Volume II, Treatise III, Chapter XXIII

Another More Efficacious Way to Acquire the Virtue of Humility; Which Is, to Practise It

Or the first way or means usually proposed to acquire this virtue, which consists in searching all divine and human reasons, which may bring us to it, we have already spoken. But the presumptuous hope which our first parents conceived, “to be as Gods,” has so deeply rooted pride in our hearts, that reason alone is not able to destroy it.

In this we are always like those who are naturally fearful; whatever reasons you may advance, in order to persuade them there is no cause for their fear, they answer, that they see very well, that it is so, and that they would fain take courage, but that they cannot. I agree with you, say some, that all you say of the esteem and opinion of the world is very true, and I am thoroughly convinced, that it is only wind and smoke, nevertheless I cannot overcome myself so far, as to slight it; I would fain do it, but I know not how it happens; for whether I will or not, it carries me away and makes me very uneasy. Now, just as when we would cure one of fear, and reason is not sufficient to give him courage, we make him come up close, and touch the things which cause his apprehension; and advise him to go alone in the dark, that he may be convinced by his own experience, that what affrights him is only an effect of his troubled imagination—so wholly to cure and disabuse a man of the impressions which he has of the opinion of the world, it is not enough, say the Holy Fathers, to represent the vanity of it, by solid and convincing reasons, but you must make him practise humility, which is the most effectual means he can adopt.

Moral virtues, says St. Basil, are not be acquired any more than arts and sciences, but by exercise and practice. To be a good artist, a good musician, a good orator, and a good philosopher; you must exercise yourself often in the actions proper to each of these professions; because there is no good success to be had, but by exercise thereof; so to acquire humility and other moral virtues, you must practise the acts belonging to them, and it is only by this means you can acquire a habit thereof.

Now, if any one says, that reason and discussion, joined with

the instructions and counsel of scripture, suffice to moderate and govern the motions of our passions, “he is deceived” says St. Basil, “and does like a man who learns all his lifetime to build, or to coin money, without ever actually doing either.”—(In reg. fusius disput. vii.) And sure it is, that he who employs all his time in filling his head with rules and precepts of any art, without ever reducing them to practice, will never be a good artist; so it is certain, that humility and other virtues will never be acquired, without practising them. ‘For as those who hear the law,” says St. Paul, “are not just before God; but those who practise it;” (Romans 2:13), so it is to no purpose to give ear to wholesome instructions, if they are not reduced to practice; for the practice thereof, is better, than all the speculation in the world. It is true, that all virtue, and whatever is good in us, must come to us from the hand of God, and it is also very certain we can do nothing of ourselves; but it is true also, that the same God, without whom we can do nothing, will have us also co-operate on our part.

St. Austin, upon these words of our Saviour, “if I therefore have washed your feet, I who am your Lord and master, ye ought also to wash one another’s feet;” (John 13:14), says, that what Jesus Christ would teach us by washing his apostles’ feet, is, that we must practise humility. “It was that,” continues he, “O blessed Peter, that thou understoodest not, when thou wouldst not suffer our Saviour to wash thy feet, but he promised, that shouldest understand it afterwards; and see how he teaches it thee;-for I have given thee an example,” says he, “that thou mayest do what I have done.”. Since, therefore, we have learned humility from the most High,” as that great Doctor of the church. adds, “let us who are but poor creatures, practise what the most High practised with such exceeding humility.” Since the Sovereign and Omnipotent Lord of all things, has humbled himself—since the Son of God has condescended so far as to wash his disciples’ feet—has lived with a submission to all that his Mother and St. Joseph commanded him; and subjected himself to the vilest and lowest service; let us learn from him to exercise ourselves, after the same manner, in the exterior actions of humility, and hereby we shall acquire this virtue in perfection.

