Of the Exercise of Humility That We Have in Religion

BOX of the reasons that St. Basil assigns for preferring the life of a monk living in community to that of a hermit is that a solitary life, besides being dangerous, is not so available as monastic life for the gaining of ordinary virtues, since it presents no opportunity for their exercise. How is he to be exercised in humility who has no one before whom he can humble himself? Or in charity and mercy, since he has no dealings with another? Or, again, in patience, when there is none to resist his will? But a religious living in community is in a position of advantage for the gaining of all necessary virtues, having great occasion to exercise himself in them all: in humility, because he has those to whom he should subject himself and humble himself before them; in charity, because he has those towards whom he must practise it; in patience, because in dealing with so many brethren there is plenty of occasion for that; and so of the other virtues. We religious owe much gratitude to the Lord for the favor He has done us in drawing us to religion, which affords such opportunity and many means for obtaining virtue—which is, in fact, a school of perfection.

We of the Society are particularly obliged in this mat-. ter because, besides the common means, we have given us very special means for obtaining humility in our Rules and Constitutions. If we keep our rules well, we shall be very humble, because in them we find very sufficient exercise of humility. Such is the rule, so important in the Society, of opening our entire conscience to our superior, giving him an account of all our temptations, passions, and evil inclinations, and of all our defects and miseries. And though it is true that this rule was laid down for other purposes, nevertheless it is doubtless a great exercise of humility. Such again is the rule which says: “For their greater advancement in spirit and especially for their greater subjection and self-humiliation, all must be content to have all their errors and faults, and whatever may be noted or observed in them, made known to their superiors by anyone whoever has knowledge of them out of confession.” Notice the reason given—‘“for their greater subjection and selfhumiliation;” that is just what we are saying. If you desire to gain true humility, you must rejoice in all your faults’ being made known to your superiors. Thus a good and humble religious goes of himself to tell his faults to his superior and ask a penance for them, and takes care to be himself the first person from whom the superior shall know his faults.

And there is not only this, but a much greater exercise of humility in the Society, in that you tell your faults publicly before all, that they may disparage you and set small store by you, since that is the end of this exercise of humility—not that they may take you for a humble and mortified man, for that would be no act of humility, but of pride. In the same spirit you have to take and desire reprehensions, not only in private and secret, but publicly before all; and so far as in you lies you should rejoice that this be done in right-down good earnest, and that all should think accordingly and take you for what you are as described. And generally the use and practice of all the exterior penances and mortifications that are practised in the Society aids much to the gaining and keeping of true humility, such as kissing feet, eating under the table or on your knees, prostrating at the door of the refectory, and the like. If these things are done in the spirit in which they ought to be done, they will be very profitable for advancement in true humility and for the preservation of the same. When you take your dinner sitting on the ground, you should do this with an inward recognition of yourself as one who deserves not to sit at table with your brethren. When you kiss feet, own that you do not deserve to kiss the ground on which they walk. When you prostrate, own that you deserve that all should tread on you. And you should wish and desire that all should think so.

It should be a very good thing when one does these acts of mortification to set one’s mind interiorly on these considerations, as did that holy monk, mentioned in the former chapter, who stood seven years at the gate of the monastery; for in this way they will be very profitable to us and engender humility in our heart. But if you do these things in a spiritless way and outwardly only, there will be little profit in them, because, as St. Paul says: Bodily performance profiteth little (I Tim. iv. 8), that is to say, doing things for mere form and custom’s sake, without any effort to gain the end intended thereby. If after kissing your brothers’ feet and prostrating for all to tread on you, you give vent to harsh and rude words, the two performances do not agree one with the other; that is a sign that the first was pure ceremony and hypocrisy.

These and many other exercises of humility we have in our Society by rule and constitution. I have chosen to bring them to memory here, though we drew attention to them before for another purpose, that we may consider them, and therein may be our principal practice of humility; because the matter wherein a religious should chiefly practise and display virtue and mortification is that which is obligatory by the rules and constitutions of his order, since therein consists our advancement and perfection. If you have not virtue enough to put into execution the acts of virtue and mortification to which your rule and institute obliges you, you should reckon nothing of any virtue that you have. We can say the like of any Christian, that the chief thing for which he needs humility and mortification is for keeping the law of God; if he has not enough for that, little or nothing will anything else profit him. If he has not humility and mortification enough to confess a thing of which he is ashamed, but for shame, or rather I should say for pride, leaves it out, and so breaks so important a commandment, what will profit him all that he has and does, seeing that this omission alone is enough for his damnation? So we may say with due proportion of the religious. If you have not humility enough to open your conscience to your superior and fulfil such an important rule as that, what will humility and mortification serve you? If you cannot suffer another to acquaint the superior of your fault that he may correct you, where is your humility? If you have not humility enough to receive rebuke and penance, to do a lowly and humble duty, to be incorporated in the grade in which the Society shall choose to put you, where is the good of your humility and indifference, and for what other end do superiors ask those virtues of you? In this way the religious may specify the particular points of his rule, and every man the particular requirements of his state and office.