the honor they mistakenly ascribed to him.
If he had said, “I am Christ,” they would have accepted; they went to him with this opinion in mind.
John didn’t say so. He acknowledged what he was; he explained the difference between Christ and him; he humbled himself.
He saw where salvation was; he understood he was merely a torch; he feared being put out by the wind of pride. (St Augustine, Sermon 293)
* Be filled with wonder at God’s goodness, for Christ wants to live in you. Be filled with wonder too when you are aware of all the weight of your poor flesh, of your wretched flesh, and all the vileness of the poor clay you are made of.
Yes, but then remember too that call from God, and say: Jesus Christ, who is God and Man, understands me and looks after me, for he is my Brother and my Friend. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 182)
* As, sooner or later, you are surely bound to stumble upon the evidence of your own personal wretchedness, I wish to forewarn you about some of the temptations that the devil will suggest to you and which you should reject straight away: the thought that God has forgotten about you, that your call to the apostolate is in vain, and that the weight of sorrow and of the sins of the world is greater than your strength as an apostle.
None of this is true! (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 141)
* Gold, silver, jewels: dirt, piles of manure. Delights, sensual pleasures, satisfactions of the appetites: like a beast, like a mule, like a hog, like a cock, like a bull...
Honors, distinctions, titles: things of air, puffs of pride, lies, nothingness. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 677)
* You are dust, fallen and dirty. Even though the breath of the Holy Spirit should lift you above all earthly things and make you shine like gold –your misery reflecting in those heights the sovereign rays of the Sun of Justice– don’t forget the lowliness of your state.
An instant of pride would cast you back to the ground; and having been light, you would again become dirt. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 599)
* You ... proud? About what? (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 600)
* So that you’ll be humble –you who are so self‑satisfied and empty– it’s enough to consider these words of Isaiah: “You’re a drop of water or dew that falls on the earth and is scarcely seen.” (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 613)
Humility and Self-knowledge
We are born in sin, inclined to sin, and ever ready to fall into sin. At times, we need not be tempted by the devil to sin; our own concupiscence is the trigger. If God were to withdraw from us his helping hand, we would fall headlong.
In our spiritual combat, there will be no lack of failures; we must not be afraid of them, but react immediately with an act of contrition, and keep on.
He who thinks he is humble is no longer so. To recognize that we are proud is the beginning of humility.
* Self‑knowledge leads us by the hand, as it were, to humility. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 609)
* It is a great thing to know oneself to be nothing before God, because that is how things are. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 260)
* Lord, I ask for a gift from you: Love, a Love that will cleanse me. And another gift as well: self‑knowledge so that I may be filled with humility. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 185)
* Don’t forget that you are just a trash can. So, if by any chance the divine gardener should lay his hands on you, and scrub and clean you, and fill you with magnificent flowers, neither the scent nor the colors that beautify your ugliness should make you proud.
Humble yourself; don’t you know that you are a trash can? (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 592)
* Putting yourself in the presence of God, and with your forehead flat against the ground, consider how (for that’s the way it is) you are more filthy and despicable than the sweepings swept up by a broom.
And in spite of this, the Lord has chosen you. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 363)
* What are you so proud of? Every impulse that moves you comes from Him. Act accordingly. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 33)
* In one of his travels, St Francis of Borgia met a gentleman who, seeing the saint’s poverty and the lack of comfort, pitied him. St Francis answered him cheerfully, “Do not worry or think that I am so badly off as I look. I’ll tell you, I always send before me a courier to have my lodging ready.” The gentleman asked, “Who is this courier?” He replied, “It is my knowledge of myself and the consideration of what I deserve, which is hell for my sins. Thus, when I enter any lodging, however uncomfortable it may be, I always think that it is more comfortable than what I deserve.”
* Whoever believes that he is capable of doing something alone and unaided is simply a monster blinded by pride, unjust with God; he is blind. He does not see that in order to live from minute to minute, in order to breathe, to move, to think, he needs action on the part of God. He does not see that he would return to nothingness if God did not maintain him in existence every second. Boylan explains that we are like the sound of a man’s voice; if he stops speaking the sound ceases to exist.
The proud man also fails to see the wounds left by original sin in his soul: His understanding is subject to error; his will is at the mercy of every impulse. He does not see his own essential instability, his impotence, his freedom enslaved by sin. He relies on himself, on his own intelligence, on his own ability, his own strength, his own power, his own talents, as if he had given these things to himself, as if he were not indebted to anyone for them.
The proud man, in this also, is essentially unjust. Such a man thanks no one, withholding what belongs to another, refusing to give God what is His: “Or what hast thou that thou has not received? And, if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”
Since pride blinds one, the proud man is unable to see his own weakness; he has a completely false idea of himself and he believes he is self-sufficient. Since he thinks thus, he feels he does not need God, and he does not ask Him for help. He is like a man who starves himself.
