Blessed Francis set the highest value upon the virtue of humility, which he
called the foundation of all moral virtues, and together with charity, the
solid basis of true piety.
He used to say that there was no moral excellence more literally christian
than humility, because it was not known even by name to the heathen of old.
Even of the most renowned among ancient philosophers, such virtues as they
possessed were inflated with pride and self-love.
Not every kind of humility pleased him. He was not willing to accept any as
true metal until he had put it to many a test and trial.
1. He required in the first place that there should be genuine
self-knowledge. To be truly humble we must recognise the fact that we
come from nothing, that we are nothing, that we can do nothing, that we
are worth nothing, and in fine that we are idle do-nothings, unprofitable
servants, incapable of even forming a single good thought, as of ourselves.
Yet self-knowledge, he said, if it stood alone, however praiseworthy in
itself, would only render those who possessed it the more guilty if they
did not act up to it, in order to become better; because moral virtue being
in the will, and mere knowledge only in the understanding, the latter alone
cannot in any way pass current as true virtue.
2. He even had some doubt of humility though residing in the will, because
it is quite possible to misuse it, and to turn humility itself into vanity.
Take for instance those who, having been invited to a banquet, take at
once possession of the very lowest place, or of one which they know to
be inferior to that due to their rank. They may do this on purpose to be
invited to go higher amidst the applause of the company, and with advantage
to themselves. He called this a veritable entering into vanity, and through
the wrong door: for the truly humble do not wish to appear humble, but only
vile and lowly. They love to be considered as of no accounts and, as such,
to be despised and rebuffed.
3. Even this did not satisfy him. He was not content with mere natural
virtue, but insisted that humility must be Christian, given birth to,
and animated by charity. Otherwise he held it in small esteem, refusing
to admit that among christians it suffices to practise virtues in pagan
fashion. But what is this infused and supernatural humility? It is to love
and delight in one's own humiliation, for the reason that by its means we
are able to give glory to God, Who accepts the humility of His servants,
but puts far away from His heart the proud in spirit.
4. Again, our Saint taught that in striving to please God by bearing
humiliations, we should aim at accepting such as are not of our own choice
rather than those that are voluntary. He used to say that the crosses
fashioned by us for ourselves are always of the lightest and slenderest,
and that he valued an ounce of resignation to suffering above pounds'
weight of painful toil, good though it might be in itself, undertaken of
one's own accord.
5. Quiet endurance of reproaches, contempt, or depreciation, was, in his
opinion, the true touch-stone of humility, because it renders us more
like to Jesus Christ, the Prototype of all solid virtue, Who humbled
and annihilated Himself, making Himself obedient unto death, even the
ignominious death of the Cross.
6. He commended voluntary seeking after humiliations, yet he insisted upon
great discretion being practised in this search, since it easily happens
that self-love may subtly and imperceptibly insinuate itself therein.
7. Next he considered that the highest, or more properly speaking,
deepest degree of humility is that of taking pleasure and even delight in
humiliations, reputing them to be in truth the greatest of honours, and
of being just as much ill-content with honours as vain persons are with
contempt and contumely.
In illustration of this he would quote Moses, who preferred the reproach of
Israel to the glories of a kingdom offered to him by Pharaoh's daughter; of
Esther, who hated the splendid ornaments with which they decked her to make
her pleasing in the eyes of Assuerus; of the Apostles, whose greatest joy
was to suffer shame and reproach for the name of Jesus; and of David, who
danced before the Ark amid a crowd of buffoons and mountebanks, and who
exulted in thus making himself appear contemptible in the eyes of Michol,
his wife.
8. Blessed Francis called humility a descending charity, and charity an
ascending humility. The former he compared to those streams which come down
from the heights and flow down into the valleys. The latter to the slender
column of smoke spoken of in the Canticle[1] which rises up towards Heaven,
and is composed of all the sweet essences of the perfumer.
9. The Saint next gives a rare lesson on the measure or means of gauging
humility. Obedience is to be its source and touch-stone. This teaching he
grounded on the saying of St. Paul: that our Lord _humbled Himself, making
Himself obedient_.[2] "Do you see," he would say, "by what scale humility
must be measured? By obedience. If you obey promptly, frankly, cheerfully,
without murmuring, expostulating, or replying, you are truly humble. Nor
without humility can one be easily and really obedient, for obedience
demands submission of the heart, and only the truly humble look upon
themselves as inferior to all and as subject to every creature for the love
of Jesus Christ. They ever regard their fellow-men as their superiors, they
consider themselves to be the scorn of men and the off-scouring of the
world. Thus these two virtues, like two pieces of iron, by friction one
with the other, enhance each other's brightness and polish. We are humble
only in as far as we are obedient, and in fine we are pleasing to God only
in as far as we have charity."
10. He recommended all to endeavour to steep their every action in the
spirit of humility, as the swan steeps in water each morsel she swallows,
and how can this be done except by hiding our good works as much as we can
from the eyes of men, and by desiring that they may be seen only by Him
to Whom all things are open, and from Whom nothing can be hid. Our Saint
himself, urged by this spirit, said that he would have wished, had there
been any goodness in him, that it might have been hidden from himself as
well as from all others until the Judgment Day, when the secrets of all
hearts will be revealed. The Gospel itself exhorts us to observe this
secrecy, for it warns us to serve God in secret, and by hiding our virtues,
our prayers, our almsgiving, fittingly to worship Him, Who is a hidden God.
11. Blessed Francis did not, however, desire that we should put ourselves
to the constraint and discomfort of avoiding good actions simply because of
their being praiseworthy in the eyes of others. What he approved of was a
noble, generous, courageous humility, not that which is mean, timid, and
cowardly. True, he would not that anything should be done for so low a
motive as to win the praise of men, but at the same time he would not have
an undertaking abandoned for fear of its success being appreciated and
applauded. "It is only very weak heads," he said, "that are made to ache by
the scent of roses."
12. Above all things, he recommended people not to speak either in praise
or blame of themselves save when doing so is absolutely necessary, and
then with great reticence. It was his opinion (as it was Aristotle's) that
both self-praise and self-blame spring from the same root of vanity and
foolishness. "As for boasting, it is," he said, "so ridiculous a weakness
that it is hissed down by even the vulgar crowd. Its one fitting place is
in the mouth of a swaggering comedian. In like manner words of contempt
spoken of ourselves _by_ ourselves, unless they are absolutely heartfelt
and come from a mind thoroughly convinced of the fact of its own misery,
are truly the very acme of pride, and a flower of the most subtle vanity;
for it rarely happens that he who utters them either believes them himself
or really wishes others to believe them: on the contrary, the speaker
is mostly only anxious rather to be considered humble, and consequently
virtuous, and seeks that his self-blame should redound to his honour.
Self-dispraise in general is no more than a tricky kind of boasting. It
reminds me of oarsmen who turn their backs on the very place which with all
the strength of their arms they are striving to reach."
The above sentiments of Blessed Francis with regard to humility are very
striking, but it is much more worthy of note that he himself carried his
principles strictly into practice. His actions were so many model lessons
and living precepts on the subject. O God! how pleasing must the sacrifice
of his humility have been in Thine eyes which look down so closely upon the
humble, but regard the proud only from afar.
[Footnote 1: Cant. iii. 6.]
[Footnote 2: Philipp. ii. 8.]