Over the past few weeks, I have posted on different virtues that we, as a society, have lost. We already covered wisdom and courage. Today, I will touch on a virtue that is in short supply and is quite hard to to get. This is the virtue of humility. The danger, of course, is to fall into the catch-22 of humility, which is that if you say that you are humble, then oftentimes you ain’t. So, I’m not going to do that. Instead, I will say that I am in the same boat that the rest of you are. Cursed pride is always snaking its way into my heart like it is in yours. And (same as you) I have to combat it by inculcating the virtue of humility.
What do I even mean by humility, anyway? When we think of humility, we sometimes think of a person who browbeats themselves. “Humble” flagellants flog themselves over how bad they are. Everything they do is bad, and they aren’t good enough for anything. I would submit to you that this isn’t humility. This is self-humiliation.
A good definition of humility is found on Wikipedia. Humility is defined “as a low self-regard[and sense of unworthiness. In a religious context humility can mean a recognition of self in relation to a deity (i.e. God) or deities, and subsequent submission to said deity as a member of that religion. Outside of a religious context, humility is defined as being “unselved”, a liberation from consciousness of self, a form of temperance that is neither having pride (or haughtiness) nor indulging in self-deprecation.”
In the above definition you will find a word popping up over and over again. This is the word “self.” Unfortunately, our postmodern age is obsessed with the self. Pride is merely an outgrowth of this. Humans are the measure of all of things. All reality falls in obeisance to the self. We speak our truth and live our truth. The sad thing is that doing this can cause unspeakable pain and suffering.
An interesting, if extreme, illustration recently appeared in a Marvel show called WandaVision. In it, the series protagonist Wanda has the ability to bend reality to her will, and she creates a world based on sitcoms that she used to watch as a child. Ironically, when Wanda does this she causes all of the people around her to suffer. Their minds are trapped while their bodies are forced to playact in her own twisted fantasy. Wanda is the actual villain of the series, the one who does the most harm, and it is all because she wants to live her own truth, serve herself, and take away her own pain.
A good way to look at humility is given by the Apostle Paul: “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Rom. 12:3). We have a tendency to either have an overinflated view of ourselves or an underinflated view of ourselves. But true humility enables us to accurately see ourselves, pimples and dimples. True lowliness of mind helps us to “esteem other better than ourselves” and “not only [our] own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3-4).
So what does a failure in humility look like? This is where I might get into trouble because I’m going to point to both our past president and our current president. Everyone from both sides are free to fire at me, I suppose, though I’d be happy to meet with folks and chat over a cup of coffee. President Trump proudly thought that he needed to air his thoughts on everything on social media. How many times did we hear that something of his was “the best, maybe ever?” On the other side, President Biden has shown an inability to admit that he is wrong, particularly in regards to foreign policy. Many if not most people would say that the Afghanistan exit was botched, and it resulted in an avoidable catastrophe. But the sin of pride is not limited to the political class. The intellectual can take undo pride in his intellect, and he can look down on others and their opinions because they haven’t studied like he has. The worker can believe that her work makes her better than others and that she deserves the most recognition above all her peers. Attractive people can sometimes glory in the attention that they receive.
I will close with a quote from C.S. Lewis’ book Mere Christianity. This is found at the very end of chapter 8, entitled The Great Sin.
Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call “humble” nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.
If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.
Solfa Sounds 