1. HUMILITY.
Humility is the beginning of the spiritual life. It is the beginning of our journey towards salvation. It is the beginning of all virtues, all knowledge and all wisdom. In the spiritual life, without humility we will get no where but remain in our sins.
Humility is the first Beatitude; it is the first degree of holiness with which the kingdom of heaven become ours. It is the beginning of the supernatural life.
Humility, as the first Beatitude, is the first step wherewith we enter the Catholic Church. It is the beginning of supernatural Faith.
Asked what we should learn from Him, Christ answered; ‘learn from Me for I am meek and humble of heart.’ He didn’t say learn how to preach, how to perform miracle or how to walk on water. He said, learn ‘humility’ from Me. Learn ‘My humility.’ Not
anybody’s humility.
2. One of the most defined word in theology.
All the fathers of the Church and all the saints had something to say about humility. But the saintly authors who described it exhaustively were St. Pope Gregory the Great, St. Augustine, St. Benedict, St. Thomas of Aquinas, St. Bernard of Clairvaux……and not to prolong our list, St. Ignatius of Loyola.
St. Benedict is known for his 12 degrees of humility; while St. Bernard took the same 12 degrees of humility and wrote side by side with them the 12 degrees of pride. We such clear definition and presentation we can look at ourselves and others and see in what degree of humility we all are or in what degree of pride we are.
These degrees are often used in spiritual direction to guide souls through an ascending degree and, therefore, a gradual and constant ascent in the spiritual life.
3. Philosophical humility, supernatural humility and public relation humility.
Christ clearly said to learn His humility and not anyone’s humility. That is supernatural humility that cannot be attained through natural ways. Supernatural humility is a gift of God given to those who have lived a life of repentance.
There is another level of humility common to philosophers. It is the highest kind of humility in the natural level reached through pure human reasoning.
And there is the popular humility highly praised by mass media common among politicians and actors wanting to raise their ratings.
Christ and the Gospel for the 22th Sunday talks only of supernatural humility; a humility all Catholics should have but specially, as Christ said, by cardinals, bishops and priests. Now, let us define this virtue and see if we have it.
4. The humility of Christ.
The humility of Christ is humility of mind and humility of heart. It is a supernatural humility built on philosophical humility, thus mind and heart. It is an act of the will based on reality.
With all the confusion in the Church today, knowledge of the four visible signs of the true Church mentioned in the Nicene Creed is settle all questions. But most do not know these signs; and, therefore, are unable to use these visible signs to analyse present problems.
The Beatitudes are another way of knowing which is the true Church and who are those who are inside the Catholic Church. Except that they are not visible signs. They are more spiritual descriptions of the soul and, therefore, cannot be used by most people. But we can try to use, at least, the first Beatitude which is humility. Christ gave some visible signs of this spiritual virtue. He said; ‘if you have this spiritual virtue you will not chose the first place in a wedding party.’ That is the visible sign. But what is the spiritual description of this virtue?
Let us try to describe it using St. Benedicts’, St. Bernard’s and St. Thomas’ descriptions.
5. Poor in Spirit – humility
St. Benedict describes 12 degrees of humility. Let us just describe the first, keeping in mind that the next degrees are so dependent on the previous degree. The second degree can only be attained after the first is attained.
Today, the first degree is nowhere to be found even among most of the member of the hierarchy, as Christ, Himself could not find it among His Apostles in today’s Gospel since they were squabbling on who will be first.
In the Beatitudes, poor in spirit is humility. Let us now talk about humility and discuss the first degree as found in St. Benedict’s Rule. And then let us go to St. Bernard and look at the opposite of humility, i.e. pride and talk about the highest degree of pride. So we have the lowest degree of humility and the highest degree of pride as our topics for this post.
Why is our topic this way? Well, when we begin with small humility it is possible that we still have very great pride. As our humility increases, our pride decreases. That is why the first degree of humility is placed side by side with the greatest degree of pride.
Let us first define humility in general, then define the first degree specifically. We will not proceed to the second degree up to the twelfth because to find the first degree today is almost next to impossible, not eve among the bishops or even in Pope Francis. So there is no use to go up to the twelfth. But we shall look at the highest degree of of pride because that is the first in St. Bernard”s list.
