Humility
By St. John Climacus
Taken from the Ladder of Divine Ascent
Do you imagine that plain words can precisely or truly or
appropriately or clearly or sincerely describe the love of the Lord, humility,
blessed purity, divine enlightenment, fear of God, and assurance of the heart?
Do you imagine that talk of such matters will mean anything to someone who has
never experienced them? If you think so, then you will be like a man who with
words and examples tries to convey the sweetness of honey to people who have
never tasted it. He talks uselessly. Indeed I would say he is simply prattling.
The same applies in the first instance. A man stands revealed as either having
had no experience of what he is talking about or as having fallen into the grip
of vainglory.
Our theme sets before us as a touchstone a treasure stored
safely in earthen vessels, that is, in our bodies. This treasure is of a quality
that eludes adequate description. It carries an inscription of heavenly origin
which is therefore incomprehensible so that anyone seeking words for it is faced
with a great and endless task. The inscription reads as follows: "Holy
Humi1ity."
Let all who are led by the Spirit of God come with us into this
spiritual and wise assembly. Let them hold in their spiritual hands the tablets
of knowledge inscribed by God Himself. We have come together. We have asked our
questions. We have searched for the meaning of this precious inscription.
"Humility is constant forgetfulness of one's achievements," someone says.
"It is the admission that in all the world one is the least
important and is also the greatest sinner," another says.
"It is the mind's awareness that one is weak and helpless," a
third says.
"It is to forestall one's neighbor at a contentious moment and
to be the first to end a quarrel."
"It is the acknowledgement of divine grace and divine
mercy."
"It is the disposition of a contrite soul and the abdication of
one's own will."
I listened to all this and thought it over carefully and
soberly, and was not able to grasp the sense of that blessed virtue from what I
had heard. I was the last to speak; and, like a dog gathering crumbs from a
table, I collected what those learned and blessed fathers had said and went on
from there to propose my own definition: "Humility is a grace in the soul and
with a name known only to those who have had experience of it. It is
indescribable wealth, a name and a gift from God. 'Learn from Me,' He said; that
is, not from an angel, not from a man, not from a book, but 'from Me,' that is,
from My dwelling within you, from My illumination and action within you, for 'I
am gentle and meek of heart' (Matt. 11:9) in thought and in spirit, and your
souls will find rest from conflicts and relief from evil thoughts."
The appearance of this sacred vine is one thing during the
winter of passions, another in the springtime of flowering, and still another in
the harvest-time of all the virtues. Yet all these appearances have one thing in
common, namely, joy and the bearing of fruit, and they all give sure signs and
evidence of the harvest to come. As soon as the cluster of holy humility begins
to flower within us, we come, after hard work, to hate all earthly praise and
glory. We rid ourselves of rage and fury; and the more this queen of virtues
spreads within our souls through spiritual growth, the more we begin to regard
all our good deeds as of no consequence, in fact as loathsome. For every day we
somehow imagine that we are adding to our burden by an ignorant scattering, that
the very abundance of God's gifts to us is so much in excess of what we deserve
that the punishment due to us becomes thereby all the greater. Hence our minds
remain secure, locked up in the purse of modesty, aware of the knocks and the
jeers of thieves and yet untroubled by them, because modesty is an unassailable
safe.
We have so far risked a few words of a philosophical kind
regarding the blossoming and the growth of this everblooming fruit. But those of
you who are close to the Lord Himself must find out from Him what the perfect
reward is of this holy virtue, since there is no way of measuring the sheer
abundance of such blessed wealth, nor could words convey its quality.
Nevertheless, we must try to express the thoughts that occur to us about its
distinguishing characteristics.