The proud man’s weakness increases and finally he falls into the deepest abysses, trying to justify himself, but never recognizing his own misery. He deceives himself treating as truth what in fact are lies, treating as merit what is really shame, treating as virtue what is downright vice, denying sin and ignoring grace.
Thus, the proud man makes himself the measure of all things; he tries to make himself a superman, but ends up lower than any man, almost reduced to the irrationality of an animal. Humanly he does not know himself because he ignores, on principle, what he is in essence: the image and likeness of God.
It has been repeated endlessly–and Blessed J. Escrivá in The Way, no. 609, reminds us of it –that “self-knowledge leads us by the hand as it were, to humility,” But we must not think that this exercise of self-knowledge is limited to philosophical reflection on our own ego. St Teresa of Avila, a woman with little formal learning, but with deep wisdom derived precisely from her humility, settles this point: “....in my opinion, we can never completely know ourselves without knowing God; looking at his grandeur, let us consider our own lowliness.”
Lowliness is a relative concept; one’s height is determined in relation to something, or someone, that serves as a comparison. In the Magnificat there is a constant reference from God to creatures and from creatures to God, a chain of contrasts, a continuous coming and going from greatness to lowliness and from lowliness to greatness. Gradually the attention is focused little by little on the greatness of God, more and more intensely and more permanently, until eventually one reaches the most perfect expression of humility: forgetting oneself and depending completely on God. This is a dependence that makes us want to disappear so that God may appear, to renounce all glory in order that only God may be glorified. (F. Suarez, Mary of Nazareth, 2)
* How humble Jesus is. What a shame, in contrast, that I, who am nothing but dust from a dung‑heap, should so often have disguised my pride under the cloak of dignity, or justice. And as a result, how many opportunities to follow the Master I have missed or wasted, by failing to supernaturalize them. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 56)
* You must never treat anyone unmercifully. If you think someone is not worthy of your mercy, you should realize that you don’t deserve mercy either.
You do not deserve to have been created, or to be Christian, or to be a son of God, or to have the family you have.... (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 145)
* When that priest, our good friend, signed calling himself “the sinner,” he did so, convinced that it was true.
My God, purify me too! (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 171)
* A priest is no more a man or a Christian more than any ordinary person. Hence it is very important for a priest to be deeply humble. He must understand that these words of St Paul also apply to him, in a special way: “What have you that you did not receive?” (1 Cor 4:7). What he has received ... is God! He has received the power to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Mass –the principal purpose of the priestly ordination– to forgive sins, to administer the other sacraments, and to preach with authority the word of God, directing the rest of the faithful in matters referring to the kingdom of heaven. (J. Escrivá, A Priest for Ever)
* “Father,” you told me, “I have committed many errors; I have made so many mistakes.”
“I know,” I replied. “God our Lord also knows all that; he has taken it into account. He only asks you to be humble enough to admit it; he asks that you struggle to make amends, so as to serve him better each day with more interior life, with continual prayer, with piety, and making use of the proper means to sanctify your work.” (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 379)
* You want to be strong? Then first realize that you are very weak. After that, trust in Christ, your Father, your Brother, your Teacher. He makes us strong, entrusting to us the means with which to conquer –the sacraments. Live them! (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 643)
* You were very hurt at being slighted. That means you are forgetting too easily who you are. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 794)
* You were one of those “all or nothing” types. And as you could do nothing... What a disgrace!
Begin to fight with humility, to make real that personal surrender of yours, which is so stingy, until it becomes “all” active. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 20)
* It is too easy to say: “I’m useless; nothing turns out right for me –for us.” Apart from not being true, that pessimism masks a great deal of laziness. There are things you do well, and things you do badly. Fill yourself with joy and with hope on account of the former; and face up to the latter –without losing heart– in order to put things right; and they will work out. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 68)
* Where the devil can do great harm without our realizing it is in making us believe that we possess virtues that we do not; that is pestilential. (St Teresa, The Way of Perfection, 38, 5)
* Humility is like a torch that allows us to see our defects under a clear light. Thus, it is not merely words or actions; it is self-knowledge, whereby we discover a pile of defects in ourselves, until then hidden by our pride. (St John Vianney, Sermon on Pride)
* The day you see yourself as you are, you will think it natural to be despised by others. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 593)
* Everything down here is a handful of dust. Consider the millions of “important” people who have “recently” died and nobody remembers at all. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 886)
* Realize that you are ashes and dust; that you will return to dust soon, thus, you will never swell in pride. After having reflected on the eternity of God, consider this speck of time which is human life, thus have always death before your eyes, and you will be humble and docile.
