The need for Self abasement

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SELF-ABASEMENT Believe in your heart that you are an unworthy servant of God, humbling yourself and saying with the Prophet: “I am a worm, and no man; scorned by men, and despised by the people” (Ps 22: 6).

How do we feel about self abasement in this modern age?

Do you have a way of thinking which is akin to the sentiments in the above quoted Psalm?

Should it supplement our desires for humility?
 
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I won’t say I am a worm. In my case, I say I am a poor sinner and the worst of the worst of all sinners before God.
 
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I think it is a natural response, when we recognize our own poor and corrupt state in the presence of a holy God. As a form of humility it serves an in connecting us with faith in God and trust in His saving grace.
 
“It is a sign of humility if a man does not think too much of himself, but if a man condemns the good things he has received from God, this, far from being a proof of humility, shows him to be ungrateful.” St Thomas Aquinas.

It would seem that self abasement is not self hatred or self loathing but a balanced view of oneself as compared with the Ideal. It may be that the holier the person the less holy they perceive themselves to be.

To acknowledge our skills and talents as God given is to show gratitude but we might not revel in self congratulation since that would be the opposite of humility and lead to self pride it seems.
 
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I can’t recall who was it, but one Saint once said that humility means to view yourself as you are- in truth. With all your weaknesses and everything that you lack but also with every gift God gave you- of course while acknowledging that God gave you those gifts, you did not earn them nor do you deserve them. You do not deserve to exist yet you should be proud of what God created- both in you and in others.
 
Thomas a Kempis certainly said this “Left to myself, I am nothing but total weakness. But if You look upon me for an instant, I am at once made strong and filled with new joy.” This concerning self abasement in the sight of God.
 
‘I WILL speak to my Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. If I consider myself anything more than
this, behold You stand against me, and my sins bear witness to the truth which I cannot contradict.
If I abase myself, however, if I humble myself to nothingness, if I shrink from all self-esteem and
account myself as the dust which I am, Your grace will favor me, Your light will enshroud my
heart, and all self-esteem, no matter how little, will sink in the depths of my nothingness to perish
forever.
It is there You show me to myself—what I am, what I have been, and what I am coming to; for
I am nothing and I did not know it. Left to myself, I am nothing but total weakness. But if You
look upon me for an instant, I am at once made strong and filled with new joy. Great wonder it is
that I, who of my own weight always sink to the depths, am so suddenly lifted up, and so graciously
embraced by You.’ - The Imitation of Christ
 
We need the basic humility to acknowledge our sinfulness and recognize Gods existence, absolute superiority, and of our need for Him. And this can be a tall task. But if we overdo that we’re entering the realm of shame/ self-hatred, which is destructive, nihilistic. It’s a balancing act in a sense because God also loves and values man immensely. We need to know of our worth, or potential for it anyway, at the same time. From the CCC:

356 Of all visible creatures only man is “able to know and love his creator”.219 He is “the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake”,220 and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity:

What made you establish man in so great a dignity? Certainly the incalculable love by which you have looked on your creature in yourself! You are taken with love for her; for by love indeed you created her, by love you have given her a being capable of tasting your eternal Good.221

357 Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead.

358 God created everything for man,222 but man in turn was created to serve and love God and to offer all creation back to him:

What is it that is about to be created, that enjoys such honor? It is man that great and wonderful living creature, more precious in the eyes of God than all other creatures! For him the heavens and the earth, the sea and all the rest of creation exist. God attached so much importance to his salvation that he did not spare his own Son for the sake of man. Nor does he ever cease to work, trying every possible means, until he has raised man up to himself and made him sit at his right hand.223
 
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Sounds a bit gnostic which is not surprising to find in the OT. They were being chased because they were not following the will of God.
 
Again from humility rules, a modern book about the twelve rules of St Benedict

“Whatever you do,” wrote Saint Paul, “do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10: 31). That means you can wash dishes for the glory of God, take a walk for the glory of God, brush your teeth for the glory of God, play soccer or change a light bulb for the glory of God. Whatever you do, you can do it for the glory of God.

Thérèse of Lisieux wrote that the Lord “needs neither our brilliant deeds nor our beautiful thoughts.” Rather, “He loves simplicity.”
5 Or, in the words of Mother Teresa: “There are no great deeds. Only small deeds with great love.”

Little acts of self abasement, big opportunities to develop humility.
 
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Lee1 said:
SELF-ABASEMENT Believe in your heart that you are an unworthy servant of God, humbling yourself and saying with the Prophet: “I am a worm, and no man; scorned by men, and despised by the people” (Ps 22: 6).
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This is a Messianic Psalm, in which the writer (traditionally thought to be King David) is prophetically looking thru Jesus’ eyes, seeing Himself as those around the cross see Him. Jesus Himself quoted the first verse as he was hanging on the cross. Re-read the psalm with that in mind, and it might open a whole new meaning for you.

As concerns self-abasement, both the Law (Lev. 19:18) and Jesus Himself (Matt. 25:39, and other locations) teach us that we are to “. . . love our neighbor as [we love] ourselves.” What happens to this commandment, if we are supposed to abase ourselves? Does this mean that we are supposed to abase our neighbors as well?

D
 
I absolutely love when we say during mass “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” I could reflect on that all day! Wish we said it much slower too during mass.

Same with the Kyrie Eliasson. Such a great humbling part of mass. Praying during adoration while prostrate is also really good in terms of humbling our value
 
No, I don’t think so, we might love our neighbours as unworthy servants or with humility accepting that our love and charity may not be reciprocated.

Self abasement is to help us achieve humility, it is our neighbours responsibility to achieve spiritual development themselves.
 
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Not to be a pedant, but we may want to bear in mind the distinction between abasement (“humility”) and debasement (“de-valuation”). At times I think we, as Catholics, conflate the two. We are not called to the latter. How this bears on “worm” I am not sure.
 
I’m not sure about the worm either, I think it was a popular analogy at the time. A worm I suppose is simply animated flesh, useful in some ways to the environment but of little spiritual value perhaps.

I think the point is to be realistic about ones value, without feeding the ego overly beyond that which is healthy and balanced. We are Gods children after all and valued highly by God but the trick is to acknowledge that only God can see our true value and we might not be best placed to do so.
 
Lee1 said:
It would seem that self abasement is not self hatred or self loathing but a balanced view of oneself as compared with the Ideal. It may be that the holier the person the less holy they perceive themselves to be.
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I would say that the holier we become the more humble we are and we realize how far from infinite holiness we are.
 
Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself - its thinking of yourself less.
 
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