Path to Humility

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Micki

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I was listening to Johnette Bankovic the other day. She was reading a quote from a saint (I didn’t get the saint’s name) who wrote that the ONLY way to attain humility is by humiliations. OUCH!!

Do you think this is the ONLY path. I know humiliations can lead to humility but I’ve been humiliated by others who were mean spirited and downright cruel. I didn’t seek revenge but I don’t think what they did is necessary for me to attain humility.

There have got to be other means!!

Micki
 
I understand humility to be the accurate perception of one’s own worth, which is not self-loathing or anything like that. I do agree that one way to humility can be through humiliations, but …

I have been humbled by the awesomeness of things. Stand at the bottom of a large building and look up at it and imagine how that building got to be and how small a role almost any human had in making it so – but it comes together. That’s humbling, and that’s human.

Looking at a tree can be humbling. The best civil engineers in the world could be amazed and awe-struck by a water supply that takes water from seemingly dry, lifeless dirt and supplies it to every single part of every single leaf, every day.

How about sitting on a mountain, looking around at God’s majesty? Does not that put us in our place?

Alan
 
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Humiliations are not the only way to humility.
 
Micki said:
I was listening to Johnette Bankovic the other day. She was reading a quote from a saint (I didn’t get the saint’s name) who wrote that the ONLY way to attain humility is by humiliations. OUCH!!

Do you think this is the ONLY path. I know humiliations can lead to humility but I’ve been humiliated by others who were mean spirited and downright cruel. I didn’t seek revenge but I don’t think what they did is necessary for me to attain humility.

There have got to be other means!!

Micki
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It could be that the saint, writing at who knows what point in history, is using the term “humiliations” in a broader sence then we think of it today.
The examples given by Alan above are good examples of how God can “humiliate” us, or we can “humiliate” ourselves. By this I mean that our soul, our spirit, humiliates the flesh by showing it the Great majesty of God in creation.

If others humiliate us, this can be cruel and yet can still lead to greater humility AND holiness. It does not matter why they did it, whether they had your good in mind or just their own selfish reasons. It matters what you do with it. By not seeking revenge, by overcoming uncharitable thougths towards them etc, you have grown immensely.

Overall I supect that the saint in question was refering to anything we might do to subdue the flesh and, by humbling the flesh through humiliation, make the flesh and fleshly desires, subject to the Will of the Spirit in God.

Peace
James
 
Micki, one test of humility is whether or not one is upset by being humiliated. If one finds being humiliated difficult, it’s because one still has pride.

Father John Bartunek offers this advice on his blog:
How do you grow in humility? Ask for the grace, first of all, every day. Secondly, continue your determined commitment to mental prayer, meditating on the life and words of Jesus, who is the perfect model of humility. Thirdly, increase your conscientious use of the sacraments of confession and Communion. Finally, never let a day go by without making AT LEAST one small, HIDDEN act of self-denial, e.g. purposely eating another helping of something you don’t like, purposely not turning on the radio for the first five minutes of your commute, purposely not responding to someone who unfairly criticizes you…
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Blessed Teresa of Calcutta gave the Missionaries of Charity guidelines for practicing humility. These are some of the “humiliations” that can help a person grow in humility:
  1. Speak as little as possible about yourself.
  2. Keep busy with your own affairs and not those of others.
  3. Avoid curiosity.
  4. Do not interfere in the affairs of others.
  5. Accept small irritations with good humor.
  6. Do not dwell on the faults of others.
  7. Accept censures even if unmerited.
  8. Give in to the will of others.
  9. Accept insults and injuries.
  10. Accept contempt, being forgotten and disregarded.
  11. Be courteous and delicate even when provoked by someone.
  12. Do not seek to be admired and loved.
  13. Do not protect yourself behind your own dignity.
  14. Give in, in discussions, even when you are right.
  15. Always choose the more difficult task.
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Some other resources:
Litany of Humility
Frustration and Humility – Is there such thing as an “Act” of humility?
How do I get rid of my “inner ugliness?”
 
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