The Path of Humility

"Learn of Me for I am meek and humble of heart".

By the author of:
"Spiritual Progress (Lukewarmness to Fervour, Fervour to Spiritual Perfection)"

Nihil Obstat: Innocentius Apap, OP
(Censor Deputatus)

Imprimatur: Edm. Can. Surmont
(Vicarius Generalis)

Westmonasterii
Die 2 Januarii, 1920

THE PATH OF HUMILITY

DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING THE BEST USE OF THESE EXERCISES

I.

1. Choose a time when you will be able to give yourself to them more freely and fully.

2. A whole month should be set apart for them, or more if you are so inclined. There is ample matter for two exercises a day. What is called a study, or explanation, may be used as a meditation, and in every case should be read with the greatest attention.

3. Mark your entrance upon this great work of reformation by some special acts of oblation and devotion. The evening before pay a visit to the church expressly for this purpose. Kneel before Jesus so hunble in the Tabernacle. Recite slowly the "Veni Creator". Next, direct your steps to the altar of the Blessed Virgin. You may also invoke those Saints whose humility has most impressed you - St. Francis, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Francis de Sales, St. Vincent de Paul - and beg them to obtain for you light, good-will, and perseverance.

II.

1. During the exercises, endeavour to preserve within yourself a feeling of humility, especially in your intercourse with others; deepen this sentiment by frequent aspirations throughout the day; you will find matter for them in each meditation, and more especially in the Resolution or spiritual bouquet at the end of each. Depart as little as possible from this attitude of soul.

2. Make use also of exterior acts of abasement. Kiss the ground (if no one else is present); pray with the head bowed, in the posture of a guilty person full of confusion; speak in a quiet and restrained manner, and walk with less freedom. Try also to cultivate a spirit of poverty.

3. Seek occasions of obedience and of showing kindness, but do all with great simplicity. Do not contradict, argue, or dispute. Accept trials and contraditictions as things fully deserved.

Note - Use these three last suggestions, or one of them, as a daily subject for the particular examen.

A PRELIMINARY SURVEY

HUMILITY! The whole Christian tradition exalts it, and every pious soul is ambitious to acquire it. Jesus, by associating it with His sefferings, raised it to the level of the Cross, and placed it as an aureole around the Blessed Sacrament.

When there is no humility there is little virtue, for God only enters a soul in which humility makes room for Him.

But it is not enough to praise and admire this virtue, we must have light and full conviction if we are to make it our own. Our ideas and our consciences need illumination, for if the nature of humility is little known, still less is the range of its influence understood.

The meditations in this book are meant for those who seriously wish to understand, and for pious souls who are eager to make progress.

Great things are always deeply hidden: presious metals are found buried in the earth; prodigious forces sleep in quiet matter; marvelous mechanical powers are at work in the silent movement of the stars, and in the depths of living beings we catch sight of secrets so profound that they are inexplicable.

And when we come to the examination of humility we see that it is a supernatural virtue whose depths are infinite.

Virtue considered as a whole is a living organism, and each particular virtue is one of its members. Each has its own special beauty, but it is also clothed with the beauty of its sisters, because of the unity of their life and their dependence upon one another. Some virtues, however, participate in that life in a more intimate, full, and continuous manner; the same life animates each part of the whole, even the meanest, but it cannot expand and flourish there in the same degree. We are about to study the part assigned to humility; perhaps we shall discover a humility that we have never known before.

In order to proceed with confidence we must be thorough and methodical. We cannot reach the heights without first traversing an uninteresting region where there will be certain obstacles to overcome. To make the way less tedious we will have recourse to various means: the study of general outlines; short explanations which will lighten obscure points; reflections which will throw into relief the results of a discovery; and, above all, searching meditations which will bathe the soul ni the atmosphere of truth - under the bright sunshine of grace.

Let no soul of goodwill be discouraged with the thought that these heights of truth are unattainable; let them rather remember the help they will receive from Heaven. Human science is confined to experts; the science of God is poured out upon the little and the humble, and these do not alwasy need long and tedious reasonings. If they find parts of this book unintelligible to them, they need not be saddened or hindered on their way. The light is awaiting them, perhaps at a corner of the road, in a form more simple

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improving the condition of these two faculties. The most favourable condition of the will is inclination.

Two kinds of light produce conviction: the light of reason and that of revelation. Two forces produce inclination: desire and actual grace. We shall be wise if we avail ourselves of all these helps at one and the same time, but those of the supernatural order, since they are the highest, are the most effectual.

To rest satisfied with the light of reason in determining the esterrm we deserve would be to establish an incomplete and insufficient virtue.

To attempt to acquire humility in our own strength would lead to nothing but disappointment.

The pagans knew humility only in the guise of modesty, and what they knew they practised very imperfectly. The true conception of this virtue emanates from our fundamental dogmas, and its perfect practice depends upon grace; it is therefore eminently supernatural, and thus understood the rationalist can neither conceive nor practise it.

We must, however, allow full scope to the natural faculties in the acquisition of this virtue, and in order clearly to understand the meaning of this observatino, it will be well at this point to call to mind a few general ideas on the natural and supernatural virtues.

Their object is the same - goodness; and both classes of the same virtue have the same special object - the same sort of goodness. Thus humility, whether natural or supernatural, regulates self-esteem and the desire for praise.

These virtues reside in the same faculties, which are, in both cases, the natural faculties. Natural virtues penetrate them, supernatural virtues elevate them.

But they are totally different in their mode of production and exercise.

The supernatural virtues are put into us by a species of creation, which Theology calls infusion; thus, supernatural virtue is synonymous with infused virtue. God pours such virtues into the soul of the baptised infact, and He pours them all in the same time. The increase of one is the increase of all, and, with the exception of faith and hope, all may be lost together by mortal sin. Again, all are together revived by the recovery of grace.