Real repentance, mourning cleansed of all impurity, and holy
humility among beginners are as different and distinct from one another as yeast
and flour from bread. The soul is ground and refined by visible repentance. The
waters of true mourning bring it to a certain unity. I would even go so far as
to speak of a mingling with God. Then, kindled by the fire of the Lord, blessed
humility is made into bread and made firm without the leaven of pride. The
outcome of all this is a three-stranded cord (cf. Eccles. 4:12), a heavenly
rainbow coming together as a single power and energy, with its own effects and
characteristics. Speak of one and we imply the other two. And I will now briefly
try to prove the truth of what I am saying.
The first and principal characteristic of this excellent and
admirable triad is the delighted readiness of the soul to accept indignity, to
receive it with open arms, to welcome it as something that relieves and
cauterizes diseases of the soul and grevious sins. The second characteristic is
the wiping out of anger and modesty over the fact that it has subsided. Third
and preeminent is the honest distrust of one's own virtues, together with an
unending desire to learn more.
"The end of the law and the prophets is Christ, for the
justification of every believer" (Rom. 10:4). And the end of impure passions is
vainglory and pride for every man who fails to deal with the problem. But their
destroyer is a spiritual stag which keeps the man who lives with it safe from
every poison. The deadly bane of hypocrisy and of calumny can surely never
appear where there is humility. Where will this snake nestle and hide? Will it
not be pulled out from the heart's earth to be killed and done away with? Where
there is humility there will be no sign of hatred, nor any kind of
quarrelsomeness, no whiff of disobedience - unless of course some question of
faith arises. The man with humility for his bride will be gentle, kind, inclined
to compunction, sympathetic, calm in every situation, radiant, easy to get along
with, inoffensive, alert and active. In a word, free from passion. "The Lord
remembered us in our humility and delivered us from our enemies" (Ps.
135:23-24), that is, from our passions and from our impurities.
A humble Christian will not preoccupy himself with mysteries. A
proud Christian busies himself with the hidden judgments of God.
Demons once heaped praise on one of the most discerning of the
brothers. They even appeared to him in visible form. But this very wise man
spoke to them as follows, "If you cease to praise me by way of the thoughts of
my heart, I shall consider myself to be great and outstanding because of the
fact that you have left me. But if you continue to praise me, I must deduce from
such praise that I am very impure indeed, since every proudhearted man is
unclean before the Lord (cf. Prov. 16:5). So leave me, and I shall become great,
or else praise me, and with your help I shall earn more humility." Struck by
this dilemma, they vanished.
Let not your soul be a hollow in the stream of life, a hollow
sometimes full and sometimes dried up by the heat of vainglory and pride.
Instead, may your soul be a well-spring of dispassion that wells up into a river
of poverty. Friend, remember that corn and the fruit of the spirit will stand
high in the valleys (cf. Ps. 64:14). The valley is a soul made humble among the
mountains of labors and virtues. It always remains unproud and steadfast. In
Scripture are the words, "I humbled myself, and the Lord hastened to rescue me"
(Ps. 114:6); and these words are there instead of "I have fasted," "I have kept
vigil," "I lay down on the bare earth."
Repentance lifts a man up. Mourning knocks at heaven's gate.
Holy humility opens it. This I say, and I worship a Trinity in Unity and a Unity
in Trinity.
The sun lights up everything visible. Likewise, humility is the
source of everything done according to reason. Where there is no light, all is
in darkness. Where there is no humility, all is rotten.
In the entire universe there is a unique place that saw the sun
just once. And there is a unique thought that has given rise to humility. There
was a unique day on which the whole world rejoiced. And there is a unique virtue
the demons cannot imitate.
To exalt oneself is one thing, not to do so another, and to
humble oneself is something else entirely. A man may always be passing judgment
on others, while another man passes judgment neither on others nor on himself. A
third, however, though actually guiltless, may always be passing judgment on
himself.
There is a difference between being humble, striving for
humility, and praising the humble. The first is a mark of the perfect, the
second of the obedient, and the third of all the faithful.
A man truly humble within himself will never find his tongue
betraying him. What is not in the treasury cannot be brought out through the
door.
A solitary horse can often imagine itself to be at full gallop,
but when it finds itself in a herd it then discovers how slow it actually
is.