Our corruptible body makes our soul heavy; our spirit, attracted by many things of the earth, is overwhelmed by this earthly vessel. Let us say, therefore, with all humility: “Lord, my heart is not proud, my eyes are not haughty; I am not busy with great matters, I am not concerned with things beyond my scope” (Ps 131:1).
Humility should be not so much in our speech as in our mind. We should be interiorly convinced that we are nothing, that we are worth nothing. (St Jerome, In exposit. Epist. ad Ephes., ch.IV)
HUMILITY AND JUSTICE
Prayer is not enough, nor is thanksgiving, nor the acknowledgment of the gifts we have received from God. These gifts must be used; they must yield fruits. Then we may kneel down and say: “We are unprofitable servants; we have done no more than our duty” (Lk 17:10).
We, Christians, like the Lord, have been sent. We, too, have a divine mission –His mission– which is the whole reason for our life. Our mission is to sanctify our own work, to sanctify ourselves in doing it, and to sanctify others through it. We must refer all things to God.
The truth of our existence and its justice lies in seeking the glory of God in everything; all creatures were created for this purpose. In using our gifts, justice demands that we render to God, and to him alone, all the honor and all the glory, “To the eternal King, immortal, invisible and only God, be honor and glory....” (1 Tim 1:17).
For sure, there is some goodness in us; humility leads us to see and admire our talents, and give thanks to God for these, just as when we admire an excellent painting, we give credit to the artist, not to the canvass.
* “Deo omnis gloria” –” All glory to God.” It is an emphatic confession of our nothingness. He, Jesus, is everything. We, without him, are worth nothing: Nothing.
Our vainglory would be just that: vain glory; it would be a sacrilegious theft. The “I” should not appear anywhere. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 780)
* In the Magnificat, the Virgin made a clear distinction between Creator and creature, God and herself. All generations will call her blessed “because he that is mighty hath done great things to me” (Lk 1:49). She did not find in herself anything that deserved praise, or merited being remembered until the end of time; and she could not find in herself the reason why God performed such great things in her. The only reason she could find for God having so favored her is “because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid.”
Mary acknowledged that she was nothing more than a handmaid of the Lord, the ancilla Domini, whose only distinction in the eyes of the Creator is her humility, her lowliness, her insignificance, her nothingness, her helplessness, her weakness, the fact that she was a creature dependent on God with nothing that God had not given her.
The Magnificat is also an acknowledgment of grace; she had not done anything; it is God who had done great things to her, because He had regarded her lowliness.
It is difficult to express adequately in common language the profundity of this distinction made by the Virgin between Creator and creature. In the Virgin’s words, there is a kind of surprise, an amazement before the mystery of God’s free choice, a clear consciousness, a terrifying consciousness of the absolute and immeasurable disproportion between the miracles that God had worked in her and what she herself was; she expresses an overwhelming sensation of her own insignificance before the power and goodness of the Father.
An irrepressible torrent of thankfulness sprang from the depths of our Lady’s soul and overflowed into spontaneous expression, interlacing her song with verses from Scripture, that in the past served her people to praise and give thanks to God. She stressed the suggestion that she owed everything to God, that everything was given freely to her as a gift, a gift freely given for no other reason than that God so wished. (F. Suarez, Mary of Nazareth, 2)
* Among the virtues especially demanded of the priests must be a disposition of mind by which they are always prepared to seek not their own will but the will of Him who has sent them (cf. Jn 4:34; 5:30; and 6:38). They have been set apart by the Holy Spirit to fulfil a task; this divine task transcends all human strength and human wisdom. “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27).
The true minister of Christ is conscious of his own weakness; thus, he labors in humility. He seeks what is pleasing to God; bound as it were in the Spirit, he is guided in all things by the will of God, who wishes all men to be saved. The true minister discovers and carries out the will of God in the course of his daily routine by humbly placing himself at the service of all those who are entrusted to his care by God; he seeks the will of God in the task committed to him and the variety of events that make up his life. (Second Vatican Council, Decree Presbyterorum Ordinis, 15)
* If you were to obey the impulse of your heart and the dictates of reason, you would always lie flat on the ground, prostrate, a vile worm, ugly and miserable in the sight of that God who puts up with so much from you! (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 597)
* Get accustomed to referring everything to God. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 675)
* Msgr Escrivá, the Founder of Opus Dei, used to recollect himself in prayer; with humility, he often considered what he had mentioned on other occasions: “I am a dirty rag, garbage; and God our Lord has chosen me; he wants to show that Opus Dei is his.” (A. Vazquez de Prada, El Fundador del Opus Dei)
* You must be careful; don’t let your professional success or failure – which will certainly come– make you forget, even for a moment, what the true aim of work is: the glory of God! (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 704)
* We do not live for the world, or for our own honor, but for the honor of God, for the glory of God, for the service of God. This should be our motive! (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 851)
* Rectitude of intention consists in seeking only and in all things the glory of God. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 921)
* “If only they could see the good things I do.” But don’t you realize that you are carrying them around like trinkets in a basket for people to see how good you are?
