Of Other Good Things and Great Advantages There Are in This Third Degree of Humility

THINE are all things, and what we have received at thy hand we have given thee (I Chron. xxix. 14). After King David had made ready much store of gold and silver and building materials for the edifice and fabric of the Temple, he spoke the above words. That is what we ought to do and say in all our good works: “Lord, all our good works are Thine, and so we give back that which Thou hast given us.” St. Augustine says very well: “Whoever sets himself to reckoning up to Thee his merits and the services he has rendered Thee, what else does he recount, O Lord, but the gifts and benefits which he has received at Thy hand?”—Quisquis tibi enumerat merita sua, quid tibi enumerat nisi munera tua? This is Thy bounty and liberality, that Thou wishest that Thy gifts and benefits should be new merits of ours; and thus when Thou payest our services, Thou rewardest Thine own benefits, and for one favor Thou grantest us another. Like another Joseph, the Lord is not content with giving us the wheat, but he gives us also the money and the price along with the article (Gen. xlv. 23). The Lord will give grace and glory (Psalm Ixxxili. 12). Everything is the gift of God, and everything we ought to attribute and return to Him.

One of the good things and great advantages that there are in the third degree of humility is this, that it is a form of good and true gratitude and thanksgiving for benefits received from God. It is a well-known thing how much this returning of thanks is commended and prized in Holy Writ. Thus we see that, when the Lord did any signal benefit to His people, He at once ordered some memorial and feast in thanksgiving, because of the great importance it is for us to be grateful in order to receive of Him new graces and favors. Now this is done very well in this third degree of humility, which, as has been said, consists in man’s not attributing to himself any good thing, but attribing all to God and giving Him the glory of all. In this lies good and true gratitude and thanksgiving, not in saying with the lips: “I give Thee thanks, O Lord, for Thy benefits,” although with our lips also we ought to praise God and give thanks. But if you do it only with your lips, it will not be “giving thanks,” but “saying Thank you.” That it may be not merely saying Thank you, but giving thanks, and that not only with the lips, but also in heart and deed, we must recognize that all the good that we have is of God; we must return and attribute all to Him, giving Him the glory without exalting ourselves in anything. In this way man strips himself of the honor, which he sees is not his own, and gives it all to God, to Whom it really belongs. And this is what Christ our Redeemer wished us to understand in the holy Gospel, when He had healed those ten lepers, and one alone returned to thank Him for the benefit he had received. Were not ten made clean? He said, and none hath returned and given glory to God but this stranger (Luke xvii. 17-18). And, admonishing the children of Israel to be grateful and not forget the benefits received, God calls their attention to this point: Take care and forget not God, when thou enterest in the land of promise upon much prosperous fortune of temporal goods, houses, inheritances, and flocks. Take care that Thy heart then be not lifted up, and thou become ungrateful and say that by thine own strength and management thou hast come in for this (Deut. viii. 11, 14,17). This is forgetting God, the greatest ingratitude possible, attributing to oneself God’s gifts. Let not such a thing enter into your thought, but remember God, and recognize that strength is His, and He has given you ability for all; and that He has done it, not for any merits of yours, but in fulfilment of the promise that He freely made to those fathers of old. This is the gratitude and thanksgiving and sacrifice of praise wherewith God our Lord claims to be honored for the benefits and favors that He does us. The sacrifice of praise shall honor me (Psalm xlix. 23). To God alone, King of ages, immortal and invisible, be given the glory of all (I ol ys oR 9 Bg ip From this there follows another great gain and advantage, which is that the really humble man, though he hold many gifts of God and be on that account much regarded and esteemed by all the world, nevertheless does not esteem himself or make more of himself on that account, but remains as fixed in his own lowliness as if none of the things that are said of him were found in him. For he knows well how to distinguish between what belongs to another and what is his own, and to assign to each what belongs to him; and thus considering the gifts and benefits which he has received from God, he regards them not as his own property, but as another’s property lent to him, and keeps his eyes always fixed on the knowledge of his own weakness and misery, thinking what would become of him if God withdrew His hand and were not ever upholding and preserving him. Rather, the more gifts he has received from God, the more is he confounded and humbled on that account.

