Humility A Play in Three Acts. Ask any good Franciscan and they will tell you how proud they are to practice the virtue of humility. Humility is at the core of Franciscan spirituality. St. Francis expressed this virtue not only by living a life of simplicity and poverty, but also in his profound devotion to the incarnate God. God, the almighty creator of all that is, humbled himself to become a creature, taking on the flesh and blood of man; man, a creature made out of dirt. St. Bonaventure, the great Franciscan mystic and theologian, delved into what it means to live a life based on humility. Typical of Bonaventure, he began his contemplation with God, who is the source of all that is. If we are to really understand humility, and if humility is a good to be pursued, then it must have its origin in and with God. He laid out his thoughts in what he called the Three Fold Movement of humility, or what I like to think of as a play in three acts. Act One: Act Two: Act Three: God moves in humility towards us We respond in humility to God As a result of acts one and two, we turn in humility towards others Act One Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; (Gen 1:26 RSV) then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Gen 2:7 RSV) In the beginning of sacred scripture we see God, who is complete within himself, who needs nothing to increase his Godness, create a rational living being in His image. Out of the dust of the Earth, God breathes life into matter. Ruha is the Hebrew word that is used to describe this breath of life. Ruha has two meanings; breath and spirit. Just as breathing is essential for this creature to live physically the created being needs the spirit of God to live the life for which God created, that is, to share in the life of the Trinity. This was not lost on the psalmist who contemplated You take back their spirit (Ruha), they die, returning to the dust from which they come. You send forth your spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the Earth. ( Ps 104, Grail translation ).
Psalm 8 also expresses the wonderment of God s reaching out in humility to make a creature with whom He shares His glory. When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what is man that you should keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than a god; with glory and honor you crowned him, gave him power over the works of your hand, put all things under his feet. (Grail translation) In the prologue of John s Gospel, we see an awesome display of God s movement in humility toward us. The Word was with God from all eternity, not only was the Word with God, the Word is God. All of creation came to be through God s Word and nothing was created without the Word. All of creation came to be for the Word. And if that is not in itself sufficiently awesome, the Word that created so loved his creation that he desired to become a part of that creation. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jhn 1:14). To emphasis this enfleshment of God, John writes in his first letter That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, (1Jo 1:1 RSV) John heard, saw and touched the Word made flesh. To finish this thought of the creator becoming one with his creatures, reflect on the great hymn from Philippians who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:6-8 RSV) To summarize up to this point, we have God moving in humility towards us firstly by creating us and giving us a share in his life, and secondly, by lowering himself from the infinite gap between the creator and the creature becoming one in nature with us. Humility began with God creating and reached its pinnacle when God became a creature himself; perfectly divine, perfectly human. The story of Christ is one of humility. From the conception in the womb of Mary to His death on the cross, all that Christ did and taught was immersed in humility. The almighty God, God most high, Lord of the universe, the God who created the heavens and the Earth humbled
himself and was born in a cave. He was a refugee, fleeing for his life as an exile in Egypt. He lived a quiet and simple life in a backwater town, working with his hands at hard labor. We are told in Luke chapter 2 that the creator of the universe was humbly obedient to his earthly parents. When he began his public ministry, he submitted himself to the baptism of John, when in truth, Jesus should have been the one to baptize John. He owned the clothes on his back which in the end were divided among his executioners. The Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. (Jhn 1:10) He was falsely accused; witnesses committed perjury against him. He was spat upon, beaten, scourged, mocked and crucified, suffering the death reserved for those whose lives were considered less than human. God moved throughout his earthly life in humility towards his beloved creatures, submitting to all of it for the sake of redeeming the creatures with whom he longed to share a portion of his divinity. No greater love is there than to lay down one s life for a friend, and God, become flesh, laid down the entirety of his life from conception through death for not only his friends, but for all, even those who he forgave for not knowing what they do. The all-powerful God, who with one word could have erased all of creation and started over, humbled Himself for the sake of his creatures. Each Easter vigil, the Church remembers this movement in humility of God towards his creature in the Exultet. This great Easter hymn recalls for us Salvation history and God s coming to redeem us. In the hymn the deacon chants O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer! The Franciscan John Duns Soctus may take issue with these lines of prose. Yes, Christ came as our redeemer, but was the sin of Adam really necessary as is chanted in the hymn? Was the fall of Adam really a happy fault that earned a redeemer? Scotus suggested that it was God s plan from the beginning to become one with his creatures. Christ would have become man even if Adam did not sin. God longed to be one with his creation when he created. The Word was going to become flesh as part of God s plan of creation. Because of Adam s sin, he came as a redeemer, but Adam s sin was not the cause of the incarnation, as if Adam sinned, and then God decided that he longed to become one in nature with his creature.
