On Humility
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August 14, 2022On Humility
An excerpt from St. Basil, Bishop, and Doctor
O that man had remained in glory with God! For he would then possess, not the glory now imputed to him, but his own true glory, made great by the power of God, made luminous by the divine wisdom, made blessed by eternal life and its joys! But since he turned away from the desire of the divine glory, hoping for a greater, seeking eagerly for what he could not obtain, he lost what he should now possess. And now his surest salvation, the healing of his wound, his way of return to his beginning, is to be humble; not to think that he can ever of himself put on the cloak of glory, but that he must seek it from God. In this way he will put right the false step taken; in this way he may return to the holy obedience he rejected.
But having overthrown man by the hope of false glory, the devil does not cease from tempting him with these very same delusions; devising countless snares for this purpose, proving to him that it is a great thing to amass riches, that by this means he may become great, and that he should be eager to obtain them: which in fact do not lead him to glory, but may rather lead him into great danger. For the amassing of riches is the beginning of avarice; and this amassing does not lead to any glory, rather it blinds men through folly, uplifts them to no purpose, and causes a sickness like an inflammation within the soul. A body that is swollen is neither healthy nor of use to any man; it is rather an unwholesome state, the beginning of danger for him, and a source of death. And this is what arrogance is to the soul.
This swelling up of the mind does not arise from money alone. It is not only because of their wealth, because of the elegance and richness of their dress that men become proud, nor because of their elaborate table, going far beyond what is needed, nor their excessive personal adornment, their splendid houses, splendidly furnished, their servants, their retinue of flatterers, but also because of their public office men become uplifted above what is natural. If the people have entrusted some dignity to any of them, if they have been thought worthy of some post of honour, or some distinction has been conferred upon them, they imagine that through this they have risen above the ordinary nature of man. They think that they now sit alone among the clouds, that the rest of men are but dust beneath their feet; holding themselves as superior to those who gave them their present dignity, they are contemptuous of those through whom they received their imagined glory. This shows how filled with folly they have become. For their glory is more fragile than a dream; their splendour more unsubstantial than a vision of the night given them by the will of the people, and ended by the will of the people.
