A Reflection from “Meditations on Humility” by Fr. St. Francis Borgia

It is easy to know, from the misfortunes that pride has caused in Heaven and on earth, what are the advantages of humility. The Holy Scriptures and the Fathers speak so much in praise of this virtue because its practice is necessary for a spiritual life and because it is the basis and foundation of all Christian perfection. Certainly, it would avail us nothing to have acquired knowledge, fortitude, charity, and all the other virtues if they were not accompanied by humility. For, in a word, of what use is almsgiving if void of humility and full of vainglory? What advantages will those who are esteemed brave and valiant draw from their brilliant actions if they are not humble? The same can be said of all the other virtues. The sad consequences of pride are known to everybody. It has precipitated rebellious angels from the glory of Heaven into the depths of Hell; it has deprived man of that happy state of justice and innocence in which he had been created. But as I do not intend to speak here of the necessity and advantages of humility, without which all our actions, however holy they appear in the eyes of men, are abominable before God, I shall only propose the means of acquiring a virtue so excellent and so necessary.

Persuade yourself, then, my dear reader, that the enemies of your salvation use so many artifices to deprive you of this precious treasure because, without extreme vigilance, you will at any moment be in danger of losing it. Prepare yourself, then, carefully against the surprises of pride, and learn the way to combat so formidable an enemy. For if you preserve humility of heart, you will also easily preserve innocence, since the Scriptures tell us that God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud: “In like manner, ye young men, be subject to the ancients. And do you all insinuate humility one to another, for God resisteth the proud, but to the humble he giveth grace” (1 Pet. 5:5).

Finally, it should be sufficient to give you a love for this virtue to consider that the ever Blessed Virgin, although she was enriched with all the gifts of Heaven, only spoke of her humility when she wished to glorify the Lord—“he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid” (Luke 1:48)—and that the Savior of the world recommends us above all things to learn from Him mildness and humility (see Matt. 11:29).

It is certain that the principal cause of pride, and of all inordinate desire for worldly greatness, comes from the vain esteem we have of ourselves, which the enemy of our salvation tries evermore to increase by filling our minds with a countless number of vain imaginings that prevent us from knowing the truth and make us conceal from ourselves our real state. Thus, to cure us of so dangerous a blindness, it is necessary to apply the contrary remedies and to fill our minds with all that is capable of making us know our own nothingness and of inspiring us with the true ideas we ought to have of ourselves. And as pride is a poison infinitely subtle and insinuates itself everywhere, even into our most saintly actions, it is doubly necessary to use every means to combat it. You should employ yourself in reflecting upon God, upon creatures, upon things spiritual and corporal, interior and exterior. In order to do so with advantage, this little treatise is divided into three parts that will teach you the way to humble and confound yourself: first, by the consideration of the things that are below the earth; second, by the consideration of those that are on the earth; and third, and lastly, by the consideration of those that are above us, such as the angels, the saints, and God Himself. I hope that all who apply themselves to this exercise will soon become humble before God, with the help of His holy grace.

+