Further demonstrating the humility of God towards us, it is suggested that Lucifer rebelled against God because of his plan to become man. A perfect contrast to humility was Satan s response in pride I will not serve! The angels who rebelled could serve the creator God, but could not bring themselves to serve a God become creature, an inferior to the angels creature made from the dust of the Earth. Christ ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the Father where God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9-11 RSV) Is this the end of God s movement in humility towards us? Now that Christ has risen and ascended to heaven in all of his glory, do we now look at this movement in humility as being complete? St. Francis tells us that daily, the Father moves towards his creatures, in humility through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let the whole of mankind tremble, the whole world shake and the heavens exult when Christ, the Son of the living God, is present on the altar in the hands of a priest. O admirable heights and sublime lowliness! O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our salvation He hides Himself under the little form of bread! Look, brothers, at the humility of God. (St. Francis, A Letter to the Entire Order)
Humility Act 2 It has been several months since I contributed the first article, Humility, Act 1. Sometimes being humble requires that we fulfill our daily obligations with work, family and other responsibilities over and above what we would prefer to do. I would prefer to write. The Lord has blessed me with a few moments of time to continue this reflection on the three movements of humility. In Act 1, ( originally posted in January, 2014 ) we reflected on God s movement in humility towards his creatures, especially the human creature. We saw how in God s love for his creatures, he chose to become one of us, and continues to come to us in a total act of selfgiving at each and every Mass in the humble form of bread and wine. Let us now reflect on how the creature, in turn, responds to the creator in humility. St. Francis, deeply aware of God s gift to us through the incarnation and through all of creation, had a deep awareness of that gift and how we are obligated to reach back to God with humility in thanks and adoration. For Francis, following the will of God and imitating Jesus Christ was the foundation of responding humbly to God. It did not matter what anyone s particular station in life happened to be; the most poor peasant to the greatest king, all fulfill a role in God s plan. In his admonitions Francis instructed his brothers For what a man is before God, that he is and nothing more. (Admonition 19, Francis and Clare, the Complete Works) Part of our response in humility to God is accepting our place in his plan and not wishing or desiring to be something or someone else. I have often reflected that true holiness is to seek and do God s will in our individual life. To do otherwise is to act with pride and tell God that we know better than he our purpose in his plan. I often joke that one of my favorite prayers goes something like God, heavenly Father, I wish to do your will today, and if you could arrange things so that (present my list of wants) that would really be awesome! St. Francis saw that God reaches out to us in two ways, through his Word and through Creation. Each of these demands a response back to God. Seeking to imitate Christ, Francis reflected on John 8:28 where Jesus taught that I do nothing on my own but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone because I always
do what is pleasing to him. In response to this Word of God, Francis spent many hours in prayer and fasting to discern God s will. In the beginning, Francis sought only to be a man left alone in prayer, seeking God s will; and then one day, God sent him brothers. Francis did not start out to found a new religious order, yet, that was God s plan and when God sent him brothers, Francis realized that it was God s will, and so he welcomed the brothers. Another Word of God that spoke to Francis can be found in Luke chapter 9. Here Jesus sent out his disciples with the instruction; take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money and let no one take a second tunic. In his zeal to follow Christ perfectly and live a gospel life, Francis became totally dependent on God, giving up all worldly possessions. He would even say he did not own the simple, torn and worn out habit that he wore for his clothing. Francis, once the rich young man who loved fine clothing and food and parties with his friends now came to beg for his daily food from those who once benefited from the wealthy young Francis. In humility, Francis sought to show his love and appreciation to God by living as Jesus commanded, If you love me, keep my commandments and by humbly depending and trusting in God. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. (Lk 12:22) Francis also saw himself as a lowly creature, not deserving of God s generosity and love and forgiveness. He understood that these too are gifts from God and that we could not possibly attain holiness and everlasting life except by God s gift. However, it would be wrong to think that Francis had a distorted view of his lowliness. One of the greatest tragedies of life is the self-hate or the lack of a sense of self-worth that afflicts many people. That is an attitude not of humility but emotional sickness. Anyone who is truly humble before God has heard the Good News, that God has made us really something, his children ( To Live as Francis Lived) Today, the Secular Franciscan Order continues to encourage its members to respond in humility to the Word of God. The Rule of Life that is professed states The rule and life of the Secular Franciscan is this: to observe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ devote themselves especially to careful reading of the gospel, going from gospel to life and life to the gospel. (Article 4, The Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order)
Francis was also well versed in the book of creation. His reverence for all of God s creatures, animate and inanimate comes from his realization that Adam ( Hebrew Adama meaning earth ) was made from the same substance as the rest of creation. Out of the dust of the Earth God created us. Then God breathed life into the dust and clay and we became living, rational beings, the pinnacle of creation. Francis understood this kinship with the rest of creation. Francis would certainly echo Psalm 8, praising God for his creation and our place within. How great is your name, O lord our God, through all the Earth! When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and stars which you arranged, what is man that you should keep him mind, mortal man that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than a god; with glory and honor you crowned him One of the more famous writings of Francis is his Canticle of Brother Sun. In this hymn, Francis extols the greatness of God through the beauty of creation. He refers to creation with the terms brother and sister. This shows his understanding that all creatures have the dignity of being created by God. A few examples from the canticle include brother sun, sister moon, brother wind, sister water, brother fire, sister mother Earth and finally, sister death. Francis was not giving creation God like qualities, but praising God through the dignity of all his creatures. St. Pope John Paul II in his commentary on psalm 150 said that God has given rational humans the responsibility to praise God on behalf of those creatures who cannot give him praise. This was not a new concept. Francis, who was very familiar with Scripture, was echoing the canticle of praise found in the book of Daniel, chapter 3. I encourage you to look up Daniel 3:57-88. This hymn of praise begins Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord, Praise and exalt him above all forever. They hymn goes on to encourage all of creation to praise God; angels, water, hosts of heaven, sun, moon, stars, showers, dew, winds, fire, heat, cold, chill rain, frost, ice, snow, nights, days, lightning, clouds, mountains, hills, everything growing from the Earth, seas, rivers, dolphins and all water creatures, birds of the air, beasts wild and tame. Francis responded to God with praise and humility, giving all credit to God, and trusting in God s providence and seeking to do God s will. There are those who will try and convince you that Francis, because of his devotion to the incarnation and God becoming man did not use exalted language in his response to God. I attended a seminar recently where the presenter
taught that Francis would abhor exalted language in reference to God, that Francis saw only the humble, lowly God who became man. Francis, he said, would cringe at the thought of the God man seeing himself as anything higher than the creature he became. However, all you need to do is read the writing of Francis to realize that while Francis was devoted to the humble, incarnate Word of God, he used exalted language when he spoke about and praised God. Francis s language responding to God s gifts to us include; Almighty, Eternal, Just, Merciful, Most High, Perfect, Glorified, All-Powerful, Lord of the Universe, Exalted, All Good, Supreme Good, Great King, Awesome, Voice of Power, Marvelous, Majesty, Stronghold, Vastness, Magnificent, Totally Good, Highest Good, Almighty King. Francis, as should all of us, responded in humility to God s gifts with praise, adoration, love, trust and commitment.