{"id":1711,"date":"2017-08-03T11:32:42","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T16:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/?p=1711"},"modified":"2017-08-03T12:20:31","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T17:20:31","slug":"humility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/2017\/08\/03\/humility\/","title":{"rendered":"Humility"},"content":{"rendered":"

“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” Matthew 23:12 (Douay-Rheims)<\/p>\n

In my last post we saw how Augustine asserted that pride began as a perverse exaltation of the self above all else. \u00a0This vice characterized the sinful community of human beings (city of Man)\u00a0Pride Goes Before Destruction<\/a>. \u00a0Augustine pointed toward humility (given by the grace of God) as the foundation of virtue. \u00a0This idea became the basis of medieval religious belief and practice. \u00a0As pride actually abased those who exalt themselves through sin, humility exalts those who abase themselves through true humility. \u00a0Augustine explained:<\/p>\n

“Thus, in a surprising way, there is something in humility to exalt the mind, and something in exaltation to abase it. \u00a0It certainly appears somewhat paradoxical that exaltation abases and humility exalts. \u00a0But devout humility makes the mind subject to what is superior. \u00a0Nothing is superior to God; and that is why humility exalts the mind by making it subject to God.” [Augustine, City of God 14. 13. trans. Henry Bettenson (London 1984), 572]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For this reason Augustine states that humility marks those who belong to the City of God and Christ, the ruler of that City. \u00a0In order to remedy the human sin of pride, Augustine explains that God abased himself through mercy and demonstrated grace through taking on human nature. [Augustine, On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins<\/em> 26. 17.]<\/p>\n

Medieval monastic theologians focused on humility as the foundation of faith and virtue. \u00a0In his Rule, St Benedict depicted the monastic life as a ladder of humility with twelve steps: “Now the ladder erected is our life on earth, and if we humble our hearts the Lord will raise it to heaven.” \u00a0The monastic life revolved around self-abasement of body and soul in absolute obedience to another’s will. \u00a0[Rule of St Benedict chap. 7.]<\/p>\n

As we saw in the previous post on pride, Bernard of Clairvaux (d.1153) adopted Benedict’s ladder imagery to examine the vices of pride and the virtues of humility. \u00a0In opposition to pride, he defined humility as the virtue of having a low opinion of one’s self based on self-knowledge and the\u00a0contempt of one’s own excellence. [Bernard,\u00a0The Steps of Humility and Pride<\/em>\u00a01. 2; 4. 14, trans. M. Ambrose Conway OCSO. Kalamazoo 1989, 30, 42]<\/p>\n

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Munich, BSB Clm 14519, 5r<\/p><\/div>\n

Genuine humility rests in the truth, results in mercy, and it leads to love (caritas<\/em>). \u00a0All of these virtues come from the incarnate Christ through faith and are practiced by monks through imitation. \u00a0This is the manner by which monks (or Christians) may fulfill the commandment to love their neighbors as themselves. \u00a0As Bernard wrote:<\/p>\n

“You will never have real mercy for the failings of another until you know and realize that you have the same failings in your soul. \u00a0Our Savior has given us the example. \u00a0He willed to suffer so that he might know compassion; to learn mercy he shared our misery.” [Steps<\/em> 3. 6, p. 35]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The depiction to the right reads: “the pride of the devil is conquered by the humility of the cross of Christ.” \u00a0If you would like to see the original go here:\u00a0BSB Clm 14159<\/a><\/p>\n

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“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” Matthew 23:12 (Douay-Rheims) In my last post we saw how Augustine asserted that pride began as a perverse exaltation of the self above … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,89],"tags":[124,114,125],"class_list":["post-1711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-augustine-of-hippo","category-bernard-of-clairvaux","tag-grace","tag-humility","tag-love","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1711"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1718,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions\/1718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}