The natural virtues, on the contrary, are acquired slowly by numerous acts, and they are only lost little by little, so that a mortal sin does not destroy them. The term habitual can thus only be applied to the latter. Inclination, strength, facility are acquired little by little, as in a limb which is exercised for a certain purpose.

With the supernatural virtues increase comes from without, and not by development; and in their case a degree of growth does not necessarily correspond with any increase of strength or inclination.

Theologians sum up this difference in two peculiar expressions. The infused virtues, they say, give the simpliciter posse, the simple power - what might be called aptitude; while habit gives the faciliter posse, or facility. Actual grace also gives it, but in a transitory manner.

A comparison will make these distinctions clear. A facbric may be fine or coarse, of close or open texture; it becomes purple when it is put into a special bath. The bath has not changed its nature in any way; the fabric remains fine or coarse, close or open, but it ranks in a higher order. Its worth and its use are no longer the same. But treat it with a chemical which deprives it of its colour, and once more it becomes a common fabric.

The supernatural virtues elevate our being from the natural to the supernatural order; they transform our faculties and communicate to them along with a special beauty, an aptitude - but only an aptitude - to produce supernatural acts. Activity will come from actual graces, from dispositions of the will, and from habits.

We see from this that, generally speaking, in adults, virtue costs effort.

Supernatural virtues are not intended to render the natural forces inactive, or to replace them, but to elevate, to complete, and to sustain them.

By their presence they raise them to the supernatural order, and they complete and sustain them by the actual graces that they attract.

These actual graces offer us inestimable resources; God multiplies them a hundredfold in the soul that corresponds to them, and prayer induces Him to give them prodigally, without desert and without measure. Under their all-powerful influence virtuous acts are multiplied and accomplished with fervour; the natural faculties which produce them are improved and developed, and finally acquire inclination and facility for similar acts, and the state of habitual virtue is thus realised.

(Note: More complete explanations will be found in the book entitled "Spiritual Progress" by the same author.)

III.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONVICTION TO HUMILITY

It is not so easy to distinguish, even theoretically, between pride and personal dignity.

Care for our reputation - the duty of keeping our rank or defending out principles - authorises a great many actions which may appear to ill-informed minds to be prompted by pride. And pride, on the other hand, may avail itself of these delicate precautions.

But considered in practice the distinction becomes even more difficult. IN fact, nothing is so deceptive as this vice; it disguises and transforms itself, it slowly grows and spreads; when it has finally taken possession, it is scarcely noticed, and when noticed, it is excused.

Pride does not appear horrible. Its ugliness and malice strike us less than the ugliness and malice of other vices. It appears less dangerous to us, because, among Christians, pride rarely becomes a mortal sin, and because few of us carry this fault to extremes. Yet, nevertheless, its pernicious influence is such that the Saints call it the father of all vices.

It is therefore necessary to impress upon our minds such a clear conviction as may excite in us a horror of pride, and induce us to rid ourselves of it.

A conviction of this kind is not virtue, but it includes it in the same manner as physical forces are found, ready for use, in their elements. Also, it is not to be acquired by vague, feeble, or exaggerated assertions. Let us try to reach the root of the matter beneath the overgrowth of conventional phrases which cluster about it.

At the same time we must not trust too much to the results of our own researches, nor our own analyses; God alone is the Doctor of humility, - "He reveals it to little ones." "Revelasti ea parvulis."

IV.

THE VALUE TO HUMILITY OF INCLINATION

Pride, so difficult to recognise, is still more difficult to conquer. Its roots are buried deep in our nature; its vitality is extreme; it springs up again when we supposed it dead; it nourishes itself on little, yet it is never satisfied.

Therefore, if we are to conquer it we must establish within ourselves the habit of humility, opposing this habit in daily, ceaseless conflict with the contrary tendency we cannot wholly eradicate.

And how can we acquire and develop this habit which is so repugnant to nature? Only by exercise.

Action - action, this is the great secret, this is the imperative need. Comprehension and conviction are the advance-guard - they clear the way; but it is the army which achieves the victory, the army of deeds, and especially of generous deeds. By these and these alone can humility be firmly established within us.

This means warfare. We must bow to the will of others, even when they are unreasonable. We must be kind to those who slight us. We must welcome every humiliation. Nature will rebel, but, governed by a resolute humility, she will employ her strength in self-conquest, and find her happiness in humbling herself with Jesus. Mihi absit gloriari nisi in cruce Jesu Christi.

And while awaiting the trials that life may hold in store for us, we have at our command, as a preparation for them, the inexhaustible resource both of interior and exterior acts.

Numberless interior acts (desires, resolutions, prayers, acceptances, etc.) may be made; and if they are fervent nothing can withstand them; the whole soul should be put into these efforts, and this is the exercise we must strive to make during these meditations.

Exterior acts should not be neglected, for they give reality to our feelings. Why should we not employ them even during prayer? The humble attitude of a sinner, a suppliant, a beggar, will help us, and sometimes it is useful to kiss the ground.

By all these means, employed continuously for some time, our sentiments become something more than a mere assent of the intellect to the truth, or a simple determination of the wil to embrace justice; this assent and this determination become habits rooted deeply and firmly within us.

These are a permanent force, giving facility, movements, and even relish; for it is in the nature of every force to incite to action, and to give satisfaction by its free exercise.

Let us, then, embark upon this enterprise with courage; making every effort, and counting upon the aid of grace.

If we are to become humble we must be convinced and resolute, we must reflect and we must pray.

To be continued. Keep posted.