Furthermore, you must not forget the second part of Jesus’ command: “that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 718)
* When one works wholly and exclusively for the glory of God, one does everything with naturalness and simplicity, like someone who is in a hurry and will not be delayed by “making a great show of things.” Thus, one does not interrupt the unique and incomparable conversation with the Lord. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 555)
* It is indiscreet, childish, and silly to say nice things about others and praise their good qualities in front of them.
Vanity is encouraged, with the risk of stealing glory from God, to whom everything is due. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 721)
* We will dedicate all the exertions of our life, great and small, to the honor of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
I am moved deeply when I recall the work of those brilliant professionals –two engineers and two architects– cheerfully moving furniture into a student residence. When they had put a blackboard into a classroom, the first thing those four artists wrote was: Deo omnis gloria! –all the glory of God.
Jesus, I know that this pleased you greatly. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 611)
* Regnare Christum volumus!: We want Christ to reign. Deo omnis gloria!: All the glory to God.
This ideal of warring–and winning–with Christ’s weapons will only become a reality through prayer and sacrifice, through faith and Love.
Well, then... pray, believe, suffer, Love! (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 639)
* From clay I come, and the earth is the inheritance of all my lineage.
Who but God deserves praise? (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 1053)
* All the things of this world are no more than dirt. Place them in a heap under your feet and you’ll be so much nearer to heaven. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 676)
* All the time it is you, you, you. And you will never be effective until it is Him, Him, Him, so that you act in nomine Domini –in the name and with the strength of God. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 699)
Footnotes:
1. D. Helming, Footprints in the Snow.
2. François Gondrand, At God’s Pace.
3. St Teresa, Interior Castle, 6, 10.
4. Cf. E. Leen, In the Likeness of Christ, 2,2.
These two elements appear in the classical definition of St Teresa of Avila, “Humildad es andar en verdad” –”Humility is to walk in truth.”
(a) Humility is truth: the truth about ourselves, and our dependence on God.
(b) Humility is to walk; to walk means to act as we should. After acknowledging the truth about ourselves, we must be consistent, making our actions match the reality of our condition.
In the years before he founded Opus Dei, Blesed Josemaria Escrivá felt intimations from the Holy Spirit but didn’t know yet what were God’s plans. “The Lord wants something; but what?” he asked himself. And he began to repeat these two invocations with humility:
- “Domine, ut videam!” –”Lord, that I may see!” “The cry of Bartimeus, the blind man in the Gospel, became Msgr Escrivá’s leitmotif. Hundred of times a day he would ask for light.”#1 “Lord, what do you want me to do? And we may also say, “that I may find the truth about my life, my vocation, my mission.”
- “Ut sit!” –”That it may be!” “And Msgr Escrivá would add, again taking his inspiration from the Bible, `Here I am, because You have called me’ (1 Sam 3:5).”#2 Once we know our vocation, we, too, must accomplish it.
Our Lady is the humblest of all human beings. When God asked for her cooperation in the work of Redemption, her answer, a paragon of humility, was:
- “Ecce ancilla Domini” –”Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” She was manifesting the truth about herself, and her relationship to God.
- “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum” –”Be done unto me according to your word.” Her humility came to full bloom in her desire to do the Will of God, to walk in truth.
HUMILITY AND TRUTH
Humility Is Truth
The following was the frequent prayer of St Augustine: “May I know Thee; may I know myself.” By this prayer, he asked for humility, which is true knowledge of God and of oneself.
Humility means to be aware of our worth before God and before men; to know that we have nothing good in ourselves, but only misery and nothingness. Humility means to empty ourselves and to allow God to work in us with his grace.
* Humility is born of knowing God and knowing oneself. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 184)
* It is very difficult to define humility, but perhaps if we examine the words of our Lady and their deep significance, we may–within the limits of our understanding–be able to deduce some fundamental elements. First of all there are two special traits, two great coordinates, as it were, that immediately strike us in the Magnificat:
(a) Acknowledgment of a truth, of a fact, namely, that God had done great things to her, and
(b) Thankfulness for the gift, for the grace, implied in the truth.
That is to say, there is first of all an attitude of mind, and then an act of the will derived from this attitude.
