Thoughts and
Sentiments on Humility
IN Paradise there are many
Saints who never gave alms on earth: their poverty justified them. There are
many Saints who never mortified their bodies by fasting, or wearing hair
shirts: their bodily infirmities excused them. There are many Saints too who
were not virgins: their vocation was otherwise. But in Paradise there is no
Saint who was not humble.
1. God banished Angels from
Heaven for their pride; therefore how can we
pretend to enter therein, if we do not keep ourselves in a state of
humility? Without humility, says St. Peter
Damian, (Serm. 45) not even the Virgin Mary herself with her
incomparable virginity could have entered into the glory of Christ, and we
ought to be convinced of this truth that, though destitute of some of the other
virtues, we may yet be saved, but never without humility. There are people who
flatter themselves that they have done much by preserving unsullied chastity,
and truly chastity is a beautiful adornment; but as the angelic St. Thomas
says: "Speaking absolutely, humility excels virginity." (4 dist. qu.
xxxiii, art. 3 ad 6; et 22, qu. clxi, art. 5)
We often study diligently to
guard against and correct ourselves of the vices of concupiscence which belong
to a sensual and animal nature, and this inward conflict which the body
wages adversus carnem (Gal. 5,17) is truly a spectacle worthy of God and
of His Angels. But, alas, how rarely do we use this diligence and caution to
conquer spiritual vices, of which pride is the first and the greatest of all,
and which, sufficed of itself to transform an Angel into a demon!
2. Jesus Christ calls us all
into His school to learn, not to work miracles nor to astonish the world by marvelous
enterprises, but to be humble of heart. "Learn
of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart." (Matt. 11, 29) He has
not called everyone to be doctors, preachers or priests, nor has He bestowed on
all the gift of restoring sight to the blind, healing the sick, raising the
dead or casting out devils, but to all He has said: "Learn of Me to be
humble of heart," and to all He has given the power to learn humility of
Him.
Innumerable things are worthy
of imitation in the Incarnate Son of God, but He only asks us to imitate His
humility. What then? Must we suppose that all the treasures of Divine Wisdom
which were in Christ are to be reduced to the virtue of humility? "So it
certainly is," answers St. Augustine. Humility contains all things because
in this virtue is truth; therefore God must also dwell therein, since He is the
truth.
The Savior might have said:
"Learn of Me to be chaste, humble, prudent, just, wise, abstemious,
etc." But He only says: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of
heart"; and in humility alone He includes all things, because, as St.
Thomas so truly says, "Acquired humility is in a certain sense the
greatest good." (Lib. de sancta virginit. c. xxxv) Therefore whoever
possesses this virtue may be said, as to his proximate disposition, to possess
all virtues, and he who lacks it, lacks all.
3. Reading the works of St.
Augustine we find in them all that his sole idea was the exaltation of God
above the creature as far as possible, and as far as possible the humble subjection
of the creature to God. The recognition of this truth should find a place in
every Christian mind, thus establishing-----according to the acuteness and
penetration of our intelligence-----a sublime conception of God, and a lowly
and vile conception of the creature. But we can only succeed in doing this by
humility.
Humility is in reality a
confession of the greatness of God, Who after His voluntary self-annihilation
was exalted and glorified; wherefore Holy Writ says: "For great is the
power of God alone, and He is honored by the humble." (Ecclus. iii, 21)
It was for this reason that God pledged Himself
to exalt the humble, and continually showers new graces upon them in return for
the glory He constantly receives from them. Hence
the inspired word again reminds us: "Be humble, and thou
shalt obtain every grace from God." (Ecclus. iii, 20)
By Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo
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