Ruth's Book I

Humility

     St. Francis, in his beautifully simple and childlike way, looked upon the virtue of poverty as the quintessence of godliness. And equally important to this “little poor man” was the virtue he classed as poverty’s twin — humility. To have the one in its true spiritual sense is to have the other — they walk hand in hand.

     St. Francis said, “A man is what he is in the sight of God and nothing more,” and in these words we have the twin virtues. To recognize that we are nothing without God is humility. To want nothing but God is poverty.

     To be humble is to be aware of the basic truth of Christ’s statement, “He who abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing,"

     We are nothing without God. We would not have life at all if God had not willed it, and without life, how could a nothing make a daily living, cook a meal, buy anything, sell anything, learn anything, laugh, talk and make progress of any kind? Some of these things we could accomplish with our backs turned to God. Many a so-called self-made man has reached the pinnacle of worldly success, with his back turned to God, but he would not have made it to kindergarten if God had not first put the breath of life in him. He would not have had a back to turn to God or a brain in his head; or even a head at all to use to achieve success — he would be a “nothing.” And, that is just what he is even with his success, without God. King for a day he may be, but a nothing in space and time. To recognize these facts is to take the first step towards humility.

     Christ, the Son of God, said, “Of myself I can do nothing.” Mary matched this with her humility when she said, “He has looked with favor on his lowly servant.”

     Christ and Mary are models of humility and so is St. Joseph. Think of Bethlehem, and the stable with a poor man and woman and a baby lying on straw in an animal’s manger. Who, other than Mary and Joseph, were the first living beings to lay eyes on the baby Son of God? Animals — an ox and an ass. No wonder the Jews could not, or would not recognize Him as the Savior and Messiah. They were expecting a glittering personage, a mighty ruler, a king bejeweled and resplendent in royal raiment. What did they get? A poor little baby born to a poor little family — but oh, what a baby. Humble He came and humble He went to His death. But in glory He rose and in glory forever He reigns, King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Out of humility came God, stooping down to us on earth to become one of us and out of humility we go to God rising up to become one of His very own.

    Remember this: All by ourselves we are nothing, dingy specks of dust. But, let the rays of the sun filter through the dust and what do we see? A transmutation! Dust into gold. Touch the dirty little specks that we are with the rays of God’s light and love and what do we see? Christ on the mountain, transfigured and we transmuted into something more precious than gold.

     Children of the world, though they rise to the heights of success and pomp and power, remain drab little specks of dust, but the children of God, though they struggle along at the lowest level of the world’s society, are princes and princesses in the royal household of God.

     We must remember, and remind ourselves over and over that “my” house, “my” money, “my talents“, “my” brains," “my” this and “my” that are not mine at all; they belong to God, on loan to me while I live on earth, and those things are going to be left behind when I leave the earth. God is going to ask us a thing or two about them. What did we do with the 5, 10 or 100 talents He loaned to us to use? Did we develop them in the way He expected us to do, or did we bury them in the ground, to give them back to Him unused, soiled and corroded?

     Now, to acknowledge our dependence on Him for everything is only one side of the coin of the virtue of humility. We also must be humble before our fellowman. We have said that each person is given certain gifts or talents and certain intelligence by God; some more, some less, but no matter how small, still most important. If an Einstein develops and uses his talents to the fullest extent he does not do one bit more than the poor little fellow who, just a shade above being a moron, develops and uses his poor little talents to the fullest degree. Both are equal in the sight of God. So, it ill behooves an intellectual giant to look down his nose on a mental dwarf.

     An intellectual giant is so only because God endowed him with a superior brain. So too, the mental dwarf steps forth into life with the brain God gave him. The real worth is in the use to which each puts his gifts from God.

     We should be humble, too, in looking upon the supposed faults of others. Are they really faults or just his different way of speaking, thinking, or doing? His fault, which in us might be a major sin, may not necessarily be a sin at all for him. We cannot judge his actions from our point of view which was gained in the cushion of our Christian homes or our background knowledge of right and wrong, and our gift of faith. Only God knows what lies behind another’s actions. I am afraid that we tend to be much too lenient with ourselves, while leaping to harsh conclusions about the ways of others. Background, environment, home life, love, inherited traits, opportunities, and many other factors all play a part in what makes people tick.

     No one knows the real truth of what makes someone do a certain thing except God, sometimes not even the person himself. We should not look down on anyone for his actions. Remember Christ’s words, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” We need not approve of the acts of others, neither should we condemn. That is God’s province.

    St. Bonaventure said, “I must consider myself below others, not because I am certain that I am, but because I am more certain of my own unworthiness than I am of theirs.” How few of us look so truly humbly into our own hearts and consciences.

    One of the reasons St. Francis had such great influence on other people was because, though he was really such an exalted, good man, he walked always in the utmost humility.  He was so very genuine.

    The Friars Minor, or “Lesser Brothers,” as he chose to call his first order, were humble people, low in the sight of the world, but who walked tall in the eyes of God. So also, should the lay Franciscan be — a little person who strives for God’s eyes only; to walk humbly in a dignified manner in the eyes of man no matter what his position. This is exactly what it is to be a royal member of God’s household; a nothing by worldly standards but a VIP by the standards of God.

     This is our choice. But, even this, our choice, our desire to strive deliberately towards a closer union with God is not our own. It, too, is a gift of God, the gift of freedom of choice. We have our free wills only because God gave them to us as a gift. 

     Jesus said, “Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” Sometimes it might strike us that a man who is meek and humble is a “milk toast.” How absolutely opposed this is to the truth! It takes real strength and courage to hold back an angry retort or to resist a temptation. A meek man need not be a weak man. A weak man has no trouble at all in roaring out his anger, or yielding in to a temptation; it is easy to do and hard to hold back. A tantrum, the weapon of a child, has no place in the discipline of an adult.

    What is the answer, then? How about the two “bears,” “bear and forebear,” the very adult, Christ-like weapons of a Christian man and woman.

     Patience, meekness and humility — these are three little words. So are Christ, Mary and Joseph. The words are all cut out of the same cloth.

     Father James E Sullivan, in his book, “My Meditations on the Gospel,” says, “O Lord, teach me the serenity of patience and meekness. Help me to take people as I find them and life as it comes.” The key word here is “serenity” — serenity of patience and meekness. These are not very desirable and very hard to attain, but how Christ-like they are. See how again and again we come back to Christ — patience, serenity, and meekness. These are all Christ synonyms.

     Finally, in our consideration of the virtue of humility, we might think of Jesus, of His colossal humility and strength as He stood before the High Priest and Pilate and listened to the accusations and His sentence of death. Humble, but invincible, He stood there and “never said a murmuring word.”