St. Dorotheus says that, when trees are well laden with fruit, that same fruit makes the branches bend and bow downwards, and sometimes even break under the great weight they have to carry; but when a branch has no fruit on it, it stands straight lifted up on high; and ears of corn, when the wheat is well grained, bow down so that you think the stalk would break; but when the ears stand straight up, it is a bad sign, indicating that they are empty. So, he says, it happens in the spiritual world that those who are empty and void of fruit walk with a haughty mien and strut, but they who are laden with fruit and gifts of God walk in great humility and self-abasement. From the very gifts and benefits that they have received, the servants of God take occasion to humble and abase themselves and walk in greater fear.

St. Gregory says that, as with him who has received a large sum of money on loan, though he rejoices in the sum lent him, yet his joy in what he has got is much allayed by the knowledge that he is bound to pay it back and the care and anxiety of thinking how he shall meet his bond in due time; so with the humble man, the more gifts he has received, the more he recognizes himself to be in God’s debt, and thereby the more bound to His service. He thinks he is not answering greater benefits with greater services, greater graces with greater thanksgivings, and believes and - takes it for granted that anyone to whom God has given what He has given to him, would be a better man than he is, more grateful, and would have made a much better use of God’s gifts. And thus one of the considerations that make the servants of God very humble and ashamed of themselves is this, that they know that God is sure to ask account of them not only of sins committed, but also of graces received— they know that to whomsoever much is given, much shall be required of him; and to whom much is entrusted, of him they shall ask more, as Christ our Redeemer says (Luke xii. 48). The Abbot Macarius says that the humble man regards the gifts of God as a depository or trustee, who holds property of his master, to whom no sentiment of vainglory occurs on that score, but rather fear and anxiety for the account that he knows they are sure to ask of him if by his fault the property is lost.

Hence also follows another good thing and advantage, that the truly humble man never despises anyone, nor slights him, however much he sees him fall into faults and sins; nor is he proud of himself at seeing such occurrences, nor takes himself for a better man than that other. Rather he takes occasion to humble himself more from seeing the other fall, considering that himself and the fallen one are made of one clay, and that in the other’s fall he falls so far as depends on him; since, as St. Augustine says, there is no sin that one man commits, which another man might not commit but for the hand of God lovingly holding him up. And so one of those ancient Fathers, when anyone had fallen, used to weep bitterly, saying, “Today for thee, and tomorrow for me.” As he has fallen, so might I fall, since I am a weak man as he is; and that I have not so far fallen I owe to a particular favor of the Lord. The saints advise us, when we see a blind man, a deaf mam, a cripple, a man who has lost a limb, or an invalid, we should take all these woes as marking favors done to us, and give thanks to God that he has not made me blind, nor deaf, nor maimed, nor dumb like that other. So we should reckon the sins of all men as marking favors done to us, because in all those cases I might have fallen if the Lord had not in His infinite mercy delivered me. Hereby the servants of God keep themselves in humility, and avoid disparaging their neighbors or being indignant with anyone, however many faults and sins they see in him, according to that saying of St. Gregory: ‘“‘True righteousness makes us have compassion on our brother, false righteousness breeds disdain and indignation”—Vera iustitia compassionem habet, falsa iustitia dedignationem. Such proud people ought to fear what St. Paul says: Rebuke him with mildness, lest it come about that thou also fall into temptation (Gal. vi. 1). The Lord grant that they be not tempted in that same matter that they condemn, and come to prove to their cost how great is human weakness, that being the usual chastisement of this fault. In three things, said one of those ancient Fathers, did I judge my brethren, and I have fallen into all three myself—that we may know by experience that we also are men, and learn not to judge or despise anyone.