Volume II, Treatise III, Chapter XXXIX

How Important It Is to Have Recourse to Humility, Thereby to Supply What We Otherwise Stand in Need Of, and to Hinder God from Humbling and Chastising Us

“Hz is afool,” says St. Bernard, ‘‘ who puts his confidence in any thing else but in humility. For since we have all, dear brethren. offended God in many things; we cannot but plead guilty.”— (Serm. de diversis xxvi.) “If any body will contend with him, he cannot answer one word to a thousand things which God will accuse him of.” (Job 9:8) “What, therefore, remains for us to do, but to have recourse, with all our heart, to the helps of humility, and so supply’whatever may be otherwise wanting.”— (Serm. de Nat. St. J. Bap.) This way being of great importance, the same saint repeats the same doctrine to us‘in several places: “If you find not your conscience clear enough, make up what is deficient, by a holy shame and confusion, and what is wanting of fervour, endeavour to compensate by an humble and sincere confession.”—(De inter. domo. vi. 37.)

St. Dorotheus tells us of an abbot, called John, who did very. often recommend the same thing: “let us humble ourselves,” said he, “to save our souls, and if our weak constitution hinders ‘us from labouring much, let us study, at least, how to humble ourselves” (Doct. de humil.); for hereby we shall make as great proficiency as they who have undergone great labours. If after ‘having lived a long time in sin, we find not sufficient health and strength to walk in the path of austerities, let us take that of ‘humility, and we shall find no securer way, to lead us whither we desire to go. If we cannot apply ourselves to prayer, let us en- ‘deavour to be clothed with confusion, because we cannot pray; and if we have no talent for great things, let us at least get humility, and thus shall we make up whatever is wanting.

Moreover, let us here consider how little God requires of us, and with how little he is contented. He requires, that we should acknowledge ourselves to be what we are, and conceive thoughts of ourselves, proportionable to our weakness. If he required of us to practice great austerities, and to soar aloft in sublime con- ‘templations, some might excuse themselves, on account of their weak constitution; and others upon that of their incapacity; but is there any thing that can hinder us to humble ourselves? To do this, there,is no need of vigorous health or great wit, a good will only is requisite. For as St. Bernard says; ‘there is nothing more easy to him that wills it, than to humble himself.”—(Serm. 2, in cap. jejun.) And it is easy enough for every one to humble himself, because every one has reason to do so, since according to the prophet, “the subject for our humiliation is within us.” (Micheas 6:14) Let us therefore have recourse to humility: thereby to make up what is wanting towards our perfection, and thus we shall move the bowels of divine mercy to compassion. Thou art destitute of spiritual riches, thou art poor and indigent. Be humble, and God will be satisfied with thee. But he cannot suffer arrogance and poverty joined together; and of three things which the wise man says, that God abhors, the first is, “to be poor and proud.” (Ecclesiasticus 25:4) It is one of the things also, that most of all shocks and disedifies secular persons.

