St. Augustine on Humility

[Todd Voss]

#8120

The question of humility came up in today’s (july 26) Sacramental Grace lecture. This letter (letter 232) of St. Augustine I have always found very inspiring and moving:
Who could contemplate with a calm and pure mind, this Totality which I have tried to express …and blessed by this contemplation press on to the sight of that which is beyond all known by our perception- to be clothed with everlasting life and obtain eternal salvation? Who can do this but someone who had admitted his sins, leveled his pride to the dust and knelt in meekness to receive God as his teacher? This can only happen by getting rid of pride by humility of spirit so that we can be lifted up. Such a humility was provided for us in a way that was filled with glory but most gentle, converting our haughty hearts by persuasion rather than by force. This was done by the Word by whom God the Father reveals Himself to angels, His Son, who is his Power and Wisdom, hidden from human hearts blinded by worldly desires, humbling Himself to come in human form. This humble example of God makes us more afraid of being proud than of being humiliated like him. Therefore, the Christ who is preached throughout the whole world is not a Christ wearing an earthly crown, nor a rich Christ, but Christ crucified. At first this Christ was ridiculed by many, and the ridicule goes on. A few believed at first but now whole nations. Because when Christ, despite the ridicule of men, was first preached the lame walked, the dumb spoke, the deaf heard and even the dead came back to life. This finally convinced some of the proud that even among the visible forces of the physical world there is nothing more powerful than the Humility of God. All this took place that we might struggle to be humble, shielded from the contemptible assaults of human pride by the example of a humble God.

[Brother Gilbert Joseph]

#8122

Yes humility is the key to become ever more little in His Divine Will. So many teach about it but are full of pride and they look down on the truly little and humble ones in their flock. Sadly the majority of the clergy are puffed up with their own superiority and learning that they look down on those clergy who truly are little and humble and even more so on the “simple” lay person. Both the Catholic devotional teachings and the Jewish Chasidic teachings speak about the need to be a “simple” one (tam).

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