The will is moved by the intelligence; thus, we can see that, in regard to humility, the first and most important thing, the thing which we may call the essence of humility, is that it must be based on truth. That is precisely the definition given by St Teresa: “Once I was considering why our Lord attached so much importance to humility. Without seeking it, the answer suddenly enlightened my mind: Because God is the absolute Truth, and humility is to walk in truth. It is a fact that nothing good comes from us, only misery and nothingness; whoever does not understand this walks in lies. The one who understands this best walks in truth and pleases God who is All Truth.”#3
But there is an even higher authority than St Teresa. Christ defined himself as “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). And he also said: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29). Thus, the Lord is humble; there is a relationship–of essence–between truth and humility. This relationship can be put to the test. If the essential relationship between humility and truth–it has been demonstrated–does exist, then there must be a similar relationship between their respective opposites: pride and falsehood. If we say that humility is truth–which is correct–then it must be also correct to say–as it is–that pride is falsehood.
We know from theology that the devil is characterized by pride. It was pride that gave him his demoniac mark, that transformed him from an angel full of grace to an angel full of sin. There is a passage in St John which describes a discussion between our Lord and the Pharisees, one of the most heated and violent discussions our Lord ever had. In the course of it, Christ said: “You are of your father the devil.... He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father thereof” (Jn 14:6).
There is, then, a strange and mysterious relationship between lying and pride; both these sins –which are fundamentally the same thing–are related to injustice; in the same way that humility and truth are directly related with sense of justice. (F. Suarez, Mary of Nazareth, 2)
* Nothing but humility is of any use here; humility is not acquired by the intellect alone, but through a clear perception of the truth, which helps it to understand that we are nothing and that God is everything. (St Teresa, The Way of Perfection, 32, 13)
* Humility makes a man subject to the rule of reason in every field. It prepares him to get free access to spiritual and divine blessings. (St Thomas of Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 2-2, q. 161. a.5)
* Humility has nothing to do with self-deprecation. It is not thinking little of oneself, it is rather not thinking of self at all. As long as we can feel humiliated, we are not perfectly humble. For the feeling of humiliation arises from our conceiving ourselves to be in a state or situation inferior to what we consider suited to our dignity. And there is nothing in us belonging to ourselves for which we can claim esteem or consideration. “What have you that you have not received?” (1 Cor 4:7).
All good comes from God; all evil comes from the instability of the created will. To realize this is to be in the truth; to be consistent with such realization is to be rightly disposed.
To make claims to consideration and special treatment–not consonant with this disposition of ours–is to step outside the true order of things; it is to stand in error. Of Satan, the personification of pride, our Lord uses these words: “He stood not in the truth” (Jn 8:44).
There is a close affinity between truth and humility, as between pride and ignorance. Progress in real intelligence is always progress in humility. To be humble is to be in rectitude; the Old Testament calls the perfect fulfillment of God’s Will serving him in truth (cf. 1 Sam 12:24).#4
* Imitate the example of John the Baptist. The Jews thought he was Christ; he denied it; he did not take on the honor they mistakenly ascribed to him.
If he had said, “I am Christ,” they would have accepted; they went to him with this opinion in mind.
John didn’t say so. He acknowledged what he was; he explained the difference between Christ and him; he humbled himself.
He saw where salvation was; he understood he was merely a torch; he feared being put out by the wind of pride. (St Augustine, Sermon 293)
* Be filled with wonder at God’s goodness, for Christ wants to live in you. Be filled with wonder too when you are aware of all the weight of your poor flesh, of your wretched flesh, and all the vileness of the poor clay you are made of.
Yes, but then remember too that call from God, and say: Jesus Christ, who is God and Man, understands me and looks after me, for he is my Brother and my Friend. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 182)
* As, sooner or later, you are surely bound to stumble upon the evidence of your own personal wretchedness, I wish to forewarn you about some of the temptations that the devil will suggest to you and which you should reject straight away: the thought that God has forgotten about you, that your call to the apostolate is in vain, and that the weight of sorrow and of the sins of the world is greater than your strength as an apostle.
None of this is true! (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 141)
* Gold, silver, jewels: dirt, piles of manure. Delights, sensual pleasures, satisfactions of the appetites: like a beast, like a mule, like a hog, like a cock, like a bull...
Honors, distinctions, titles: things of air, puffs of pride, lies, nothingness. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 677)
* You are dust, fallen and dirty. Even though the breath of the Holy Spirit should lift you above all earthly things and make you shine like gold –your misery reflecting in those heights the sovereign rays of the Sun of Justice– don’t forget the lowliness of your state.
An instant of pride would cast you back to the ground; and having been light, you would again become dirt. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 599)
* You ... proud? About what? (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 600)
* So that you’ll be humble –you who are so self‑satisfied and empty– it’s enough to consider these words of Isaiah: “You’re a drop of water or dew that falls on the earth and is scarcely seen.” (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 613)
Humility and Self-knowledge
We are born in sin, inclined to sin, and ever ready to fall into sin. At times, we need not be tempted by the devil to sin; our own concupiscence is the trigger. If God were to withdraw from us his helping hand, we would fall headlong.
