Author Topic: 17 Evidences of Humility (Read 4234 times)

Alex · « **on:** October 27, 2009, 06:28:37 PM »

The Seventeen Evidences of a Lack of Humility

Blessed Josemaria Escriva once compiled an inventory of pride so exhaustive that it is like something written on the shield of a soldier who has learned it all in true combat. Saint John Vianney (Cure of Ars) wrote the same thing in shorthand when he signed his name to a clerical petition. His fellow priests circulated a petition accusing St. Vianney of sensationalism, ignorance, and ostentatious poverty and austerities. As it was addressed to all clergy, St. Vianney got a hold of it, read it, and promptly signed it. By 1834 the local priests themselves were going to St. Vianney for confession.

The seventeen evidences of a lack of humility are:

1. To think that what one says or does is better than what others say or do

2. To always want to get your own way

3. To argue with stubbornness and bad manners whether you are right or wrong

4. To give your opinion when it has not been requested or when charity does not demand it

5. To look down on another's point of view

6. Not to look on your gifts and abilities as lent

7. Not to recognize that you are unworthy of all honors and esteem, not even of the earth you walk on and things you possess

8. To use yourself as an example in conversations

9. To speak badly of yourself so that others will think well of you or contradict you

10. To excuse yourself when you are corrected

11. To hide humiliating faults from your spiritual director, so that he will not change the impression he has of you

12. To take pleasure in praise and compliments

13. To be saddened because others are held in higher esteem

14. To refuse to perform inferior tasks

15. To seek to stand out

16. To refer in conversation to your honesty, genius, dexterity, or professional prestige

17. To be ashamed because you lack certain goods

greenhill · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2009, 06:56:50 AM »

Gosh, this is really helpful!

Thank you!

D

spouse of Jesus · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2009, 07:30:42 AM »

Quote

To think that what one says or does is better than what others say or do

What if:
You are chaste and others are gαys?
You are catholic and others are devil-worshippers?
You are a devout mother and others are aborters?
So to be humble means:
To say:
chastity is not better than ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity
catholicism equals....
motherhood is no better than abortion.
All above are heresies
Then humility means heresy.

Quote

To refuse to perform inferior tasks

But did all the Saints perform inferior tasks?
If I don't chose to be a garbage collecter and prefer to be a teacher then I am proud????
To chose bishop-ness and not doorkeep-ness is pride.
To chose priesthood and not job of a zoo-keeper is pride.
So.....
Pride is good because we need bishops and priests!

Lybus · « **Reply #3 on:** November 08, 2009, 07:45:15 AM »

There is also such thing as having pride in one's humility. I don't see yourself getting around that.

St Jude Thaddeus · « **Reply #4 on:** November 08, 2009, 06:49:57 PM »

Quote from: spouse of Jesus

Quote
To think that what one says or does is better than what others say or do

What if:
You are chaste and others are gαys?
You are catholic and others are devil-worshippers?
You are a devout mother and others are aborters?
So to be humble means:
To say:
chastity is not better than ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity
catholicism equals....
motherhood is no better than abortion.
All above are heresies
Then humility means heresy.

Quote
To refuse to perform inferior tasks

But did all the Saints perform inferior tasks?
If I don't chose to be a garbage collecter and prefer to be a teacher then I am proud????
To chose bishop-ness and not doorkeep-ness is pride.
To chose priesthood and not job of a zoo-keeper is pride.
So.....
Pride is good because we need bishops and priests!

Spouse,
I believe that what is meant by these pieces of advice is not that we should not judge others' behavior or beliefs as good or bad; what we should do is not judge ourselves as better or worse than others. When observing others, we need to always keep in mind the old saying, "There but for the Grace of God go I." It is only through God's infinite goodness that we are not in the same condition as those sinners whose actions we are judging. The mere fact that we can tell the difference between right and wrong is a blessing which we should desire for everyone, especially for the myriad of lost souls which surrounds us. If we forget about our own sins, and only concentrate on those of others, we will not make any progress towards our own salvation.

