Humility is the key to understanding today’s Gospel of the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. The Pharisee was full of pride.  He gloated about his own moral stature and spiritual achievements. When he prayed he was not relating to God but rather he was congratulating himself and being scornful and judgemental of the tax collector. It was the publican, the tax collector, who related to God justly by acknowledging his own sinfulness and praying for divine mercy. His had the self-knowledge and the humility that saves, that justifies.

Humility comes from a Latin phrase meaning ‘on the ground’. The root word is ‘humus’, which as every gardener knows, means, good earth, good soil. Humus makes crops grow fruitfully. Humility brings forth a special kind of fruitfulness, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. St Paul lists the fruits of the Holy Spirit as: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”, (Galatians 5:22-23). Bearing in mind how desirable these fruits are in our lives, and how essential they are to being saved, it would be fruitful (literally!) for all of us to consider humility in more depth.

First we must recognise that to acquire humility we must first flee pride as our most dangerous and mortal enemy. St Gregory the Great, Pope of Rome, emphasises how important it is not to leave even one vulnerable weak spot in our spiritual armour to allow the entry of demonic pride.  Commenting on the Gospel he wrote:

So it was pride that laid bare to his wily enemies the citadel of his heart, which prayer and fasting had in vain kept closed. Of no use are all the other fortifications, as long as there is one place which the enemy has left defenceless.

The first step towards humility, therefore, is to develop through examination of thoughts and conscience a ruthlessly honest appraisal of oneself, especially one’s sins and weaknesses. This is not so that we can punish ourselves or make ourselves miserable, quite the contrary. It is to help us to identify our weak spots so as to strengthen them and not let pride get a foothold.

St John Chrysostom speaks of humility as being light, not heavy, enabling the down to earth soul to ascend easily to heaven. Pride, however, weighs the soul down by its own heaviness in corruption.  Let us hear more from this teaching as St John comments on today’s gospel:

This parable represents to us two chariots on the race course, each with two charioteers in it. In one of the chariots it places righteousness with pride, in the other sin and humility. You see the chariot of sin outstrip that of righteousness, not by its own strength but by the excellence of humility combined with it, but the other is defeated not by righteousness, but by the weight and swelling of pride. For as humility by its own elasticity rises above the weight of pride, and leaping up reaches to God, so pride by its great weight easily depresses righteousness. Although therefore you are earnest and constant in well doing, yet think you may boast yourself, you are altogether devoid of the fruits of prayer. But you that bears a thousand loads of guilt on your conscience, and only think this thing of yourself that you are the lowest of all men, shall gain much confidence before God. And He then goes on to assign the reason of His sentence. For every one who exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.

Humility is also acquired through the positive strengthening virtues in the soul, building on what is already there in order that by divine grace we might attain to even more lowliness and Godliness. In this holy task St John recognises that humility can be strengthened in many different and complementary ways.  He continues:

The word humility has various meanings. There is the humility of virtue, as, a humble and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. There is also a humility arising from sorrows, as, He has humbled my life upon the earth. There is a humility derived from sin, and the pride and insatiability of riches. For can anything be more low and debased than those who grovel in riches and power, and count them great things?

Humility through virtue is learnt through a kind of self-abasement that always counts others as better than oneself. To love and not to judge anyone is exceedingly difficult but it becomes much easier as humility grows in the heart.

Humility through sorrow of course refers to our experience of suffering, particularly undeserved suffering. How we deal with adversity shows how humble we truly are. If we can accept the furnace of affliction and then by divine grace use it to warm and soften the soul into humbler forms, then God can give us great wisdom and strength through bearing this educative suffering. Now, none of us likes to suffer and some consider it to be outrageous that God often accomplishes his saving will by using human suffering. Could He not have ordered things better, they say? However, this revolt against suffering is blind to the tragic aspect of life; refusing to understand this as implicated in the Fall of humankind, our alienation from God. Wise souls accept suffering as an oyster accepts the grit in its flesh which produces the pearl. Such beautiful transformations arise from a humble disposition and through acceptance of whatever life brings.  This acceptance and offering to God generates yet more life-saving humility.

In conclusion, we can say that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is not about keeping people happy. It is rather about offering them victory through the sacrificial love of God over the world, the flesh and the devil. Happiness is good but it only lasts for a time. Joy is better for it is permanent and expresses the ecstasy of the soul joined to God, even in the midst of great tribulations. Such wisdom is folly to the world for it is the wisdom of the Cross which can only be known by faith in Christ.



Finally, St John mentions a humility that can even come from experience of sin, if this prompts us to repentance.  It would be better of course if we did not sin in the first place but the Gospel shows that in a repentant heart even the experience of falling and restoration can be to our great advantage. The example St John Chrysostom uses concerns riches and power, a favourite theme in his preaching and teaching. These can destroy a person but they can also, through an experience of self-disgust, turn that person away from corruption to seek the purity that comes through spiritual poverty and a humbled life. Again the way is hard and the path narrow leading to salvation but it is a choice we must all make (Matthew 7:13-14).

It is quite clear then that that humility is absolutely necessary for salvation. The Publican learned humility by accepting his own sinfulness and then by yearning for the mercy of God to transform him. The Pharisee repudiated salvation by extolling his own righteousness and judging his brother. He was nothing more than the whitewashed sepulchre of which Christ spoke before his passion (Matthew 23:27-28). We should all earnestly desire therefore to acquire that humility, that down to earth humble disposition that makes us small enough to be big in the kingdom of God.