In our spiritual combat, there will be no lack of failures; we must not be afraid of them, but react immediately with an act of contrition, and keep on.
He who thinks he is humble is no longer so. To recognize that we are proud is the beginning of humility.
* Self‑knowledge leads us by the hand, as it were, to humility. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 609)
* It is a great thing to know oneself to be nothing before God, because that is how things are. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 260)
* Lord, I ask for a gift from you: Love, a Love that will cleanse me. And another gift as well: self‑knowledge so that I may be filled with humility. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 185)
* Don’t forget that you are just a trash can. So, if by any chance the divine gardener should lay his hands on you, and scrub and clean you, and fill you with magnificent flowers, neither the scent nor the colors that beautify your ugliness should make you proud.
Humble yourself; don’t you know that you are a trash can? (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 592)
* Putting yourself in the presence of God, and with your forehead flat against the ground, consider how (for that’s the way it is) you are more filthy and despicable than the sweepings swept up by a broom.
And in spite of this, the Lord has chosen you. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 363)
* What are you so proud of? Every impulse that moves you comes from Him. Act accordingly. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 33)
* In one of his travels, St Francis of Borgia met a gentleman who, seeing the saint’s poverty and the lack of comfort, pitied him. St Francis answered him cheerfully, “Do not worry or think that I am so badly off as I look. I’ll tell you, I always send before me a courier to have my lodging ready.” The gentleman asked, “Who is this courier?” He replied, “It is my knowledge of myself and the consideration of what I deserve, which is hell for my sins. Thus, when I enter any lodging, however uncomfortable it may be, I always think that it is more comfortable than what I deserve.”
* Whoever believes that he is capable of doing something alone and unaided is simply a monster blinded by pride, unjust with God; he is blind. He does not see that in order to live from minute to minute, in order to breathe, to move, to think, he needs action on the part of God. He does not see that he would return to nothingness if God did not maintain him in existence every second. Boylan explains that we are like the sound of a man’s voice; if he stops speaking the sound ceases to exist.
The proud man also fails to see the wounds left by original sin in his soul: His understanding is subject to error; his will is at the mercy of every impulse. He does not see his own essential instability, his impotence, his freedom enslaved by sin. He relies on himself, on his own intelligence, on his own ability, his own strength, his own power, his own talents, as if he had given these things to himself, as if he were not indebted to anyone for them.
The proud man, in this also, is essentially unjust. Such a man thanks no one, withholding what belongs to another, refusing to give God what is His: “Or what hast thou that thou has not received? And, if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”
Since pride blinds one, the proud man is unable to see his own weakness; he has a completely false idea of himself and he believes he is self-sufficient. Since he thinks thus, he feels he does not need God, and he does not ask Him for help. He is like a man who starves himself.
The proud man’s weakness increases and finally he falls into the deepest abysses, trying to justify himself, but never recognizing his own misery. He deceives himself treating as truth what in fact are lies, treating as merit what is really shame, treating as virtue what is downright vice, denying sin and ignoring grace.
Thus, the proud man makes himself the measure of all things; he tries to make himself a superman, but ends up lower than any man, almost reduced to the irrationality of an animal. Humanly he does not know himself because he ignores, on principle, what he is in essence: the image and likeness of God.
It has been repeated endlessly–and Blessed J. Escrivá in The Way, no. 609, reminds us of it –that “self-knowledge leads us by the hand as it were, to humility,” But we must not think that this exercise of self-knowledge is limited to philosophical reflection on our own ego. St Teresa of Avila, a woman with little formal learning, but with deep wisdom derived precisely from her humility, settles this point: “....in my opinion, we can never completely know ourselves without knowing God; looking at his grandeur, let us consider our own lowliness.”
Lowliness is a relative concept; one’s height is determined in relation to something, or someone, that serves as a comparison. In the Magnificat there is a constant reference from God to creatures and from creatures to God, a chain of contrasts, a continuous coming and going from greatness to lowliness and from lowliness to greatness. Gradually the attention is focused little by little on the greatness of God, more and more intensely and more permanently, until eventually one reaches the most perfect expression of humility: forgetting oneself and depending completely on God. This is a dependence that makes us want to disappear so that God may appear, to renounce all glory in order that only God may be glorified. (F. Suarez, Mary of Nazareth, 2)
* How humble Jesus is. What a shame, in contrast, that I, who am nothing but dust from a dung‑heap, should so often have disguised my pride under the cloak of dignity, or justice. And as a result, how many opportunities to follow the Master I have missed or wasted, by failing to supernaturalize them. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 56)
* You must never treat anyone unmercifully. If you think someone is not worthy of your mercy, you should realize that you don’t deserve mercy either.