The advice about "refusing to perform inferior tasks" does not necessarily refer to one's career or profession, although in this country we do have a glut of people with college degrees who refuse to take jobs which they consider to be demeaning or beneath them. This advice can also refer to someone who, because they have a well-paying or high status job, think they are too good to mow their lawn or clean their own bathroom. This is a major reason why we have so many illegal immigrants in this country: Many spoiled-brat Americans won't even clean up after themselves or take care of their own children and elderly and so require low-paid foreign help to do it.

CM · « **Reply #5 on:** November 08, 2009, 08:07:14 PM »

SJT has put it quite well.

St Jude Thaddeus · « **Reply #6 on:** November 08, 2009, 08:40:59 PM »

Quote from: Catholic Martyr

SJT has put it quite well.

Only because God Almighty saw fit to help me express myself clearly, CM!

You know, I lived in a remote rural area of a "Third World" majority Catholic country for fifteen years. There were some very old-fashioned people up there in those mountains that never heard of Vatican 2 or PC speech or "self-esteem" or any of this modern nonsense. For all they knew, the French Revolution had never happened, Franco was still president of Spain, and the transistor radio was a newfangled contraption. Anyway, if you ever complemented them on something, for absolutely anything at all, even just for doing a good job of sewing a button back on or frying up a chicken, they would dip their head, look at their feet, and say, "Thanks be to God," or "By the goodness of the Lord," or something similar. Even though I was young then and very full of myself (and a few other things as well) I could recognize true faith and humility when I saw it.

Alex · « **Reply #7 on:** November 10, 2009, 02:22:03 AM »

Quote from: St Jude Thaddeus

Quote from: Catholic Martyr
SJT has put it quite well.

Only because God Almighty saw fit to help me express myself clearly, CM!

You know, I lived in a remote rural area of a "Third World" majority Catholic country for fifteen years. There were some very old-fashioned people up there in those mountains that never heard of Vatican 2 or PC speech or "self-esteem" or any of this modern nonsense. For all they knew, the French Revolution had never happened, Franco was still president of Spain, and the transistor radio was a newfangled contraption. Anyway, if you ever complemented them on something, for absolutely anything at all, even just for doing a good job of sewing a button back on or frying up a chicken, they would dip their head, look at their feet, and say, "Thanks be to God," or "By the goodness of the Lord," or something similar. Even though I was young then and very full of myself (and a few other things as well) I could recognize true faith and humility when I saw it.

Wow. Do such people still exhist? Which country and village is this that you witnessed such people?

Elizabeth · « **Reply #8 on:** November 10, 2009, 06:59:54 AM »

Quote from: St Jude Thaddeus

Quote from: Catholic Martyr
SJT has put it quite well.

Only because God Almighty saw fit to help me express myself clearly, CM!

You know, I lived in a remote rural area of a "Third World" majority Catholic country for fifteen years. There were some very old-fashioned people up there in those mountains that never heard of Vatican 2 or PC speech or "self-esteem" or any of this modern nonsense. For all they knew, the French Revolution had never happened, Franco was still president of Spain, and the transistor radio was a newfangled contraption. Anyway, if you ever complemented them on something, for absolutely anything at all, even just for doing a good job of sewing a button back on or frying up a chicken, they would dip their head, look at their feet, and say, "Thanks be to God," or "By the goodness of the Lord," or something similar. Even though I was young then and very full of myself (and a few other things as well) I could recognize true faith and humility when I saw it.

Beautiful, and thank you for this.

umblehay anmay · « **Reply #9 on:** November 10, 2009, 03:05:14 PM »

Interestingly I once won a silver medal in a contest for the most humble person.... I was so proud, I had it bronzed!

Elizabeth · « **Reply #10 on:** November 10, 2009, 03:21:09 PM »

I knew your scrren name had a special meaning! LOL!