St. Bernard is of the same opinion, when he tells us that ‘humiliation is the way to humility, as patience is to peace of mind, and study to learning. If you will then acquire humility,” continues he, “put yourself into the way of humility, for if you cannot pass over a humiliation, you cannot attain humility.”—(Ep. Ixxxvii.) St. Austin gives a very good reason, why the exterior practice of humility is so necessary to acquire true humility of heart: “It is,” says he, “when you prostrate yourself at the feet of your brother, that humble thoughts are raised in your heart, or if those thoughts were there already, they are the more fortified thereby.” There is so great a connexion and relation between the outward and inward man, and they have such a dependence one upon the other, that as soon as the body humbles itself, humble thoughts are stirred up in the heart. The submission which a man shews to his brother, by serving him and kissing his feet; by the coarse habit which he wears, and the mean office he performs, have all a something in them, which stirs up humility in the heart, or preserves or increases it, when it is already there. This was St. Dorotheus’s answer, when he was asked; how is it possible, that the mind should acquire humility, by means of a coarse habit which the body is clothed with? Is it not certain, says he, that the good or bad disposition of the body, has an influence upon the mind—and do we not see, that when the body is at ease, the mind is at ease? And is it not plain, when the body is satisfied with meat, that the feelings of the mind are different from those it has when the body is kept low with hunger? Likewise, when a man is mounted upon a mettlesome horse, or seated upon a throne; his mind is more elevated than when he rides a lazy horse, or sits upon the ground; and when he has rich clothes, he is otherwise disposed, than when he is poorly clad.

The same observation is also made by St. Basil; for, says he, as rich clothes raise proud and presumptuous thoughts in worldly people; so a plain and coarse habit inspires the servants of God and religious men, with such thoughts of humility, and contempt of themselves, as if it made them really despicable. And as worldly people, adds the same saint, love to set themselves off with rich clothes, to be thereby esteemed, so the servants of God, and the truly humble, are pleased with plain and coarse clothing, thereby to render themselves the more despicable in the eyes of men;.and to preserve and fortify true humility within themselves. We read ‘in the life of St. Xaverius, that he was always very poorly clad, because he would thereby keep himself humble; fearing, that should he put on better clothing, he should, as it often happens, be puffed up with pride and presumption.

Another proof that exterior practice contributes much to acquire humility of heart, or any other interior virtue whatsoever, is this, that practice makes far greater impression upon the will, than a simple desire. Because the object, when it is present, moves us much more, than when it is absent; and what we see moves us more than what we hear. In like manner, what we set before our eyes by practice, has much more power to move our will, than the desires we may frame thereof upon the idea we have of it. An actual affront, for example, which you shall willingly bear, strengthens much more your patience, than all those you are able to suffer in your-mind and thought. And asingle day that you are actually employed in some mean office, or that you put on an old torn habit, will fortify you more in humility, than the spending many days in framing desires and fancies of the self-same things. We experience this every day in the mortifications in use among us. How passionately soever you may pretend to desire them, you will feel always a repugnance the first time you put them in practice; but the second time, you will scarce feel any difficulty at all. And for this reason the use of public penances and mortifications, formerly practised by many saints, has been introduced into the society of Jesus; as a remedy which, having been once applied, makes a man afterwards master of himself, and of all other things which before seemed very difficult. We may add to this, that according to the opinion of all divines, the interior act of any virtue, is, commonly speaking, much more perfect and efficacious, when it is accompanied with the exterior practice; so that let the matter be taken as it will, exterior acts of humility are always a very great help to acquire the virtue of humility.

Now since the same means which serve to acquire a virtue, serve

also to preserve and increase it, we may truly say, that the exterior practice of humility, is no less necessary to preserve and increase humility in us, than to acquire it; whence it follows, that this exercise, as we have already said, when speaking of mortifications, is of great importance, not only to beginners, but even to those who are advanced in virtue, as well as to all persons in general.

St. Ignatius in his Constitutions earnestly recommends this to us. ‘It is a great help,” says he in one place, “to employ one’s self with all possible devotion in those offices wherein humility and charity are most exercised.” In another place he says, “we must prevent and overcome temptations by their contraries; as when we know that any one is given to pride, he must be employed in such vile and mean offices as we think, may serve to humble him, and so of the rest.” And in another place, “we must,” says he, ‘“‘if obedience enjoins it, readily embrace those offices which seem mean and despicable, and to which we have the greavest repugnance;” (3 P. Const. c. i, § 18 & 23,) so that humility and humiliation, must, as it were, go hand in hand, in such a manner, that interior humility, which consists in contemptible thoughts of one’s self, and in a desire of being contemned by others, may raise up exterior humiliation, which consists in shewing one’s-self outwardly such, as one ought to be inwardly. I say, that as he who is truly humble, has a contempt of himself, and thinks he is’ unworthy of any honour; so ought all his exterior actions to correspond with these thoughts, and his exterior behaviour must give testimony of his interior humility. Wherefore choose everywhere the last place, as our Saviour counsels—disdain not to converse with the poor and little ones—exercise yourself in the meanest offices, and you will see, that the exterior humility which comes from inward humility, will serve to increase the source and fountain whence it springs.

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