A first sign of emerging health is when our thoughts are no
longer filled with a proud sense of our aptitudes. As long as the stench of
pride lingers in the nose, the fragrance of myrrh will go unnoticed.
Holy humility had this to say, "The one who loves me will not
condemn someone, or pass judgment on anyone, or lord it over someone else, or
show off his wisdom until he has been united with me. A man truly joined to me
is no longer in bondage to the Law" (note 1 Tim. 1:9.).
The unholy demons once began to murmur praise in the heart of
an ascetic who was struggling to achieve blessed humility. However, God inspired
him to use a holy trick to defeat the cleverness of these spirits. The monk got
up and on the wall of his cell he wrote in sequence the names of the major
virtues: perfect love, angelic humility, pure prayer, unassailable chastity, and
others of a similar kind. The result was that whenever vainglorious thoughts
began to puff him up, he would say, "Come! Let us go to be judged." Going to the
wall he would read the names there and would cry out to himself, "When you have
every one of these virtues within you, then you will have an accurate sense of
how far from God you still are."
None of us can describe the power and nature of the sun. We can
merely deduce its intrinsic nature from its characteristics and effects. So too
with humility, which is a God-given protection against seeing our own
achievements. It is an abyss of self-abasement to which no thief can gain entry.
It is a tower of strength against the enemy. "Against him the enemy will not
prevail and the son (or, rather, the thought) of iniquity will do him no harm
and he will cut off his enemies before him" (Ps. 88:23-24) and will put to
flight those who hate him.
The great possessor of this treasure has other properties in
his soul besides those referred to above. These properties, with one exception,
are manifest signs of this wealth. You will know that you have this holy gift
within you and not be led astray when you experience an abundance of unspeakable
light together with an indescribable love of prayer. Even before reaching this
stage, you may have it, if in your heart you pass no judgment on the faults of
others. And a precursor of what we have described is hatred of all
vainglory.
The man who has come to know himself with the full awareness of
his soul has sown in good ground. However, anyone who has not sown in this way
cannot expect humility to flower within him. And anyone who has acquired
knowledge of self has come to understand the fear of the Lord, and walking with
the help of this fear, he has arrived at the doorway of love. For humility is
the door to the kingdom, opening up to those who come near. It was of that door,
I believe, that the Lord spoke when He said, "He shall go in and come out of
life" and not be afraid "and he shall find pasture" (John 10:8-9) and the green
grass of Paradise. And whoever has entered monastic life by some other door is a
thief and a robber of his own life.
Those of us who wish to gain understanding must never stop
examining ourselves and if in the perception of your soul you realize that your
neighbor is superior to you in all respects, then the mercy of God is surely
near at hand.
Snow cannot burst into flames. It is even less possible for
humility to abide in a heretic. This achievement belongs only to the pious and
the faithful, and then only when they have been purified.
Most of us would describe ourselves as sinners. And perhaps we
really think so. But it is indignity that shows up the true state of the
heart.
Whoever is eager for the peaceful haven of humility will never
cease to do all he possibly can to get there, and with words and thoughts, with
considerations and explanations, with questionings and probings, with every
device, with prayer and supplication, with meditation and reflection, he will
push onward, helped by God, humiliated and despised and toiling mightily, and he
will sail the ship of his soul out from the ever-stormy ocean of vainglory. For
the man delivered from this sin wins ready pardon for all his other sins, like
the publican in Scripture.
Some drive out empty pride by thinking to the end of their
lives of their past misdeeds, for which they were forgiven and which now serve
as a spur to humility. Others, remembering the passion of Christ, think of
themselves as eternally in debt. Others hold themselves in contempt when they
think of their daily lapses. Others come to possess this mother of graces by way
of their continuous temptations, weaknesses, and sins. There are some--and I
cannot say if they are to be found nowadays--who humble themselves in proportion
to the gifts they receive from God and live with a sense of their unworthiness
to have such wealth bestowed on them, so that each day they think of themselves
as sinking further into debt. That is real humility, real beatitude, a real
reward! And you may be sure that it is by this particularly blessed route that
anyone has traveled who in a few short years has arrived at the summit of
dispassion.
