A Further Explanation of the Perfection That Must Be Secured to Mount to This Second Degree of Humility

ST. JOHN CLIMACUS adds another point to what has been said, and says that as the proud so much love honor and reputation that, to be more honored and esteemed by men, they often pretend and imply their possession of advantages which really they have not, as higher nobility, ampler fortune, better abilities and parts than what is actually theirs, so it is a very high humility that carries a man to such a desire of being despised and made naught of as at times, for that purpose, to pretend and suggest his having defects which he has not, that so he may be made less account of. We have an example of this, he says, in that Father Simeon, who, hearing that the governor of the province was coming to pay him a visit as being a famous man and a saint, took in his hand a piece of bread and cheese, and sitting at the door of his cell began to eat it after the fashion of one who was out of his wits. The governor, seeing this, despised him, at which he was much pleased, as having gained the very thing he wanted. We read the like examples of other saints, as of St. Francis, when he set himself to knead mud with his feet, to escape the honor and reception which they were preparing for him; and of Brother Juniper, when he took to swinging with the boys for the same reason.

These saints had before their eyes the fact that the world despised the Son of God, the Sovereign and Infinite Goodness. Seeing the world to be so lying and so false, so deluded as not to recognize such a clear light as was the Son of God, and honor what was most truly honorable, they conceived such a hatred and abhorrence of the world and its good opinion that they rejected what it approves, and abhorred and despised what it values and loves. So they are very careful to shun being valued and esteemed by a power that has despised its God and Lord, and take their being despised by the world in His world in His company and for His sake for a great mark of their being loved by Christ. That is why the saints had such a taste for the reproaches, affronts, and insults of the world, and made such efforts to earn this contempt. It is true, says St. John Climacus, that many of these things were done by a particular inspiration of the Spirit of God, and so are rather for our admiration than for our imitation; nevertheless, though we do not come to put in practice those holy follies of the saints, we should aim at imitating them in the great love and desire they had of being despised and made small account of.

St. Diadochus goes on to say that there are two sorts of humility. The first is that of middle-class souls, who continue making progress, while they are at the same time under stress, assailed by thoughts of pride and evil impulses, though by the grace of God they contrive to resist them and cast them off in humility and shame. The other humility is that of the perfect; it is when the Lord imparts to a soul such light and knowledge of herself that pride seems no longer within the range of possibility, nor do any stirrings of pride and self-elation seem any longer possible. The soul then seems to have humility for part of her very nature—tunc anima velut naturalem habet humilitatem. Though God works great things by her, she is none the more elated on that score, nor thinks any more of herself, but rather holds herself for the least of all. This is the difference, he says, between these two sorts of humility, that the former commonly is attended with pain and a certain sadness and affliction—just what happens in fact in people who have not gained a perfect victory over themselves, but still feel a certain interior repugnance which causes in them pain and distress when any occasion befalls them of being humbled and put down; hence it comes to pass that, though they bear it with patience, they do not bear it with cheerfulness, there still remaining in them some element of repugnance because they have not gone all the way in the overcoming of their passions.

But the second humility is not in any way pained or troubled; rather it is with much cheerfulness that the humble man of this stamp stands in confusion and shame before the Lord, casting himself down and contemning himself, having nothing now about him to offer resistance, since he has overcome and subjected the contrary passions and vices and gained a perfect victory over himself. Hence also it is, says the saint, that they who have only the first humility are troubled and changed with the adversities and prosperities and various happenings of this life; but with them that have the second humility, neither adversity troubles them, nor does prosperity elate them or cause in them any self-conceit or vain complacency. They remain ever in one frame of mind and enjoy great peace and tranquillity, as men who have gained perfection and are superior to all these vicissitudes. There is nothing that can trouble or give pain to a man who desires to be made little of and rejoices therein. What might give him some pain, namely, to be forgotten and undervalued, is the very thing that he desires and that makes for his liking and contentment; what, then, can disturb him or give him pain? If that in which men think to be able to make war on him he finds to be ground of much peace, who shall be able to rob him of his peace? So, says St. Chrysostom, such a one has found a paradise and a heaven upon earth. Who is better off than the man who finds himself in this state? He is anchored forever in port; free from every squall of wind and enjoying the calm serenity of his own thoughts.

This, then, is the perfection of humility that we must strive to attain. And let it not be made for us an impossibility, since by the grace of God, as St. Augustine says, we can imitate, if we will, not only the saints, but even the Lord of saints, since that same Lord Himself says that we are to learn of Him. Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. xi. 29). And the Apostle St. Peter says that He gave us an example for us to imitate. Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example to follow in his footsteps (I Pet. ii. 21). St. Jerome on those words of Christ, If thou wilt be perfect (Matt. xix. 21), says that from these words it may be clearly argued that perfection is in our power, since Christ says, /f thou wilt. If thou sayest, I have not the strength, God knoweth well our weakness (Prov. xxiv. 12); and nevertheless He says, If thow wilt, because He stands by to help us, and with His help we can do all things. Jacob saw a ladder, says the saint, that reached from earth to heaven, and by it angels went up and down, and at the end of the ladder, at the top of all, was seated the Almighty, to give a hand to those moving up and to animate us to the labor of the ascent by His presence. Do you, then, make it your endeavor to mount by this ladder and by these steps that we have said; He will give you a hand to reach as far as the top step. Toa traveler looking from a distance at an entrance on a height, it seems impossible to get up there, but when he comes near and sees the path well trodden, it becomes to him quite easy.