Of Another Manner of Means More Effectual for Gaining the Virtue of Humility: By Practising It

WE have spoken of the first sort of means that are usually given for gaining virtue, namely, reasons and considerations, as well divine as human. But such is the inclination that we have to this vice of pride, by reason of our having so rooted in our heart that desire of divinity shown by our first parents (Gen. iii. 5), that all the considerations in the world suffice not finally to destroy these spirits and fumes of desire to be regarded and esteemed. It seems to happen to us in this matter as to people who have taken a fright. However many reasons you give them to persuade them that there is nothing to be alarmed at, they tell you: “I quite see that all you say is true and I should be very glad to act on it; but for all that I cannot bring myself to shake off the fear.” So some say: “I quite see that all these reasonings that you have given about the opinion and esteem of the world are correct and prove convincingly that it is but a puff of wind and vanity, but, after all, I cannot bring myself to disregard it; I should like to do so, but somehow, without my wanting it, these things upset me and carry me away.” As, then, to rid a timid person of fear, reasonings and considerations are not enough, but along with them we are wont to give him things to do for remedies, telling him to go up and touch these seeming ghosts and bogeys, and to go at nighttime to dark and lonely places to experience and see that there is nothing there but mere imagination and apprehension of his own, and so he gradually shakes off his fear; in like manner, to succeed in setting at naught the opinion and esteem of the world, the saints tell us that reasonings and considerations are not enough, but it is necessary for that end to have recourse to deeds and practices of humility, and that this is the chiefest and most efficacious means that we can apply on our part to gain that virtue.

St. Basil says that, as sciences and arts are acquired by practice, so also are moral virtues. To be a good musician, or a good mechanic, or a good rhetorician or philosopher, you must needs practise the art a great deal, and in this way you will come out a proficient in it. So also to gain the habit of humility and of the other moral virtues, you must practise their acts, and in this way you will gain them. And if anyone says that to compose and moderate the passions and affections of the soul and gain the corresponding virtues, all that is wanted is reasons and considerations and instructions and lessons from Scripture and the saints, he deceives himself, says St. Basil. It will be with him as with a man who thinks to learn how to build, or to coin money, and never practises it, but is wholly taken up with hearing lessons and instructions on the art. It is certain that he will never turn out a workman; just as little will he ever turn out a proficient in humility or in the other virtues who does not practise himself in them. St. Basil quotes in confirmation of this that text of St. Paul the Apostle: Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified (Rom. ii. 13). It is not enough to hear many reasons and instructions, but it is necessary to put the thing into execution, and in this business practice and exercise is worth more and carries you further than all the theory in the world. And though it is true that every virtue and every good gift must come to us from the hand of God and that our own strength is not sufficient for this purpose, nevertheless this same Lord, Who is to give it us, requires that we help ourselves in this manner.

St. Augustine on those words of Christ: If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another’s feet (John xiii. 14), says that this is what Christ our Redeemer wished to teach us by this example of washing the feet of His disciples. “This it is, blessed Peter, that thou knewest not when thou wouldst not consent to Christ’s washing thy feet. He promised that thou shouldst know it in aftertime. Now is the aftertime, now thou shalt know it.” It is that, if we wish to gain the virtue of humility, we must exercise ourselves in acts of humility. I have given you an example, that ye may do as I have done (John xiii. 15). Since the Sovereign and Almighty has humbled Himself; since the Son of God has abased Himself and busied Himself in humble and lowly exercises, washing the feet of His disciples, serving His Mother and St. Joseph, and being subject and obedient to them in all that they commanded Him, let us learn of Him and exercise ourselves in lowly and humble exercises, and in this way we shall gain the virtue of humility. This is also what St. Bernard says: “Exterior humiliation is the way and means to gain the virtue of humility, as patience to gain peace, and reading and study to gain knowledge.” Accordingly, if you desire to gain the virtue of humility, shun not the practices of humiliation; for if you say that you cannot and have no mind to humble and abase yourself, neither can you gain the virtue of humility.

St. Augustine proves this right well, and gives the reason why this exterior practice of humiliation is so important and necessary an aid to the gaining of true humility of heart. ‘When the body is bowed down to your brother’s feet, then also in the heart itself there is excited—or if it was there already, there is confirmed—the sentiment of humility.” The exterior and interior man are so knit and bound together, and the one depends so much on the other, that, when the body is humbled and bowed down, there is awakened there within the heart a sentiment of humility.