You do not deserve to have been created, or to be Christian, or to be a son of God, or to have the family you have.... (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 145)
* When that priest, our good friend, signed calling himself “the sinner,” he did so, convinced that it was true.
My God, purify me too! (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 171)
* A priest is no more a man or a Christian more than any ordinary person. Hence it is very important for a priest to be deeply humble. He must understand that these words of St Paul also apply to him, in a special way: “What have you that you did not receive?” (1 Cor 4:7). What he has received ... is God! He has received the power to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Mass –the principal purpose of the priestly ordination– to forgive sins, to administer the other sacraments, and to preach with authority the word of God, directing the rest of the faithful in matters referring to the kingdom of heaven. (J. Escrivá, A Priest for Ever)
* “Father,” you told me, “I have committed many errors; I have made so many mistakes.”
“I know,” I replied. “God our Lord also knows all that; he has taken it into account. He only asks you to be humble enough to admit it; he asks that you struggle to make amends, so as to serve him better each day with more interior life, with continual prayer, with piety, and making use of the proper means to sanctify your work.” (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 379)
* You want to be strong? Then first realize that you are very weak. After that, trust in Christ, your Father, your Brother, your Teacher. He makes us strong, entrusting to us the means with which to conquer –the sacraments. Live them! (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 643)
* You were very hurt at being slighted. That means you are forgetting too easily who you are. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 794)
* You were one of those “all or nothing” types. And as you could do nothing... What a disgrace!
Begin to fight with humility, to make real that personal surrender of yours, which is so stingy, until it becomes “all” active. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 20)
* It is too easy to say: “I’m useless; nothing turns out right for me –for us.” Apart from not being true, that pessimism masks a great deal of laziness. There are things you do well, and things you do badly. Fill yourself with joy and with hope on account of the former; and face up to the latter –without losing heart– in order to put things right; and they will work out. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 68)
* Where the devil can do great harm without our realizing it is in making us believe that we possess virtues that we do not; that is pestilential. (St Teresa, The Way of Perfection, 38, 5)
* Humility is like a torch that allows us to see our defects under a clear light. Thus, it is not merely words or actions; it is self-knowledge, whereby we discover a pile of defects in ourselves, until then hidden by our pride. (St John Vianney, Sermon on Pride)
* The day you see yourself as you are, you will think it natural to be despised by others. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 593)
* Everything down here is a handful of dust. Consider the millions of “important” people who have “recently” died and nobody remembers at all. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 886)
* Realize that you are ashes and dust; that you will return to dust soon, thus, you will never swell in pride. After having reflected on the eternity of God, consider this speck of time which is human life, thus have always death before your eyes, and you will be humble and docile.
Our corruptible body makes our soul heavy; our spirit, attracted by many things of the earth, is overwhelmed by this earthly vessel. Let us say, therefore, with all humility: “Lord, my heart is not proud, my eyes are not haughty; I am not busy with great matters, I am not concerned with things beyond my scope” (Ps 131:1).
Humility should be not so much in our speech as in our mind. We should be interiorly convinced that we are nothing, that we are worth nothing. (St Jerome, In exposit. Epist. ad Ephes., ch.IV)
HUMILITY AND JUSTICE
Prayer is not enough, nor is thanksgiving, nor the acknowledgment of the gifts we have received from God. These gifts must be used; they must yield fruits. Then we may kneel down and say: “We are unprofitable servants; we have done no more than our duty” (Lk 17:10).
We, Christians, like the Lord, have been sent. We, too, have a divine mission –His mission– which is the whole reason for our life. Our mission is to sanctify our own work, to sanctify ourselves in doing it, and to sanctify others through it. We must refer all things to God.
The truth of our existence and its justice lies in seeking the glory of God in everything; all creatures were created for this purpose. In using our gifts, justice demands that we render to God, and to him alone, all the honor and all the glory, “To the eternal King, immortal, invisible and only God, be honor and glory....” (1 Tim 1:17).
For sure, there is some goodness in us; humility leads us to see and admire our talents, and give thanks to God for these, just as when we admire an excellent painting, we give credit to the artist, not to the canvass.
* “Deo omnis gloria” –” All glory to God.” It is an emphatic confession of our nothingness. He, Jesus, is everything. We, without him, are worth nothing: Nothing.
Our vainglory would be just that: vain glory; it would be a sacrilegious theft. The “I” should not appear anywhere. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 780)
* In the Magnificat, the Virgin made a clear distinction between Creator and creature, God and herself. All generations will call her blessed “because he that is mighty hath done great things to me” (Lk 1:49). She did not find in herself anything that deserved praise, or merited being remembered until the end of time; and she could not find in herself the reason why God performed such great things in her. The only reason she could find for God having so favored her is “because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid.”
