A Meditation on Humility
Father Brian Vander Wel, Rector of Christ Church in Accokeek, Maryland, offered the following meditation to the clergy of the diocese in recent Zoom prayer meetings. The Diocese shares this with you, as well, for prayerful contemplation and encouragement.
Scripture reading: Phillippians 2:1-13
In an essay titled The Humble God, Deborah Wallace Ruddy argues that throughout his writings, St. Augustine articulates the critical role that God’s own humility plays in humanity’s salvation. Summarizing Augustine, Ruddy states that “God creates with power, splendor, and majesty, but God saves with poverty, humility, and vulnerability.” (p. 89)
Humanity falls in pride. Humanity is saved in humility.
Our reading today from Philippians 2 highlights this reality very clearly. In it, we hear the call of God the Holy Spirit to be humble: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
This call is rooted in, and possible only, because of the “mind” of Jesus Christ, a “mind” that belongs to us because we belong to him.
Of Christ Paul says that “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant.”
This, of course, is one of the key passages that underscores the preexisting divinity of Jesus, the Son of God. But here, Paul emphasizes the mindset of Christ: he does not exploit his divine position for his own advantage. Rather, he empties himself and becomes a servant, a slave, and as the text suggests, this self-emptying begins in his conception. Only the Son of God is great enough and powerful enough to make himself small enough and weak enough to be an embryo in the womb of his mother. As Gregory of Nyssa says, the Incarnation of the Son of God is like the same power it would take to make a flame burn downward. This is the humility and power of the Son of God. Again, Paul tells us that this humility is Christ’s, but it is ours as well because we are in Christ.
So, how are we doing? Is this a virtue that is growing in us? Do we seek God’s grace to cultivate it?
Humility is the antidote to Pride. As the self-examination chapter in St. Augsutine’s prayer book defines it, “PRIDE is putting self in the place of God as the center and objective of our life … . It is the refusal to recognize our status as creatures, dependent on God for our existence, and placed by him in a specific relationship to the rest of his creation.”
In a word, in pride we want our life on our own terms. But not just our life, in pride we want other people’s lives, the circumstances of the world and even God himself on our own terms. It is the little – and sometimes big – annoyances of our lives that typically highlight where pride has a foothold in us. For example,
when the text comes and someone’s pastoral need diverts us from our already-behind sermon prep
or when we are annoyed by the choices other drivers make on the road
or when we are snowed in for days having to engage in the onerous task of shoveling “snowcrete” from our driveways and sidewalks.
Humility learns to accept life as it is: our life, God’s life and the life of the whole world. Humility says, “Let it be to me according to your word.” Humility’s acceptance of life as it is, however, is not a docile passivity or worse, a collusion with evil and brokenness. No. Humility’s acceptance rests in a confidence in God’s plan of salvation. Humility says, “I trust you, Lord. I trust your plans. I trust your purpose. I trust you are working all things together for good, in your time, in your way, for me, for those around me, and for the life of the world.” Additionally, humility allows us to make a genuine and sober assessment of who we really are. Humility helps clarify the real power we have – or more often the power we do not have – in the relationships and circumstances of our lives.
As Jesus humbly stoops, Jesus saves and rescues. But it is also true that as we make Jesus’ humility our example – as we surrender to his way – we receive the antidote to our pride. As we emulate him, we are saved from pride’s grip. What is the way of Jesus? Jesus’ way is submission to the Father’s will: that is, complete, total, absolute, unconditional submission and surrender. St. Benedict underscores this when he says in his Rule, “[H]umility is that a person love not his own will nor take pleasure in satisfying his desires, but model his actions on the saying of the Lord, ‘I have come not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.’ ”
Paul shows us three things in this reading: that Jesus’ humility is what saves us, that our growth in humility is drawn from his humility, AND thirdly (and critically) that we live this humility in community. Listen again, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Humility is rooted in Jesus and expressed in relationship with each other. It is most certainly part of the work of salvation that Paul speaks about in the concluding verses: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
God’s good pleasure is to work the humility of Jesus within us and among us. So, let us give ourselves wholeheartedly to this task.
A cautionary word. Beware of one perennial expression of false humility: thinking of ourselves as less than we are. (Again, this is false humility.) We have the life we have by God’s arrangement. Our family, our friends, our neighbors, our congregation, our province, our bishop are all part of God’s providence for us. We have been created for them, just as these people and circumstances have been created for us. Consequently, everyday, our lives are full of divinely appointed responsibilities and privileges. Minimizing your role or value – “I’m just a poor so and so” – is false humility and undervalues your importance in God’s plan. “The glory of God is a human being fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God,” says St. Ireneus. Minimizing yourself and your value – false littleness – is not humility; it is downgrading what God has made. You have a place in this world, arranged by God just so.
Own it! Live it!
My brother and sister clergy, if we wish, God sets us free from our pride – progressively and over time! This is genuine freedom! We are more and more free to serve him. More and more free to surrender to his plan for us. More and more free from our own fallen desires and distorted will to serve him and the world around us in love – “to serve [the Lord] in perfect freedom” (as the Morning Prayer Collect for Peace puts it.) True humility always leads to genuine love of God and to love our neighbor. Pride seeks to elevate self over neighbor.
Humility seeks to love and serve, as we are, loving and serving our neighbors, as they are.
The need for humility has been a common conversation in our ACNA world in the last six months. The ACNA in general will grow in humility as all of us – bishops, priests, deacons and laity alike – make it a priority. As we move toward our Lenten prayers and disciplines, let us ask God to give us the grace to grow in this essential virtue, depending on our Savior, seeing anew his own humility.