On Humility
Jan. 25—May 26—Sept. 25
Holy Scripture, brethren, cries out to us, saying, “Everyone who exalts
himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”
In saying this it shows us that all exaltation is a kind of pride,
against which the Prophet proves himself to be on guard when he says,
“Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are mine eyes lifted up; neither
have I walked in great matters, nor in wonders above me.” But how has he
acted? “Rather have I been of humble mind than exalting myself; as a
weaned child on its mother’s breast, so You solace my soul.”
Hence, brethren, if we wish to reach the very highest point of humility
and to arrive speedily at that heavenly exaltation to which ascent is
made through the humility of this present life, we must by our ascending
actions erect the ladder Jacob saw in his dream, on which Angels
appeared to him descending and ascending. By that descent and ascent we
must surely understand nothing else than this, that we descend by
self-exaltation and ascend by humility. And the ladder thus set up is
our life in the world, which the Lord raises up to heaven if our heart
is humbled. For we call our body and soul the sides of the ladder, and
into these sides our divine vocation has inserted the different steps of
humility and discipline we must climb.
Jan. 26—May 27—Sept. 26
The first degree of humility, then, is that a person keep the fear of
God before his eyes and beware of ever forgetting it. Let him be ever
mindful of all that God has commanded; let his thoughts constantly recur
to the hell-fire which will burn for their sins those who despise God,
and to the life everlasting which is prepared for those who fear Him.
Let him keep himself at every moment from sins and vices, whether of the
mind, the tongue, the hands, the feet, or the self-will, and check also
the desires of the flesh.
Jan. 27—May 28—Sept. 27
Let a man consider that God is always looking at him from heaven, that
his actions are everywhere visible to the divine eyes and are constantly
being reported to God by the Angels. This is what the Prophet shows us
when he represents God as ever present within our thoughts, in the words
“Searcher of minds and hearts is God” and again in the words “The Lord
knows the thoughts of men.” Again he says, “You have read my thoughts
from afar” and “The thoughts of men will confess to You.”
In order that he may be careful about his wrongful thoughts, therefore,
let the faithful brother say constantly in his heart, “Then shall I be
spotless before Him, if I have kept myself from my iniquity.”
Jan. 28—May 29—Sept. 28
As for self-will, we are forbidden to do our own will by the Scripture,
which says to us, “Turn away from your own will,” and likewise by the
prayer in which we ask God that His will be done in us. And rightly are
we taught not to do our own will when we take heed to the warning of
Scripture: “There are ways which to men seem right, but the ends of them
plunge into the depths of hell”; and also when we tremble at what is
said of the careless: “They are corrupt and have become abominable in
their wills.”
And as for the desires of the flesh, let us believe with the Prophet
that God is ever present to us, when he says to the Lord, “Every desire
of mine is before You.”
Jan. 29—May 30—Sept. 29
We must be on our guard, therefore, against evil desires, for death lies
close by the gate of pleasure. Hence the Scripture gives this command:
“Go not after your concupiscences.”
So therefore, since the eyes of the Lord observe the good and the evil
and the Lord is always looking down from heaven on the children of men
“to see if there be anyone who understands and seeks God,” and since our
deeds are daily, day and night, reported to the Lord by the Angels
assigned to us, we must constantly beware, brethren, as the Prophet says
in the Psalm, lest at any time God see us falling into evil ways and
becoming unprofitable; and lest, having spared us for the present
because in His kindness He awaits our reformation, He say to us in the
future, “These things you did, and I held My peace.”
Jan. 30—May 31—Sept. 30
The second degree of humility is that a person love not his own will nor
take pleasure in satisfying his desires, but model his actions on the
saying of the Lord, “I have come not to do My own will, but the will of
Him who sent Me.” It is written also, “Self-will has its punishment, but
constraint wins a crown.”
Jan. 31—June 1—Oct. 1
The third degree of humility is that a person for love of God submit
himself to his Superior in all obedience, imitating the Lord, of whom
the Apostle says, “He became obedient even unto death.”
Feb. 1—June 2—Oct. 2
The fourth degree of humility is that he hold fast to patience with a
silent mind when in this obedience he meets with difficulties and
contradictions and even any kind of injustice, enduring all without
growing weary or running away. For the Scripture says, “He who
perseveres to the end, he it is who shall be saved”; and again, “Let
your heart take courage, and wait for the Lord!”
