“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.” – C.S. Lewi
There are
some people in my life who I absolutely love because of their ability to raise
up others around them. They are encouraging and supportive, and full of love
for other people, but not quite enough for themselves. Instead, they often
practice a form of self-loathing in which they put themselves down as they
bring others up. I can’t believe this is humility in its truest form, so I
examined Catholic and Christian beliefs on the virtue of humbleness. If you don’t
identify with either of these religions, or are not religious at all, please
keep an open mind, because much can be learned from learning about different
belief systems.
In a course
I took in which I studied Dante’s The
Divine Comedy with Dr. Diana Glyer, we learned a lot about sin and virtue.
In one class, we extensively discussed the faults of being on one extreme as
opposed to the other. For example, the opposite of pride is humility, but it is
bad to be too prideful and equally bad to be too humble. Instead, there should
be a healthy middle ground in which you can find a balance. Don’t practice
total self-love (pride), nor should you practice total self-loathing, which is
a form of pride. Humility is found in the middle.
When my class
read Purgatorio, we learned that
Dante (who was Catholic) put the sin of Pride at the bottom of the mountain. It’s
the first sin everyone must conquer before they can climb the mountain. He
believed that pride is the foundation of every sin. Alternatively, many
Catholics believe that humility is the foundation for spiritual virtues – of course
after faith. Thus, practicing humility is a gateway to practicing all other
virtues.
Here is a
brief overview of Christian and Catholic perspectives on humility:
Christianity
"But the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself
shall be exalted." (NAS, Matthew 23:11-12)
"And [Jesus] called a child to Himself and set him before
them, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become
like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then
humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
(NAS, Matthew 18:2-4)
"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day
may bring forth. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else,
and not your own lips." (NIV, Proverbs 27:1-2)
There are
enough verses in the Bible to teach about the downfalls of pride and the
greatness of humility. On the Christian Bible Reference Site, I found brief
descriptions about humility in accordance with Scripture. Christians believe, “Humility
or humbleness is a quality of being courteously respectful of others. It is the
opposite of aggressiveness, arrogance, boastfulness, and vanity.” So, humility
is the opposite of pride, as noted earlier.
I know
enough Christians who lower themselves in order to try to practice being humble,
yet according to this site, “Acting with humility does not in any way deny our
own self worth. Rather, it affirms the inherent worth of all persons.” Mark
12:31 says the second greatest commandment is to “Love your neighbor as
yourself” (NIV), but I think many people forget the “love yourself” part.
Lastly, the
site says, “Humility means putting God and other persons ahead of our own
selfish interests.” Putting others before yourself comes from love, and is
truly a noble thing to strive for. But, this doesn’t mean you should put yourself down
to put others ahead.
Catholicism
Catholics
have a much more established and elaborate structure for virtues and sins.
Their views on humility are based on the same Scriptures and beliefs as
Christians, but still have major differences. All of my references for this
section come from New Advent’s Catholic Encyclopedia.
Catholics
have four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance.
Temperance is the moderation of all desires and appetites, and this is where
the virtue of humility is found. Humility is a secondary virtue, but is still
the “first virtue inasmuch as it removes the obstacles to faith — per modum
removens prohibens, as St. Thomas says. It removes pride and makes a man
subject to and a fit recipient of grace, according to the words of St. James:
"God resisteth the proud, and giveth his grace to the humble" (James
4:6).” This is in accordance with Dante’s mountain of Purgatory. Once pride is
eliminated, it is easier to conquer all other sins, but humility must be
practiced in order to conquer pride.
Humility is
defined in several ways by different people:
Humilitas (Latin): “The word humility signifies lowliness or
submissiveness.”
Humus (Latin): “the earth which is beneath us” – according to
St. Thomas
St. Thomas: “The virtue of humility… consists in keeping
oneself within one's own bounds, not reaching out to things above one, but
submitting to one's superior.”
St. Bernard: “A virtue by which a man knowing himself as he
truly is, abases himself.”
Humility in a higher and ethical sense: “that by which a man
has a modest estimate of his own worth, and submits himself to others.”
Humility as a virtue: “A quality by which a person
considering his own defects has a lowly opinion of himself and willingly
submits himself to God and to others for God's sake.”
According
to these definitions, humility seems to be about submission to superiors and/or
God’s will, and lowering one’s self. Thinking little of yourself doesn’t seem
very healthy to me, but the Catholic Encyclopedia also has something to say
about the misconception of humility.
Humility
does not require us to think our gifts and graces of God are less than the
gifts and graces of others. We each have our own good qualities that we should
acknowledge and appreciate, either as a gift from God, or a natural talent
within yourself. We can often see faults in ourselves that we don’t see in
others, as well as gifts others have that we don’t. The important thing is to
know that we each have our own great qualities and shortcomings. Seeing the
good in others doesn’t mean you have to see the bad within yourself. See the good within yourself as well, because
I’m sure others see it in you.
St. Thomas
says, “It is then not humility but folly to embrace any and every humiliation:
but when virtue calls for a thing to be done it belongs to humility not to
shrink from doing it.” In other words, being humble does not mean finding every
fault within yourself. It means that you should never think too highly of
yourself. Find all of your great qualities and know that none of them make you
too good to do a good thing. That is true humbleness.
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment