St. Alphonsus Liguori on Humility (From Dignity and Duties of the Priest)

"Learn from Me, because I am meek and humble of heart." (Mt 11:29)

Hence we must always pray with St. Augustine, "O, Lord, may I know Thee, may I know myself!" St. Francis of Assisi used to say continually to the Lord, "Who are Thou, and who am I?" The more they know God, the better they see their own poverty and defects. The proud, because they are bereft of light, have but little knowledge of their own vileness.

Have we anything that God has not bestowed upon us, or that he cannot take away whenever he pleases?

If we know taht we are poor and full of faults in the sight of God, let us at least humble ourselves and confess our miseries. St. Francis Borgia spent every day the first two hours of prayer in endeavoring to know and despise himself.

"God," says St. James, "resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble." (James 4:6)

What a shame, says St. Gregory, to see the teachers of humility become by their example teachers of pride! "Amen, I say unto you, they have received their reward." (Mt 6:2) "Three sorts my soul hateth, and I am greatly grieved at their life: a poor man that is proud; a rich man that is a liar; and an old man that is a fool." (Ecclesiasticus 25:3-4)

The Practice of Humility

1. To Have a Horror of Pride
It is necessary to entertain a fear of the vice of pride. A priest, particularly, in order to preserve chastity, stands in need of special aid from God. "Pride," says the wise man, "is a sign of approaching ruin. The spirit is lifted up before the fall." (Prov 16:18)

David, who, as he himself afterward confessed with tears, fell into adultery because he was not humble. "Before I was humbled, I offended." (Psalm 118:67)
Ask certain persons why they always fall back into the same impurities; pride shall answer for them, that it is the cause of their relapses. They are full of self-esteem, and there the Lord chastises them by permitting them to remain immersed in their abominations. "God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves." (Rom 1:24)

The devil has no fear of the proud. St. Joseph Calasanctius used to say that the devil treats a proud priest as a play-toy; that is, he throws him up and pulls him down as he pleases. 

The Lord permits even saints to be tormented by temptations against purity, and after they pray to be freed from them, he leaves them as he left St. Paul, to combat with temptations. "And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me." (2 Cor. 12:7) 

To humble the pride of the people of Egypt, the Lord sent not bears and lions, but frogs to molest them. What do I mean? God permits us to be annoyed by certain little expressions, by certain little aversions, by certain trifles, that we may know our miseries and may humble ourselves.

2. Not to Glory in the Good That We Do

"My soul magnifies the Lord!"

It is necessary to guard against glorying in any good that we may do, particularly if we are raised to the height of the priesthood. St. Jerome says that the highest mountains are most violently assailed by the tempest; the more exalted, then, is our dignity, the more we are exposed to the molestation of vainglory. We are esteemed by all, we are respected as men of learning, and as saints. He who stands on a great height is in danger of dizziness.

How many priests have fallen into precipices because they were not humble! Montanus wrought miracles, and he afterwards through ambition became a heresiarch. Brother Justin, a Franciscan, attained the highest degree of contemplation, and he afterwards died an apostate from religion, and was lost.

A proud spiritual man is the worst of robbers; because he usurps not earthly goods, but the glory of God. Hence, St. Francis was accustomed to say, "Lord! If Thou givest any good, watch over it; otherwise I will steal it from Thee!" Thus we priests must pray and say with St. Paul, "By the grace of God I am what I am." (1 Cor 15:10)

We are useless servants, because however much we do for a God who merits infinite love and has suffered so much for the love of us, it is all nothing. To all that we do for God we are bound by our obligation and by gratitude; particularly as all that we do is his work more than it is ours. Who would not laugh at the clouds, if they boasted of the rain that the send down? This is the language of St. Bernard. He then adds that we ought to praise, not so much the saints for the works that they perform, as God who operates through them.
When St. Teresa performed any good work, or saw a good act done by others, she began to priase God for it, saying that it was entirely his work.

St. Joseph Calasanctius used to say, that the more God favors a soul by special graces, the more she ought to humble herself that she may not lose all. All is lost by every little consent to self-esteem.

Let us read the lives of the saints, and pride shall depart from us: there we shall find the great things that they have done, at the sight of which we shall feel ashamed of the little we have done.

3. We Must Distrust Ourselves
"Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." (Ps 126:1) Some saints, with very moderate learning, have converted entire nations. St. Ignatius of Loyola, because his words came from a heart that was humble and enamored with God, produced such an effect on the hearers that they instantly went to confession. But, on the other hand, many learned theologians, with all the science and eloquence, preach without converting a single soul. Such preachers, because they are puffed up with their learning, resemble unfruitful mothers.

"Knowledge puffeth up." (1 Cor 8:1) It is, as Cardinal Bellarmine wrote to one of his nephews, difficult for a man of learning to be humble, not to despise others, not to censure their acts, not to be full of his own opinions; he will hardly submit willingly to the judgment and correction of others.

"Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it?" (Isaias 10:15) "Without Me, you can do nothing." (Jn 15:5) St. Augustine writes, "The Lord does not say, without Me you can do but little, but he says, without Me you can do nothing."

"Let us," says St. John Chrysostom, "call ourselves useless servants, that we may be made useful."

"Nothing," says St. Leo, "is difficult to the humble." "They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength" (Isaias 40:31) St. Joseph Calasanctius used to say that the man who wishes that God should make him do great things must labor to be the most humble of all. Jesus Christ did not wish to select men of power and learning for the conversion of the world, but poor, ignorant fishermen, because they were humble and distrustful in their own strength.

Hence, Our Lord sometimes permits us to fall or to relapse into a defect, that thus we may learn to distrust ourselves, and to confide only in the divine aid. Hence, David said: "It is good for me that Thou has humbled me." (Ps. 118:71)

4. To Accept Humiliations
"Many," says St. Ambrose in a letter to Constance, "have the appearance of humility, but not the virtue of humility." [There are] many who would wish to be esteemed humble, but are unwilling to suffer humiliation. He who is truly humble has a low opinion of himself, and wishes others to think of him as he thinks of himself. The truly humble man, when treated with contempt, humbles himself still more, and acknowledges that he justly deserves the humiliation.

St. Gregory says that as pride is a sign of reprobation, so humility is a mark of predestination. And St. James has written, "that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble."

"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." (John 12:24)

Sermons of the Curé D'Ars: Not Like Others

I am NOT like others!
That, my dear brethren, is the usual tone of false virtue and the attitude of those proud people who, always quite satisfied with themselves, are at all times ready to censure and to criticize the conduct of others. That, too, is the attitude of the rich, who look upon the poor as if they were of a different race or nature from them and who behave towards them accordingly. Let us go one better, my dear brethren, and admit that it is the attitude of most of the world. There are very few people, even in the lowliest conditions, who do not have a good opinion of themselves. They regard themselves as far superior to their equals, and their detestable pride urges them to believe that they are indeed worth a great deal more than most other people. From this I conclude that pride is the source of all the vices and the cause of all the evils which have occurred, and which are still to come, in the course of the centuries. We carry our blindness so far that often we even glorify ourselves on account of things which really ought to cover us with confusion. Some derive a great deal of pride because they believe that they have more intelligence than others; others because they have a few more inches of land or some money, when in fact they should be in dread of the formidable account which God will demand of them one day. Oh, my dear brethren, if only some of them felt the need to say the prayer that St. Augustine addressed to God: "My God, teach me to know myself for what I am and I shall have no need of anything else to cover me with confusion and scorn for myself."
  We could say that this sin is found everywhere, that it accompanies man in what he does and says. It is like a kind of seasoning or flavoring which can be tasted in every portion of a dish. Listen to me for a moment and you can see this for yourselves. Our Lord gives us an example in the Gospel when He tells us of the Pharisee who went up into the temple to pray and, standing up where all could see him, said in a loud voice: "O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men steeped in sin. I spend my life doing good and pleasing you." Herein consists the very nature of the proud man: instead of thanking God for condescending to make use of him for a good purpose and for giving him grace, he looks upon whatever good he does as something which comes from himself, not from God. Let us go into a few details and you will see that there are hardly any exceptions to this general sin of pride. The old and the young, the rich and the poor, all suffer from it. Each and everyone congratulates himself and flatters himself because of what he is or what he does - or rather because of what he is not and what he does not. Everyone applauds himself and loves also to be applauded. Everyone rushes to solicit the praises of the rest of the world, and everyone strives to draw them to himself. In this way are the lives of the great majority of people passed.
  The door by which pride enters with the greatest ease and strength is the door of wealth. Just as soon as someone improves his possessions and his source of wealth, you will observe him change his mode of life. He will act as Jesus Christ told us the Pharisees liked to act: these people love to be called master and to have people saluting them. they like the first places. They begin to appear in better clothes. They leave behind their air of simplicity. If you salute them, they will, with difficult, nod to you without raising their hats. Walking with their heads in the air, they will study to find the finest words for everything, though quite often they do not even know the meaning of the words, and they love to repeat them. In order to show that his wealth has been increased, this man will make your head swim with stories of the legacies he is going to receive. Others are preoccupied with their labors to become highly esteemed and praised. If one of them has succeeded in some undertaking, he will rush to make it known as widely as possible so that his would-be wisdom and cleverness may be spread far and wide. If another has said something which has gained approval or interest, he will deafen everyone he knows with repetition of it, until they are bored to death and make fun of him. If such vain and boastful people do any traveling at all, you will hear them exaggerating a hundred times all that they said and did to such an extent that you feel sorry for the people who have to listen to them. They think that they appear very brilliant, though people are scoffing at them in secret. No one can stop them from talking about themselves: one well-known braggart convinced himself that people believed everything he said!...
  Observe a person of some standing scrutinizing the work of someone else. He will find a hundred faults with it and will say: "Ah, what can you expect? He does not know any better" But since the proud person never depreciates the merit of someone else without increasing his own importance, he will hurry on then to speak of some work which he has done, which so-and-so has considered so well executed that he has talked about it to many others.
  Take a young woman who has a shapely figure or who, at any rate, thinks she has. You see her walking along, picking her steps, full of affectation, with a pride which seems colossal enough to reach the clouds! If she has plenty of clothes, she will leave her wardrobe open so that they can be seen. People take pride in their animals and in their households. They take pride in knowing how to go to Confession properly, in saying their prayers, in behaving modestly and decorously in the church. A mother takes pride from her children. You will hear a landowner whose fields are in better condition than those of his neighbors criticizing these and applauding his own superior knowledge. Or it may be a young man with a watch, or perhaps only the chain, and a couple of coins in his pocket, and you will hear him saying, "I did not know that it was so late," so that people will see him looking at the watch or will know that he has one. You may observe a man gambling; he may have but two coins to spare, but he will have all he possessed in his hand, and sometimes even what is not his. Or indeed, he will even pretend that he has more than he really has. How many people even borrow, either money or clothes, just to go to places of gambling or other kinds of pleasure.
   No, my dear brethren, there is nothing that is quite as ridiculous or stupid as to be forever talking about what we have or what we do. Just listen to the father of a family when his children are of an age to get married; in all the places and gatherings where he is to be found you will hear him saying:
  "I have so many thousand francs ready; my business will give me many thousands, etc."
  But if later he is asked for a few coppers for the poor, he has nothing.
  If a tailor or a dressmaker has made a success of a coat or a frock and someone seeing the wearer pass says, "That looks very well. I wonder who made it?" they will make very sure to observe, "Oh, I made that."
  Why? So that everyone may know how skillful they are. But if the garment had not been such a success, they would, of course, take good care to say nothing, for fear of being humiliated. The housewives in their own domain...
  And I will add this to what I have just said. This sin is ever more to be feared in people who put on a good show of piety and religion.


St. John Vianney, pray for us to have the humility of the saints. The humility of the Blessed Mother. And most truly the humility of our Lord.