And to show how those who are faithful ought to endure all things,
however contrary, for the Lord, the Scripture says in the person of the
suffering, “For Your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are
considered as sheep marked for slaughter.” Then, secure in their hope of
a divine recompense, they go on with joy to declare, “But in all these
trials we conquer, through Him who has granted us His love.” Again, in
another place the Scripture says, “You have tested us, O God; You have
tried us as silver is tried, by fire; You have brought us into a snare;
You have laid afflictions on our back.” And to show that we ought to be
under a Superior, it goes on to say, “You have set men over our heads.”
Moreover, by their patience those faithful ones fulfil the Lord’s
command in adversities and injuries: when struck on one cheek, they
offer the other; when deprived of their tunic, they surrender also their
cloak; when forced to go a mile, they go two; with the Apostle Paul they
bear with false brethren and bless those who curse them.
Feb. 2—June 3—Oct. 3
The fifth degree of humility is that he hide from his Abbot none of the
evil thoughts that enter his heart or the sins committed in secret, but
that he humbly confess them. The Scripture urges us to this when it
says, “Reveal your way to the Lord and hope in Him,” and again, “Confess
to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.” And the
Prophet likewise says, “My offense I have made known to You, and my
iniquities I have not covered up. I said: ‘I will declare against myself
my iniquities to the Lord;’ and ‘You forgave the wickedness of my
heart.’”
Feb. 3—June 4—Oct. 4
The sixth degree of humility is that a monk be content with the poorest
and worst of everything, and that in every occupation assigned him he
consider himself a bad and worthless workman, saying with the Prophet,
“I am brought to nothing and I am without understanding; I have become
as a beast of burden before You, and I am always with You.”
Feb. 4—June 5—Oct. 5
The seventh degree of humility is that he consider himself lower and of
less account than anyone else, and this not only in verbal protestation
but also with the most heartfelt inner conviction, humbling himself and
saying with the Prophet, “But I am a worm and no man, the scorn of men
and the outcast of the people. After being exalted, I have been humbled
and covered with confusion.” And again, “It is good for me that You have
humbled me, that I may learn Your commandments.”
Feb. 5—June 6—Oct. 6
The eighth degree of humility is that a monk do nothing except what is
commended by the common Rule of the monastery and the example of the
elders.
Feb. 6—June 7—Oct. 7
The ninth degree of humility is that a monk restrain his tongue and keep
silence, not speaking until he is questioned. For the Scripture shows
that “in much speaking there is no escape from sin” and that “the
talkative man is not stable on the earth.”
Feb. 7—June 8—Oct. 8
The tenth degree of humility is that he be not ready and quick to laugh,
for it is written, “The fool lifts up his voice in laughter.”
Feb. 8—June 9—Oct. 9
The eleventh degree of humility is that when a monk speaks he do so
gently and without laughter, humbly and seriously, in few and sensible
words, and that he be not noisy in his speech. It is written, “A wise
man is known by the fewness of his words.”
Feb. 9—June 10—Oct. 10
The twelfth degree of humility is that a monk not only have humility in
his heart but also by his very appearance make it always manifest to
those who see him. That is to say that whether he is at the Work of God,
in the oratory, in the monastery, in the garden, on the road, in the
fields or anywhere else, and whether sitting, walking or standing, he
should always have his head bowed and his eyes toward the ground.
Feeling the guilt of his sins at every moment, he should consider
himself already present at the dread Judgment and constantly say in his
heart what the publican in the Gospel said with his eyes fixed on the
earth: “Lord, I am a sinner and not worthy to lift up my eyes to
heaven”; and again with the Prophet: “I am bowed down and humbled
everywhere.” Having climbed all these steps of humility, therefore, the
monk will presently come to that perfect love of God which casts out
fear. And all those precepts which formerly he had not observed without
fear, he will now begin to keep by reason of that love, without any
effort, as though naturally and by habit. No longer will his motive be
the fear of hell, but rather the love of Christ, good habit and delight
in the virtues which the Lord will deign to show forth by the Holy
Spirit in His servant now cleansed from vice and sin.