Further Elucidation of the Third Degree of Humility, and How It Comes Thereof that the Truly Humble Takes Himself for the Least of Ail

THE we may better understand this third degree of humility and be able to establish ourselves well in it, it is necessary to take the water further upstream. As we said above, all our natural being and all our natural activities we hold of God; of ourselves we are nothing, and therefore we have no power to move, nor to see, nor to hear, nor to taste, nor to understand, nor to will; but God gives us our natural being, and therewith He gives us all its powers and capabilities, and so to Him we have to attribute at once its being and its natural activities. In like manner and with much more reason must we speak of our supernatural being and works of grace, and that all the more as they are greater and more excellent. The supernatural being that we have we have not of ourselves, put of God; in short, it is a being of grace (gratia), which is so called because it is added unto our natural being gratuitously. We are born in sin, children of wrath (Eph. ii. 3), enemies of God, Who hath drawn us out of this darkness into his admirable light (I Pet. ii. 9). God has made us of enemies, friends; of slaves, sons; of good-for-nothingness, beings agreeable in His eyes. And the reason why He has done this has been no merits of ours, nor any regard for services that we have rendered Him, but purely His goodness and mercy, as St. Paul says, being justified gratuitously by the grace of God, by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. iii. 24), and by the merits of Christ our only Redeemer.

Now as we could not of ourselves emerge from the nothingness in which we were to the natural being that we enjoy, nor could we do any vital actions, such as seeing, hearing, or feeling, but all that came by the gracious gift of God, and to Him we have to ascribe it all without being able to put down to our glory any part of it; so neither could we emerge from the darkness of sin, in which we were conceived and born, if God by His infinite goodness and mercy did not draw us out of it; nor could we do works of life if He did not give us His grace thereto. For the value and merit of our works arises not from anything that we held of ourselves, but from what we hold by the grace of the Lord, as the value of coin is not of itself, but of the stamp impressed upon it. Thus we must not attribute to ourselves any glory, but all to God, to Whom natural and supernatural alike belong, having ever in our mouth and in our heart that saying of St. Paul: By the grace of God I am what I am (I Cor. xv. 10).

But as we were saying that not only has God drawn us out of nothingness and given us the being that we have, but also, since we were created and received being, we do not hold it of ourselves, but of God sustaining us, holding us up, and supporting us by His almighty hand that we fall not into the deep well of nothingness out of which He originally drew us; in like manner in the supernatural order not only has God done us the favor of drawing us out of the darkness of sins, in which we were, to the admirable light of His grace, but He is ever preserving us and holding us by His hand, that we fall not back again. Thus if for one moment God retired, and withdrew His hand and guard over us, and allowed the devil to tempt us as he would like, we should fall back into our past sins and others worse. God is ever at my right hand lest I be upset, says the Prophet David (Psalm xv. 8). Thou art always at my right hand, holding me that I be not overthrown. It is Thy work, O Lord, to raise us up from our faults, and Thine again our not having fallen back again into them; if I rise, it is because Thou lendest me a hand; and if at this hour I am on my feet, it is because Thou holdest me to keep me from falling. Now as we were saying that this is enough to keep us in our nothingness, that on our part nothingness we are, nothingness we were, and nothingness we should be if God were not ever conserving us, so it is also enough to make us hold ourselves for sinners and wicked creatures that on our part such we are, and such we were, and such we should be, if God’s hand were not ever supporting us.

So says Albertus Magnus that whoever wishes to gain humility must plant in his heart the root of humility, which is the knowledge of his own weakness and misery, and right well understand and ponder, not only how vile and miserable he is now, but how vile and miserable he might be and would be at this day if God by His mighty hand did not remove him from sins, and keep him out of occasions thereof, and help him under temptation. Into how many sins should I have fallen, if Thou, O Lord, hadst not in Thy infinite mercy delivered me! How many occasions of sin hast Thou saved me from, that would have been enough to overthrow me, since they overthrew David, if Thou hadst not put a check upon them, knowing my weakness! How many times hast Thou tied the hands of the devil, that he might not tempt me as much as he could; and if he did tempt, that he might not overcome me! How many times might I have said with truth those words of the prophet: Lord, if Thou hadst not helped me, by this time my soul would have been in hell (Psalm xciii. 17)! How many times have I been assailed and turned upside down to the very brink of falling, and Thou, O Lord, hast held me, and laid Thy loving and mighty hand upon me, that it might not hurt me! If I said to thee, my feet have slipped; at once thy mercy came to my aid (Psalm xciii. 18). Oh, how many times should we have been lost ere now if God in His infinite goodness and mercy had not kept us safe! This, then, is the attitude which we ought to take up, because this is what we are, and this is what we have on our part; this is what we have been, and what we should be now if God were to withdraw and take away His hand from keeping us.