6. Humility in general.
St. Thomas of Aquinas wrote that humility has two general characteristic; first, it is a virtue that makes a person very realistic. And secondly, that he believes no matter how educated he is, that he can, still, commit a mistake.
Being realistic needs a lot of intellectual knowledge and wisdom. He is not influence by imaginings, fantasies, virtual realities, day dreams and unproven theories; all of these are considered unrealistic. It was for this reason that Galileo was rebuked; because he was proposing a theory that at time time was not realistic. Only for that reason and nothing else. That the world was round was unproven at that time and, therefore, could not be considered realistic. As long as there is no proof that something is real, the humble person will not accept it.
Firstly, the humble soul has the most scientific mind in the world. He won’t believe unless there is solid proof. That is why he needs the supernatural grace to believe Catholic truths; without this grace he won’t believe. This supernatural grace, that can come from God alone, is his proof and infallible reason for believing.
Pope Francis believes in the big bang theory; he believes in evolution, he believes in climate change. He believes that all religion have the same god which no religion claims. He believes communism is better than capitalism. He believes that the youth should make a mess of the world. He, even, believes that adultery and same sex marriage are alright. What proofs does he have? Nothing! These are theories and personal opinions that have not been proven; they are, therefore, in the present still unreal. So Pope Francis does not have true humility. He, only, has put on humility for mass media and for nobel awards.
Secondly, a humble person, no matter how well educated the is believes that he can, still, make a mistake and will gladly listen to any correction. He believes, in fact, that he knows nothing though he has a doctorate degree. And if he is praised for knowing something he attributes it as a gift from God; while considering it a great favour if he is corrected since he deeply believes in humility that he can still make a mistake.
Pope Francis thinks he cannot make a mistake. Corrected by a group led by Cardinal Burke during the 2015 Bishop’s Synod for disobeying the 6th and 9th commandments, He fired Cardinal Burke and demoted him; and continues to insist on what he likes in the next two bishop’s Synod. That is humility for you; rejecting the possibility of committing mistakes and firing and demoting the one who corrects you. Why, there is not a shadow of humility in his behaviour.
In fact, during the meeting on climate change in the Vatican upon which he based his ‘Laudato si’ the news stated that he invited all of those who proposed that there is climate change but barred from the meeting those who’d argued against its existence.
7. First degree of humility; the fear of the Lord.
Now, let us go into humility in more detail by studying the first degree of humility. Most member of the priesthood and hierarchy do not have the humility, defined in general, that puts them inside the Church. If their Pope does not have it, certainly, most of the followers wouldn’t have it. Because from whom will the common man learn it if the teachers do not have it.
Maybe, if we be more specific by dividing the said virtue into 12, which makes it easier to describe and apply them, then hopefully we might find some priests, bishops and even Pope Francis having at least one degree of humility.
Being a Jesuit he should have at least one of the three degrees of humility mentioned by St. Ignatius. Though St. Ignatius described it more in general than St. Benedict and St. Bernard.
What is the first degree of humility according to St. Benedict? The fear of the Lord. While the 12th degree is the humility that cast out all fears. The first degree is the humility that is filled with fear of the Lord; not servile but filial fear. The 12th is the love that cast out all fear, i.e. Charity. The 12th degree of humility is Charity.
St. Benedict described the first degree of humility this way; that a person keep the fear of God before his eyes and beware of ever forgetting it. Let him be ever mindful of all that God has commanded. Let his thoughts constantly recur to the hell fire which will burn for their sins those who despise God, and to the life everlasting which is prepared for those who fear him. Let a man consider that God is always look at him from heaven. that his actions are every where visible to the divine eyes and are constantly being reported to God by the Angels.
What should we fear? God’s justice. Fear of God is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It cannot be developed by human efforts. It is a gift of God given to those who have completely repented. We should fear the fact that God rewards the just but punishes the sinner.
And the FIRST THING we should fear is the possibility that some of our past mortal sins had not been forgiven. Of course, we have gone to confusion. And the priest said ‘your sins are forgiven thee.’ And, maybe, those sins are really forgiven.