There is something in this humbling of myself before my brother to serve him and kiss his feet; there is something in a poor and mean dress and a lowly and humble office: it seems to go to engender and beget humility in the heart; or if it is already there, it goes to preserve and increase it. And so St. Dorotheus answered the question: How can the soul gain humility from a mean and poor dress worn by the body? “Because it is certain,” he said, “that the disposition of the body for better or worse reacts upon the soul.” Thus we see that the disposition of the soul varies according as the body is well or ill, satisfied with food or hungry. In the same way a man is otherwise disposed when mounted on a well-caparisoned horse or seated on a throne, than he would be when riding an ass or sitting on the ground. So, too, his sentiments and mood differ according as he is richly dressed or shabbily and poorly clad. St. Basil also notes this well. He says that, as the hearts of men in the world are lifted up, and the fumes of vanity and pride and self-esteem engendered in them, by their being well and stylishly dressed, so in religious and servants of God a poor and humble habit awakens in the heart a sentiment of humility and induces a low opinion of self and seems to make the man despicable. And the saint adds that, as men of the world look for good and fashionable clothes in order to be better known and made more account of and respected, so the servants of God and the truly humble look out for poor and mean garments, to be thereby underrated and thought less of amongst men, and because they think that they have therein a great preservative to keep and increase in themselves true humility. Of all exterior humiliations one of the chief is that of a poor and mean dress, and that is why it is so usual among the truly humble. Of Father Francis Xavier we read in his Life that he always went about very poorly clad to keep himself in humility, and because he feared that in fine clothes there might be involved and mingled some self-esteem and presumption, as does usually happen.

For another reason it will also be seen what a great help to the gaining of humility of heart or any other interior virtue is the exterior practice of the same. For the will is much more moved thereby than by mere desires, since clearly a present object moves more forcibly than an absent one; thus what we see with our eyes moves us more than what we merely hear. Hence was derived the proverb: ‘Where eyes see not, heart breaks not.” ‘Thus the exterior, which is put into act by reason of the object’s being there present, moves the will much more than an interior apprehension and desire, where the object is not present, but has place only in the imagination and apprehension. The virtue of patience will make greater growth in your soul by one great affront borne with good will than by three or four existing in desire only without act; and the virtue of humility will grow more by spending one day in a lowly and humble office or by wearing a worn-out and poor habit than by many days of bare desires. Every day we find by experience that someone has a repugnance to do one or other of the ordinary mortifications that we do, and the second day he does it without feeling any difficulty, whereas before he had many desires of doing the same and they were not enough to overcome the difficulty. For the same reason also the Society practises public penances, as we read that many holy men practised them; for once one of these penances is done, the doer becomes master of himself to do other things that formerly were difficult. Add to this what theologians say, that the interior act, when accompanied by the exterior, is commonly more intense and effectual. Thus in every way it is a great help towards gaining the virtue of humility to exercise ourselves exteriorly in lowly and humble acts.

And by the same reasons and causes whereby a virtue is gained, it is preserved and augmented. As exterior practice is necessary to gain the virtue of humility, it is also necessary to preserve and augment it. Hence it follows that this exercise is very important for all, not only for beginners, but also for proficients, and very advanced proficients, as we said elsewhere, treating of mortification. And so our Father in his Constitutions and Rules greatly commends it to all. “It will be a very special help to do with all possible devotion those lowly offices in which humility and charity are more exercised.” And elsewhere he says: “They ought to forestall temptations by their contraries; thus if one finds himself inclined to pride, he should practise himself in lowly offices which he thinks will help to humble him, and so of other evil inclinations.” And again: “As regards lowly and humble offices, they should willingly take up those to which they find greater repugnance, if they be ordered to do them.” And so I say that these two things, humility and humiliation, ought to aid one another; and from interior humility, which consists in despising oneself and holding oneself of little account and desiring to be held of little account by others, should spring exterior humiliation, whereby a man shows himself without such as he reckons himself within; I mean to say that, as the humble man contemns himself in his own eyes and holds himself unworthy of any honor, such should be his exterior behavior and the actions that he does. Let him show in his actions the interior humility which he has within, choosing the lowest place, as Christ our Redeemer says. Let him not disdain to deal with little ones and people of low degree; let him rejoice in humble offices; and this same exterior humiliation, which springs from the interior, will swell the very fountain from which it takes its origin.