Again mount Athos, which overwhelmed me in terms of my understanding of watching it. The monasteries are covered or concealed by the length of the trees. Does the tree have the spirit of smashing, or, does the monastery’s scent smash? And the ceiling of the monastery conceals all the monks, while their society strikes their individuality.
[Only] whatever is hidden [truly] is, and whenever you come to the fore in order to show your existence, it is not you who comes out, rather your pettiness. The humble person is the one who does not see him/[her]self above the earth, i.e., he/[she] perceives his/[her] soul smashed. He/[she] might feel the smashing, since he/[she] feels his/[her] soul trampled down and because of being the victim of injustice he/[she] delights and rejoices as the Book says in Matthew. When the Lord had said, “learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart”, (Matt. 11: 29) He revealed that the source of this great virtue is the enlightened heart through Chris. This is to say that one might acquire this virtue after immense purification. There is no place for false glory in the heart of the believer and only the Lord, who humbled Himself unto death, death on a cross, dwells in it. (Phil. 2: 8)
Whenever you perceive this, you understand the words of the apostle: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of sinners”. (1Tim.1: 15) Paul, who had exceeded many in virtues, even was caught up to the third heaven, was thinking of himself as the last of all people. And St. John Climacus [of the Ladder] had said, “Humility is a blessing for the soul, it does not have a name which expresses it, other than the one that those who had learned it through experience have.” Then, the great monk elaborated his speech on the beauty of humility, saying: “whoever unites him/[her]self with humility in a similar way as the unity of the bridegroom with the bride, he/[she] would be always kind, ardent, thrilled, quite, cheerful, does not sadden anyone, and in a word free of caprices.” Caprice is a term used by the ascetic Fathers and it refers to the source of sin, and it is our irritability that creates it. As if the monk is saying that whoever reaches at the virtue of humility, he/[she] had reached the peak of purity, this would be a person for whom heaven has been opened, while on earth. He/[she] trusts the gifts of heaven and does not trust oneself, rather he/[she] awaits God’s judgment upon him/[her]self. Thus, he/[she] does not pride him/[her]self on any good thing that he/[she] has. A person like this has attained resurrection before the general resurrection.
Does this mean that the humble person does not perceive in him/[her]self merits? Socrates had recommended that the person should know oneself, in order that he/[she] might know his/[her] abilities and serve. And the Lord had said, “you are the light of the world”, and ordered us to enlighten others, and not to put the lamp under a bushel. [Matt.5: 14-15] Your ability of speech e.g., or your ability to manage the public affairs, these could not be hidden to you. Nevertheless, the apostle orders you not to think of yourself as higher than what you ought to, since then you will become nothing. You would not acquire humility, unless you realize that whatever lofty and true within you comes from God. You have been entrusted the above virtues and you are not their owner. You enlighten people by divine light, which owner you are not. You are a channel for compassion, which you give, and you are not the Compassionate one, similar to the canal of water which is not the water. Whenever you are in a state of constant thanksgiving to your Lord, people trace the lights of the Lord which are delineated on your face, and praise God because of you.
Thus, humility does not come to us by the way of nature that we inherit. To be kind, quite, shrewd and humble does not mean, according to St. Isaac the Syriac, that you have reached the height of humility. If once, or at some occasion, you have regretted a wicked thing, do not think that you have attained humility. One cannot attain humility unless one ascends the whole ladder of virtues. The virtues succeed each other and humility is the culmination of the ascent.
It might be that only those who have been the victim of boastfulness, and have got rid of it, the ones who can truly perceive the meaning of humility. Boastfulness is when you consider certain details in your nature, and you think that you have obtained them as the outcome of some works, which you think have honored you. You feel that you have surpassed your measure and you might not know that you have puffed yourself up. Each one of us is a frog, who aspires to be as big as an ox, as La Fontaine’s fable maintained, asserting to him/[her]self that it might be realized, while it won’t, until life strikes him/[her] and then he/[she] blows up.
This prides him/[her]self on his/[her] money and that prides on his/[her] authority, while neither your money nor your authority is you. You perceive yourself through whatever you gain, while you are [truly] the way God sees you, namely that which you have not gained. At a true repentance you shall be stripped from whatever you have gained, and you shall understand that God, through God’s love, fashions you. Hence, you carry your belovedness and become splendid, guiding [others] by it. Why have our masters thought that arrogance is the greatest sin? Since through it you divinize yourself, i.e. you apostatize. Arrogance is apostasy in its density. On the other hand the humble person, who thinks of him/[her]self as nothing, reveals that it is God who shed’s light upon him/[her]. Therefore, he/[she] prides on God and excludes apostasy fully, and thus, becomes of a deified nature, entering the state of deification and carrying out within him/[her]self the characteristics of God.
Humility is the complete tranquility and the complete certitude, since it is the vision of God’s face. [In this state] the person enters the glamor of freedom, i.e. the freedom from the ‘I’. Yes, no one reaches at putting the ‘I’ to death unless at his/[her] death, since the death of the righteous one is the Holy Saturday, on which Christ has rested in the tomb. No one attains the complete rest unless in the tomb, since it is the final baptism.
The ‘I’ does not die completely in this world, since as long as we are in flesh, sin or its delights, i.e., the wavering between righteousness and perversity, attack us. Complete repentance is a yearning, until God takes us to Godself. Great humility brings the yearning to an end and gives us the vision, which we might be given through the vigilance of the soul and the Kingdom, which has started to dwell in us.
In Byzantine Liturgy, we call the communion of the Lord’s body “the Completion of the Kingdom of heaven”, though its author, John Chrysostom, was aware that we might be given completion only after our resurrection. As if he says that if on Sunday morning you unite yourself with Christ, do not expect any other thing yet to come. Whenever God acknowledges you as a humble person in accordance with the image of the crucified one, nothing is required from you other than the completion of love, which John the apostle had made the true name of the Lord, saying, “God is Love.” The humble one loves, since nothing has remained in him/[her] other than God.
Whenever we believe in this, there would be no difference whether you are a minister, a doctor, a carpenter, or a shoeblack. What matters is that you accomplish your duties with obedience to God, and that you do not consider yourself as great if you were from the elite of your community, and do not belittle yourself whenever you were from the little ones. I know people who had gained important status in the society and have not become arrogant. They have not prided themselves neither on the properties in their houses, nor on their wealth. They remained on the humility that they previously had. The inner soul does not fall always by the beauties of the lower world. Nothing corrupts you, whenever you determine to keep the Lord in your heart, since you know that nothing can add one cubit unto your span of life. You might rub out whatever your friends think that you may pride yourself on. You pass through all worldly splendor, you pass through your intelligence, or your beauty, as if they are nothing. The brilliance of your mind, or any other created thing, cannot attract you. Only God’s glory and the glamor of the saints, of which some are alive, arouse your attention. So you live to receive from them, since you believe that you come into being through them, without knowing that you were fashioned through them. You leave your own judgment to your Lord and wait for His compassion. You fear that you might not attain the heaven, since you think of yourself as a sinner. You live with this awe and come closer, “with the fear of God, faith and love”, to the table of salvation on the Sunday morning. Through that you become wholly a new person, and only the Lord knows that you have become new.
Translated by Sylvie Avakian-Maamarbashi
Original Text: “التواضع” –An Nahar- 23-01-2010
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