Mary acknowledged that she was nothing more than a handmaid of the Lord, the ancilla Domini, whose only distinction in the eyes of the Creator is her humility, her lowliness, her insignificance, her nothingness, her helplessness, her weakness, the fact that she was a creature dependent on God with nothing that God had not given her.
The Magnificat is also an acknowledgment of grace; she had not done anything; it is God who had done great things to her, because He had regarded her lowliness.
It is difficult to express adequately in common language the profundity of this distinction made by the Virgin between Creator and creature. In the Virgin’s words, there is a kind of surprise, an amazement before the mystery of God’s free choice, a clear consciousness, a terrifying consciousness of the absolute and immeasurable disproportion between the miracles that God had worked in her and what she herself was; she expresses an overwhelming sensation of her own insignificance before the power and goodness of the Father.
An irrepressible torrent of thankfulness sprang from the depths of our Lady’s soul and overflowed into spontaneous expression, interlacing her song with verses from Scripture, that in the past served her people to praise and give thanks to God. She stressed the suggestion that she owed everything to God, that everything was given freely to her as a gift, a gift freely given for no other reason than that God so wished. (F. Suarez, Mary of Nazareth, 2)
* Among the virtues especially demanded of the priests must be a disposition of mind by which they are always prepared to seek not their own will but the will of Him who has sent them (cf. Jn 4:34; 5:30; and 6:38). They have been set apart by the Holy Spirit to fulfil a task; this divine task transcends all human strength and human wisdom. “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27).
The true minister of Christ is conscious of his own weakness; thus, he labors in humility. He seeks what is pleasing to God; bound as it were in the Spirit, he is guided in all things by the will of God, who wishes all men to be saved. The true minister discovers and carries out the will of God in the course of his daily routine by humbly placing himself at the service of all those who are entrusted to his care by God; he seeks the will of God in the task committed to him and the variety of events that make up his life. (Second Vatican Council, Decree Presbyterorum Ordinis, 15)
* If you were to obey the impulse of your heart and the dictates of reason, you would always lie flat on the ground, prostrate, a vile worm, ugly and miserable in the sight of that God who puts up with so much from you! (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 597)
* Get accustomed to referring everything to God. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 675)
* Msgr Escrivá, the Founder of Opus Dei, used to recollect himself in prayer; with humility, he often considered what he had mentioned on other occasions: “I am a dirty rag, garbage; and God our Lord has chosen me; he wants to show that Opus Dei is his.” (A. Vazquez de Prada, El Fundador del Opus Dei)
* You must be careful; don’t let your professional success or failure – which will certainly come– make you forget, even for a moment, what the true aim of work is: the glory of God! (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 704)
* We do not live for the world, or for our own honor, but for the honor of God, for the glory of God, for the service of God. This should be our motive! (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 851)
* Rectitude of intention consists in seeking only and in all things the glory of God. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 921)
* “If only they could see the good things I do.” But don’t you realize that you are carrying them around like trinkets in a basket for people to see how good you are?
Furthermore, you must not forget the second part of Jesus’ command: “that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 718)
* When one works wholly and exclusively for the glory of God, one does everything with naturalness and simplicity, like someone who is in a hurry and will not be delayed by “making a great show of things.” Thus, one does not interrupt the unique and incomparable conversation with the Lord. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 555)
* It is indiscreet, childish, and silly to say nice things about others and praise their good qualities in front of them.
Vanity is encouraged, with the risk of stealing glory from God, to whom everything is due. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 721)
* We will dedicate all the exertions of our life, great and small, to the honor of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
I am moved deeply when I recall the work of those brilliant professionals –two engineers and two architects– cheerfully moving furniture into a student residence. When they had put a blackboard into a classroom, the first thing those four artists wrote was: Deo omnis gloria! –all the glory of God.
Jesus, I know that this pleased you greatly. (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 611)
* Regnare Christum volumus!: We want Christ to reign. Deo omnis gloria!: All the glory to God.
This ideal of warring–and winning–with Christ’s weapons will only become a reality through prayer and sacrifice, through faith and Love.
Well, then... pray, believe, suffer, Love! (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 639)
* From clay I come, and the earth is the inheritance of all my lineage.
Who but God deserves praise? (J. Escrivá, The Forge, n. 1053)
* All the things of this world are no more than dirt. Place them in a heap under your feet and you’ll be so much nearer to heaven. (J. Escrivá, The Way, n. 676)
* All the time it is you, you, you. And you will never be effective until it is Him, Him, Him, so that you act in nomine Domini –in the name and with the strength of God. (J. Escrivá, Furrow, n. 699)
Footnotes:
1. D. Helming, Footprints in the Snow.
2. François Gondrand, At God’s Pace.
3. St Teresa, Interior Castle, 6, 10.
4. Cf. E. Leen, In the Likeness of Christ, 2,2.