Love and humility make a holy team. The one exalts. The other
supports those who have been exalted and never falls.
There is a difference between contrition, self-knowledge, and
humility.
Contrition is the outcome of a lapse. A man who has lapsed
breaks down and prays without arrogance, though with laudable persistence,
shattered and yet clinging to the staff of hope, indeed using it to drive off
the dog of despair.
Self-knowledge is a clear-eyed notion of one's own spiritual
advance. It is also an unwavering remembrance of one's slightest sins.
Humility is a spiritual teaching of Christ led spiritually like
a bride into the inner chamber of the soul of those deemed worthy of it, and it
somehow eludes all description.
A man says that he is experiencing the full fragrance of this
myrrh within him. Someone happens to praise him, and if he feels the slightest
stir of the heart or if he grasps the full import of what is being said, then he
is certainly mistaken, and let him have no illusion about that fact.
"Not to us, not to us, but to Your name, O Lord, give glory"
(Ps. 113:9). I once heard a man say this with total sincerity. He was a man who
well understood that human nature is such that it cannot remain unharmed by
praise. "My praise shall be from You in the great assembly, Lord" (Ps. 21:26),
that is, in the life to come, and I cannot accept it before that without risk to
myself.
If the outer limit, the rule, and the characteristic of extreme
pride is for a man to make a show of having virtues he does not actually possess
for the sake of glory, then surely the sign of extreme humility will be to lower
ourselves by claiming weaknesses we do not really have. This was what one man
did when he took the bread and cheese in his hands. This too was the way of the
man who was free of all fleshly lust but who used to take his clothes off and
parade naked through the whole city. Men like these do not worry about giving
scandal, for through prayer they have received the power to reassure all men
invisibly. Indeed, to be afraid of censure is to show lack of ability in prayer.
And when God is ready to hear our prayers we can achieve anything.
It is better to offend man than God. For God is delighted when
He sees us courting dishonor for the purpose of crushing, striking, and
destroying our empty self-esteem. And virtue of this sort comes only from a
complete abandonment of the world and only the really great can endure the
derision of their own people. This should not surprise you. The fact is that no
one can climb a ladder in a single stride. By this shall all men know that we
are God's disciples, not because devils are subjected to us, but because our
names are written in the Heaven of humility (cf. Luke 10:20).
A lemon tree naturally lifts its branches upwards when it has
no fruit. The more its branches bend, the more fruit you will find there. The
meaning of this will be clear to the man disposed to understand it.
Holy humility receives from God the power to yield fruit
thirty-fold, sixty-fold and a hundred-fold. The dispassionate attain that last
degree, the courageous the middle, and everyone can rise to the first.
The man who has come to know himself is never fooled into
reaching for what is beyond him. He keeps his feet henceforth on the blessed
path of humility.
Just as birds fear the sight of a hawk, those who practice
humility fear the sound of an argument.
Many have attained salvation without the aid of prophecies,
illumination, signs and wonders. But without humility no one will enter the
marriage chamber, for humility is the guardian of such gifts. Without it, they
will bring frivolous people to ruin.
Because of our unwillingness to humble ourselves, God has
arranged that no one can see his own faults as clearly as his neighbor does.
Hence our obligation to be grateful not to ourselves but to our neighbor and to
God for our healing.
A humble man will always hate his own will as a cause of error.
In his petitions to the Lord which he makes with unwavering faith he learns what
he should do and obeys. He does not spend his time scrutinizing the lifestyle of
his superiors. He lays all his burden on God, Who used an ass to teach Balaam
what had to be done. All the acts, thoughts, and words of such a man are
directed to the will of God, and he never trusts himself. Indeed, to a humble
man, self-confidence is as much a thorn and a burden as the orders of someone
else are to a proud man.
