An Alternative Understanding of Humility
A reflection on the scriptures from the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Our first reading from the Book of Sirach and our Gospel reading from Luke both speak to the virtue of humility, a virtue that’s much honored in our tradition.
Let’s face it, however, our culture has a problem with humility. As Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne once noted: “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.” Indeed, we tend to associate the virtue of humility with self-effacement in our dealings with others. In a world divided, it seems, between winners and losers, the “virtue” of humility tends to be reserved for losers.
In opposition to this view, the Christian tradition argues that humility – properly conceived – has more to do with our relationship with God than with our relationships with others. After all, God is God and we are not God! And it’s this understanding that should govern our relationships with others, who are, after all, God’s children, too. Humility can be understood, in fact, as the virtue that ensures the proper ordering of all of our relationships.
Further, humility understood as self-effacement may be entirely inappropriate in some cases. Other dispositions may be required. In fact, this alternative understanding of humility is suggested in John the Baptist’s citation of the prophet Isaiah: “Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth…” (Luke 3:5). In opening ourselves to God’s hopes and dreams for us, some of us may, indeed, need to be knocked down a peg or two, while others among us may need to be raised up.
Indeed, this is the sense in which Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder–drawing on the work of Judith Plaskow–have argued that humility–at least as our culture tends to understand the term–does not serve some women particularly well: “The root of sin in Western theology is pride, self-assertion, and self-will, and the corresponding Christian task is to undergo the discipline of humility, self-effacement and self-sacrifice. But while such kenosis is liberating in the lives of those who have power and prestige, it can be oppressive for some women, who are encouraged to remain in situations in which they tend to be dominated by men and a male-oriented culture… What these women need to recognize is that holiness for them may require greater pride in themselves, self-assertion, and the development of an authentic sense of self. While the asceticism required of some men may involve the path of humility, the asceticism required of some women might very well involve a discipline whereby they learn to acknowledge their own worth, dignity, and power.”
The same may be true of others who are discounted in one way or another in our own society. This is not what God wants. God does not desire the marginalization of anyone.
Deacon Dan Lowry