With The Humble Is Wisdom, Proverbs 11: 2

Dan Doyle

Let’s face reality straight on here: the world is sick with the foolishness of blind, self-absorbed, overweening arrogance. There is nothing new in this, though its intensity may be greater than ever before. We know it by name. It is the name given to the very first sin in Eden…Pride. What has all of this prideful foolishness done for us? It has made the world a place of chaos, anger, brutal divisions, unreasonable prejudices. Its offspring are: wars, crimes, injustices, and cruelties of every kind. Yet, there is a great mystery within us that, in an awkward moment of stillness and inner silence, whispers and suddenly opens our eyes to see the foolishness. Its name is conscience. Its impetus is humility.

The whole of the Scriptures is an account of the ancient and long-running battle for supremacy between pride and humility in the hearts and minds of humanity, both individually and collectively. Every page, every book, every story, psalm, historical account, parable connects to or reveals, in some way, that great interior and external struggle that has been ours from the beginning. The evidence that human pride always lays waste to everything it touches is everywhere. It is the source of all divisions, familial and communal, secular and religious, and global. Its characteristics are animosity, mistrust, blame, and accusation. It distorts the truth for personal gain, always resulting in anxiety, fear, darkness, and sadness. For all of pride’s bravado and claims of victory or vengeance, it is only a poor mask disguising the bitter reality of loss: the loss of grace, of reputation, of home, of the integrity that naturally binds a family, a society, or a country together.

We see this loss caused by foolish pride over and over again in the Scriptures, too. We see it in the sin stories in Genesis: Cain and Abel, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah. We see it in the recurring events of exile when the Chosen People lose everything because they had chosen to separate themselves from God, following their own prideful desires instead of the wisdom of God. We see pride’s foolishness in the constant rejection of the prophets who are sent to open their eyes to their foolishness. And that battle, that struggle continues today. It is the reason for the season of discontent and angst and fear that we experience even now, in our own time and place.

King David, no stranger to pride and the fall from God’s grace, often cried out in pain in recognition of his own sins. We see this in the penitential psalms. He also knew the joy of God’s forgiveness and fidelity, and the enduring peace that came to him when he humbly turned back to the ways of God: “O Lord, my heart is not proud nor haughty my eyes, I have not gone after things too great nor marvel beyond me. Truly I have set my soul in silence and peace. As a child has rest in its mother’s arms, even so my soul. O Israel, hope in the Lord both now and for ever” (Psalm 131).

Humility always makes it possible for the light of truth, goodness, and beauty to come to play in the ordinary and the extraordinary things of life. It makes understanding and compassion, mercy and forgiveness possible. It opens the door to the healing of relationships of every kind. Is not humility the virtue modeled by Jesus Christ? Might the example of humility we see in Jesus’ words and deeds actually be the way, the truth, and the life that can really and truly bring about the fulfillment of that ancient desire and hope for real, sustainable harmony and peace that is so deeply embedded in us? Do we not believe that it is through Jesus’ great and humble sacrifice that our salvation from the chains of sin and death came to be, once and for all? Why do we keep foolishly resisting the wisdom of humility? What is it that gets in the way of our choosing more and more often to follow his way?

What does Paul tell us about the value and the power of humility? “For by the grace given to me I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than one ought to think, but to think soberly, each according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned. Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation” (Rm. 12: 3, 16). And again, in Philippians: “Let all think humbly of others as superior to themselves, each of you looking to other’s interests rather than his own” (Phil. 2: 3-4). This is the wisdom of Christianity. It teaches us that every human being, made in God’s own image and likeness, possesses infinite dignity. This is why humility, rather than pride, is the source of our hope for real reconciliation and of true justice. This wisdom of humbly seeing and treating all others as our brothers and sisters makes it reasonable and possible to hope for, and to work toward, the building up of a lasting, healthy, and more fully human community.

Human reason itself understands that humility is wisdom, even when it often does not admit it, or bend to it. It is a great irony that we so often arrogantly choose to live in defiance of this simple wisdom, giving ourselves over to selfish and fleeting desires, refusing to see that we are often the cause of our own suffering, as well as that of others. If we truly want real peace and true justice, we must adopt an attitude of humility, seeing all others as important, or, in some cases because of their suffering, even more important than ourselves.

Lord, we pray that you will heal our wounds, relieve our fears, and strengthen us where we are weak. Free us from the foolishness and the delusions of unreasonable pride and open our eyes to humbly see the infinite dignity of every human being we encounter, so that we may love them as you have so loved us. We pray all of this in Jesus’ most holy name. Amen.