Alex · « **Reply #11 on:** November 11, 2009, 02:01:10 AM »

Quote from: umblehay anmay

Interestingly I once won a silver medal in a contest for the most humble person.... I was so proud, I had it bronzed!

St Jude Thaddeus · « **Reply #12 on:** November 12, 2009, 09:44:22 PM »

Quote from: Elizabeth

Quote from: St Jude Thaddeus
Quote from: Catholic Martyr
SJT has put it quite well.

Only because God Almighty saw fit to help me express myself clearly, CM!

You know, I lived in a remote rural area of a "Third World" majority Catholic country for fifteen years. There were some very old-fashioned people up there in those mountains that never heard of Vatican 2 or PC speech or "self-esteem" or any of this modern nonsense. For all they knew, the French Revolution had never happened, Franco was still president of Spain, and the transistor radio was a newfangled contraption. Anyway, if you ever complemented them on something, for absolutely anything at all, even just for doing a good job of sewing a button back on or frying up a chicken, they would dip their head, look at their feet, and say, "Thanks be to God," or "By the goodness of the Lord," or something similar. Even though I was young then and very full of myself (and a few other things as well) I could recognize true faith and humility when I saw it.

Beautiful, and thank you for this.

This was in a remote corner of Central America more than twenty years ago. In the mid-90's electricity arrived and shortly thereafter, cable TV. At the same time the country was making a feeble attempt to industrialize via sweatshops and service jobs, and ambitious young people began to leave those villages in search of the "good life" in the big city. The government stifled agriculture and promoted public education and evangelical crusades by big American megachurches.

The results were quite predictable. Those humble and faithful Catholics have been replaced by poverty-stricken farmers, angry unemployed youths and drug traffickers who grabbed up cheap farmland by the hundreds of acres. Every small town now has one aging Catholic church (serviced by 0.25 priests) and half a dozen "temples" blasting "praise and worship" music through loudspeakers day and night. Young people who before were busy learning a trade or preparing to take over a piece of the family farm now sit around watching MTV Latino and HBO and smoking ganja. It's like a Hillaire Belloc scenario in reverse.

Alex · « **Reply #13 on:** November 13, 2009, 04:03:45 AM »

Quote from: St Jude Thaddeus

Quote from: St Jude Thaddeus

You know, I lived in a remote rural area of a "Third World" majority Catholic country for fifteen years. There were some very old-fashioned people up there in those mountains that never heard of Vatican 2 or PC speech or "self-esteem" or any of this modern nonsense. For all they knew, the French Revolution had never happened, Franco was still president of Spain, and the transistor radio was a newfangled contraption. Anyway, if you ever complemented them on something, for absolutely anything at all, even just for doing a good job of sewing a button back on or frying up a chicken, they would dip their head, look at their feet, and say, "Thanks be to God," or "By the goodness of the Lord," or something similar. Even though I was young then and very full of myself (and a few other things as well) I could recognize true faith and humility when I saw it.

This was in a remote corner of Central America more than twenty years ago. In the mid-90's electricity arrived and shortly thereafter, cable TV. At the same time the country was making a feeble attempt to industrialize via sweatshops and service jobs, and ambitious young people began to leave those villages in search of the "good life" in the big city. The government stifled agriculture and promoted public education and evangelical crusades by big American megachurches.

The results were quite predictable. Those humble and faithful Catholics have been replaced by poverty-stricken farmers, angry unemployed youths and drug traffickers who grabbed up cheap farmland by the hundreds of acres. Every small town now has one aging Catholic church (serviced by 0.25 priests) and half a dozen "temples" blasting "praise and worship" music through loudspeakers day and night. Young people who before were busy learning a trade or preparing to take over a piece of the family farm now sit around watching MTV Latino and HBO and smoking ganja. It's like a Hillaire Belloc scenario in reverse.

kamalayka · « **Reply #14 on:** November 13, 2009, 08:15:49 AM »

I heard a priest say once that if a person is truly humble, they would not know it, and the moment they realized that they were humble, is the moment they no longer were.