From this the saints came to such sentiments of shame and confusion, self-contempt and self-humiliation, that, not content with thinking little of themselves and taking themselves for wicked men and sinners, they made themselves out to be the least and last of all, the vilest and most sinful of all men in the world. Such a man as St. Francis—of whom we read that God had raised and exalted him so high that his companion, being in prayer, saw prepared for him among the seraphim a @haif richly alight with many-colored enamels and jewels—this St. Francis, when the question was put to him afterwards: “Father, what is your own estimate of yourself?” answered: “I believe that there is not in the world a greater sinner than I am.” And the same thing was said by the glorious Apostle St. Paul: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first and chiefest (I Tim. i. 15). And thus he admonishes us to endeavor to attain such humility as to hold ourselves inferior to all and least of all, and recognize all for our superiors and betters. St. Augustine says: “The Apostle is not leading us astray when he bids us (Phil. ii. 3-4) take ourselves for the least and reckon all for greater than and superior to ourselves, nor is he bidding us speak words of vain compliment and flattery.” ‘The saints practised no lying nor pretended humility in saying that they were the greatest sinners in the world, but spoke the truth as they felt it in their hearts. And so they charge us to have the same sentiment, and speak it out without affectation and not for mere form’s sake.

St. Bernard makes excellent reflection to this purpose on our Savior’s saying: When thou art invited to a feast, seat thyself in the last place (Luke xiv. 10). He did not say, “Choose a middle place,” or “Seat thyself among the last or in the last place but one,” but He absolutely wishes you to take the last place. Not only must you not prefer yourself to any, but you must not presume to compare or equalize yourself with anyone; you must absolutely stay in the last place, without companion in your abasement, holding yourself for the most miserable and sinful of all. There is no danger, he says, in humbling yourself much and setting yourself below the feet of all; but to prefer yourself to a single one is a thing you cannot do without much harm’s coming of it. And he applies this common comparison. When you pass under a low doorway, you cannot hurt yourself by lowering your head too much, but in lowering it ever so little less than the doorway requires you, the doorway will do you much hurt and break your head. So the soul that abases and humbles herself cannot suffer any harm; but to humble onself a little, and claim to excel or equal even only one person, is a dangerous thing. How do you know but that the man, though there is but one, who you think is not only a worse man than you, but is the wickedest of the wicked and perhaps the greatest sinner of sinners, you taking it for granted perhaps that you are now leading a good life, may be better than they and better than you, and whether he is not so already in the eyes of God? Who knows put that God will cross His hands, as Jacob did (Gen. xlviii. 14), and change men’s destinies, and that you will be the disinherited and the other the elect? How do you know what God has worked in his heart from yesterday till this moment, and that in one instant? It is easy in the eyes of God suddenly to enrich the poor (Ecclus. xi. 23). In an instant God can make His apostles out of a publican and a persecutor of the Church, as He did with St. Matthew and St. Paul. Of obdurate sinners and hearts harder than adamant He can make sons of God (Matt. iii. 9). How much mistaken was that Pharisee (Luke vii. 39), who judged Magdalen for a wicked woman, and how did Christ our Redeemer rebuke him and give him to understand that she whom he took for a public sinner was a better person than he was! And so St. Benedict, St. Thomas, and other saints assign this for one of the twelve degrees of humility, to say and feel of oneself that one is the worst man of all—credere et pronuntiare se omnibus viliorem. It is not enough to say this with your lips, but you must think so in your heart. “Think not that you have made any advance, if you do not account yourself the worst of all,” says that holy man (A Kempis).