In my opinion, an angel is characterized by the fact that he is
not tricked into sinning. And I hear those words of an earthly angel, "I am
aware of nothing against myself and yet I am not thereby justified. It is the
Lord Who is my judge" (1 Cor. 4:4). So we must always condemn and criticize
ourselves in order that by means of deliberately chosen humiliations we may
protect ourselves from unwitting sin. And if we do not do this, our punishment
at death will be heavy indeed.
The man who asks God for less than he deserves will certainly
receive more, as is shown by the publican who begged forgiveness but obtained
salvation (cf. Luke 18:10-14). And the robber asked only to be remembered in the
kingdom, yet he inherited all of Paradise (cf. Luke 23:43).
In the created world fire cannot naturally be both small and
great at one and the same time. Humility cannot be genuine and at one and the
same time have a worldly nature. Genuine humility is not in us if we fall into
voluntary sin, and this is the sign that there is some material attraction still
within us.
The Lord understood that the virtue of the soul is shaped by
our outward behavior. He therefore took a towel and showed us how to walk the
road of humility (cf. John 13:4). The soul indeed is molded by the doings of the
body, conforming to and taking shape from what it does. To one of the angels it
was the fact of being a ruler that led to pride, though it was not for this
reason that the prerogative was originally granted to him.
A man who sits on a throne acts in one way, and the man who
sits on a dunghill acts in another. That, perhaps, is the reason why that great
and just man sat on the dunghill outside the city. Totally humbled, he said in
all sincerity, "I despise myself, waste away" (Job 42:6), and have regarded
myself as dust and ashes."
I note that Manasseh sinned like no other man. He defiled the
temple of God with idols and contaminated the sacred Liturgy (cf. 4 [2] Kings
21:4). A fast by all the world could not have made reparation for his sin, and
yet humility could heal his incurable wound. "If You wanted sacrifice I would
have given it," David says to God, "but You will not be satisfied with burnt
offerings," that is, with bodies worn out by fasting. "The sacrifice for God is
a contrite spirit. God will not despise a humble and contrite heart" (Ps.
50:17). Following on adultery and murder, blessed humility once cried out to
God, "I have sinned against the Lord," and the reply was heard: "The Lord has
put away your sin" (2 Kings [2 Sam.] 12:13).
The wonderful Fathers proclaimed physical labor to be the way
to and the foundation of humility. To this I would add obedience and honesty of
heart, since these are by nature opposed to self-aggrandizement.
If pride turned some of the angels into demons, then humility
can doubtless make angels out of demons. So take heart, all you sinners.
Let us strive with all our might to reach that summit of
humility, or let us at least climb onto her shoulders. And if this is too much
for us, let us at least not fall out of her arms, since after such a fall a man
will scarcely receive any kind of everlasting gift.
Humility has its signs. It also has its sinews and its ways,
and these are as follows-poverty, withdrawal from the world, the concealment of
one's wisdom, simplicity of speech, the seeking of alms, the disguising of one's
nobility, the exclusion of free and easy relationships, the banishment of idle
talk.
Nothing can ever so humble the soul as destitution and the
subsistence of a beggar. We will show ourselves true lovers of wisdom and of God
if we stubbornly run away from all possibility of exaltation.
If you wish to fight against some passion, take humility as
your ally, for she will tread on the asp and the basilisk of sin and despair,
and she will trample under foot the lion and the serpent of physical
devilishness and cunning (cf Ps. 90:13).
Humility is a heavenly waterspout which can lift the soul from
the abyss up to Heaven's height.
Someone discovered in his heart how beautiful humility is, and
in his amazement he asked her to reveal her parent's name. Humility smiled,
joyous and serene, "Why are you in such a rush to learn the name of my begetter?
He has no name, nor will I reveal him to you until you have God for your
possession. To Whom be glory forever." Amen.
The sea is the source of the fountain, and humility is the
source of discernment.
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