Now if all this be not sufficient to make us humble, let us at least humble ourselves, lest God should humble us; for so has he been used to do, according to these words of the gospel, “he who exalts himself shall be humbled.”— (Luke 18:14) If then you will not have him humble you, humble yourself; and this point is doubtless of great importance, and highly deserves to be examined with care. ‘ Though God,” says St. Gregory, “takes pleasure in purifying the heart of the just; he often nevertheless permits some imperfections to remain there, that whatever eminent virtues shine in them, the sight of their imperfections may make them look down with humility; and hinder them from being too much exalted with great things, since they find themselves so weak in resisting little ones. And knowing in fine, that they are unable to overcome themselves in lesser occasions, they may not grow vain by the victory they gain in greater, but walk still in fear and humility, imploring continually the grace of God without which they can do nothing.” St. Bernard says as much, and so do all holy writers. St. Austin upon these words of St. John, “without him nothing was made” (John 1:3); and upon these words of the prophet Joel, “] will restore to you the years, that the locust, the bruchus, and the mildew, and the palmer-worm have eaten” (Joel 2:25), says, it is to humble man, that God has created such variety of insects which torment us. It would have been as easy for him to have sent bears, lions, and serpents, to punish the obstinacy of Pharao and the Egyptians; but the more to humble them, he was pleased to bring down their pride by flies, grasshoppers and frogs. He deals with us almost after the same manner. To humble us the more, he permits us to fall into small faults, and lets little flies and atoms attack and disquiet us; for if we will but examine what usually makes us most uneasy, we shall find that they are things, which, if well considered, are almost nothing. It is perhaps the tone of voice, with which a word is said to us—it is because we think we have been despised. Ofa fly, in fine, we make an elephant, and picking up still whatever comes in our way, we create a thousand things to vex and trouble ourselves with. What should we do, if God had let loose tigers and lions upon us, when a fly puts us to so much pain? And what should we do if some great temptation came upon us? Thus ought we to turn all these things to our profit, and make them serve for our greater humiliation and confusion. And when we make so good use of them as this, “it is an effect,” says St. Bernard, “of God’s mercy not to deliver us wholly from them.”—(Serm. in cen. dom.)

But if these things suffice not to humble you; know that God will proceed yet further at your expense, as he usually does. He hates pride and presumption so much that holy writers say, he often, by a secret but just judgment, permits the proud for their humiliation, to fall into some mortal sin; and not only into some of the least, but into those which are the most shameful of all, I mean the sins of the flesh. The secret sins of pride he punishes, say they, by the public ones of impurity; and they quote upon this occasion, what St. Paul says of the pagan philosophers, whose pride God punished, “by giving them up to the unclean desires of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves.” (Romans 1:24,26) After such a judgment as this;—“who will not fear thee, O King of nations?’ (Jeremias 10:7) Who will not tremble at the recital of a punishment so great, that there is not a greater except in hell; if sin be not yet a punishment more cruel than hell itself? ‘ Who knows the power of thine anger, and who is he that fears thee not?”—(Ps. Ixxxix. 11.)

Holy writers observe, that God shews two kinds of mercy towards us; the one greater, the other lesser. The lesser is, when he assists in the miseries which are but temporal, and which relate only to the body; and the greater is, when he assists us in the miseries, which are purely spiritual; and reach even to the soul. Wherefore when David, after the adultery and murder he had committed, saw himself fallen into the great misery of being abandoned by God, he implores God’s great mercy, saying; “have pity, O God, upon me, according to thy great mercy.” (Psalms 1:1) There are also, say they, two kinds of God’s anger, the one greater, the other lesser, The lesser is, when he chastises any one in temporal affairs, by the loss of estate, honour, health, and the like, which concern the body only; and the greater when he extends his chastisement even to the very soul, according to these words of Jeremiah, “the sword reaches unto the soul;” (Jeremias 4:10), and as God himself says to Zachary, “I am much displeased with the nations that are rich,” (Zacharias 1:15), that is, with the proud and haughty. When God forsakes any one, and to punish him for his sins, lets him fall into some mortal sin, it is an effect of his great anger; and then he chastises him in his fury, and not as a tender and indulgent father,

VOL. U1. T but as a severe and rigorous judge. And of this kind of chastisement, may be understood these words of Jeremiah, “‘ I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, and with a cruel chastisement;” (Jeremias 30:14), as also those of the wise man, “the mouth of the strange woman isa deep pit, he whom the Lord is angry with, shall fall therein.” (Proverbs 22:14)