But let us face it, when the priest said ‘your sins are forgiven thee,’ he was, also, unsure if those sins are forgiven. Priests just say that because it is in the prayer formula after absolution. Even when bishops and popes absolve they are not sure if those sins are forgiven. Only one person knows if those sins are forgiven or not. And that is God who had been offended and, only Him, who can forgive. I repeat, your mortal sins might have been forgiven but no one is sure. Not even you.
But spiritual writers had shown that those saints who reached the 12th degree of humility, and that is all of them, were informed by God, Himself, that their past sins had been forgiven, like St. Catherine of Sienna. It is part of the Beatitudes that you will be consoled with the fact that your sins are forgiven when you rise up to the higher Beatitudes.
In the meanwhile, while God had not informed you, since you are just in the first degree of humility, you should live in fear that some mortal sins had not been forgiven and that if you die you go to hell. Very good reason for fearing the Lord, isn’t it?
Pope Francis had been disobeying God’s command as Bishop in Argentina, like tolerating remarried couples to receive Holy Communion. He is still doing it as Pope and continuing to tolerate it up to this moment…….aside from his tolerating same sex relationship, encouraging pagans to remain pagans, not believing in the Catholic God, etc. This lack of the gift of the Holy Spirit speaks very badly of him. And this is due to his preaching that no one goes to hell. Of course, with such teaching no one will have the fear of the Lord (the first degree of humility.) As a consequence no one can go to heaven, not even Pope Francis…….because as stated above, humility is the first Beatitude, the minimum requirement to enter the Church and be saved.
If you do not have the fear of the Lord which is a gift of the Holy Spirit, you do not have the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, who is the uncreated soul of the Catholic Church, you are not a Pope, not a bishop, not a priest….because you are not, even, a Catholic. Humility is the basic minimum, wrote St. Ignatius of Loyola (‘Humility for the sake of salvation,’ St. Ignatius)
We should fear the Lord for many reasons. But let us just take one more; and we hope everyone can continue on their own. The SECOND THING we should fear is that we might not have done completely what is necessary for the salvation of our souls. We can, only, know if we have done everything well if we have reached Charity.
Have we obeyed all the more than 80 commands of Christ in the New Testament? Have we practiced the 12 degrees of humility? Have we practiced the 8 Beatitudes? Have we performed the more than 70 acts of good works? Do we have the three theological virtues, etc.
To answer these questions we must know what we are talking about, like what are the more than 80 commands of Christ in the New Testament. How can we know if we have obeyed them if we do not know what they are.
And yet we know that Christ said; ‘no one will enter unless we have paid the last iota.’ That should fill our hearts with fear. Have we paid the last iota? And unless we can answer that question in the affirmative we cannot go to sleep in peace less we die in our sleep and go to hell.
Pope Francis’ ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ does not show the way to everlasting life unlike Pope John Paul’s ‘Veritatis Splendor.’ None of his writing, specially ‘Amoris laetitia’ show the way to eternal life. In fact, there is absolute nothing in ‘Laudato si.’ How come he is so sure he is going to heaven when he has no proof that he knows the way. In fact, anyone who has 3 credits in theology can see that his theology is pure Pelagianism. He does not know the way to everlasting life since he had never mentioned the way up to now. ‘Who am I to judge?’ See. He does not even know good from evil.
Proof he does not have the humility described by the saints.
8. What does he have. Let’s go to St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Pope Francis encourages the habit of sinning. He tells adulterers to continue in their adultery and commands bishops to annul previous marriage so adulterers can continue their adultery thus making it a habit. He, also, encourages pagans to continue in their paganism thus developing their paganism into a habit. He encourages perverts to continue in their perversity so that it becomes a habit.
St. Augustine wrote; ‘for of a forward will, was a lust made; and a lust served, became custom; and custom not resisted become necessity (Confessions).When a sin becomes a habit due to prolong immersion in it, it bears ugly flower in that the sinner becomes a slave. He, who encourage sin so that it becomes a habit is guilty of the HIGHEST DEGREE OF PRIDE, the 12 degree of pride. St. Gregory the Great in his ‘Moralia’ calls it ‘spiritual pride in imitation of the devil.’
But mass media describes him as humble. Mass media would not know the difference between heaven and hell.