Pride, in fine, is so bad a thing in itself, and such an abomination in the sight of God, that holy writers hold it to be an advantage sometimes to a proud man, to be thus chastised, that he may thereby be cured of his pride. “I dare assert,” says St. Austin, ‘ that it is profitable for the proud to fall openly into some sin; that so the shame of a public fall, may cure them of the secret complacency they take in themselves, into which they were already fallen without ‘knowing it.”—(De Civ. Dei.) “For pride goes before destruction, and the spirit becomes haughty before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) The same doctrine St. Basil and St. Gregory hold; the latter of whom, speaking of David’s sin, asks why God permits sometimes that they whom he has always elected, and favoured with his grace, should fall into the shameful sin of impurity? It is, answers the saint, because they who have received great gifts from God, let themselves be carried away by thoughts of pride, which lie lurking so secretly in their breast, that they perceive them not; but full of the complacency they take in themselves, they believe they have no object but God. Thus St. Peter took for courage and excess of love to his master, the presumption which made him say, “though all men shall be scandalized at thee, yet will I never be scandalized.” —(Mat. xxvi. 33.) Now, when any one is fallen into this kind of secret and covered pride, it is to raise him, that God permits him sometimes to fall into sins of impurity; which being sins of the body, are easier perceived than those of the mind. For he who falls being thereby put in mind of his weakness, discovers the secret pride that larked in him, which he did not think of remedying, for want of perceiving it; and might have perished thereby. And thus from his fall he derives this advantage, that it induces him to humble himself before God, and to seek by penance the remedy for this his crime of pride, The evident fall of St. Peter made him know the presumption which lay hidden in his breast, and thereby was of advantage to him; because it gave him occasion to bewail, and do penance at the same time for both the sins he was guilty of. The same advantage David obtained by his fall, and it was that made him say:—“It is good for me, that thou hast humbled me, that I might learn thy statutes,” (Psalms 118:71) and have greater diffidence in myself. As when a physician sees that medicines are not strong enough to cure the malignity of an inward disease; he, to cure it the more easily, endeavours to draw it outward; so when God is pleased to cure any of us of our pride, he lets us fall into some great exterior fault, that so the sense of so manifest a sin, may cover us with confusion; and that this confusion may serve to purge and cure in us the internal disease of presumption. God tells us he used his people thus:— Behold,” says he, “I will do a thing in Israel, which whosoever shall hear, both his ears shall tingle.” (1 Kings 3:11) And who would not tremble at the hearing only of so terrible a punishment?

But God nevertheless being so merciful, it is only in case of extremity, that he makes use of so severe a chastisement, and so violent and deplorable a remedy, after having tried milder and easier ones. For first of all, he endeavours to-cure, and bring us back to himself, sometimes by diseases and crosses, and sometimes by afflicting us in our estate or honour; and when these temporal punishments suffice not to humble us, he has recourse to spiritual ones. He first begins with slight trials; afterwards he permits us to be assaulted by violent temptations, which may bring us to the very point of yielding to them, and make us doubt whether we have not consented thereunto; and this he does, to shew us by experience, that of ourselves we are not able to overcome them, and that being sensible of our weakness and the need we have of God’s help, we may become diffident of our own strength, and humble ourselves before him. Now if this be not yet sufficient, he then uses the dreadful remedy of letting a man fall into mortal sin, and suffering him to sink under the temptation, that he may at least learn to know himself, after so fatal a proof, and that he who would not be humbled by grace, should be humbled by sin.

By this may be seen, of how great importance it is to us, to be humble, and not to presume too much on our own strength. -Let every one therefore call himself to account, and examine how he improves the occasions of humbling himself, which God sends him as a father, and a charitable physician, that he may not be obliged to make use of more violent and dangerous remedies. Chastise me, O my God, with the tenderness of a father! To cure me of pride, make use of sufferings, sickness, affronts, injuries, and all the humiliations which thou thinkest fit; but never suffer me to fall into’ mortal sin! Give the devil power to attack my reputation, and my health, and to reduce me even to the miseries of Job, but hinder him from making any attempt upon my soul! Provided, O Lord, that thou dost not go far from me, and permittest me not to go far from thee, no affliction will be able to hurt me; but on the contrary, I shall derive advantage from whatever trouble happens to me; because I may, make use of it, to acquire humility, with which thou art so well pleased.

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