Brian’s Reflection: Monday, March 29, 2010

I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world
and I 
said groaning, "What can get through from such snares?"
Then I 
heard a voice saying to me, "Humility." 



St. Anthony the Great

Humility is the only thing we need; one can still fall having 

virtues other than humility -- but with humility one does not 
fall. 



Elder Herman of Mt. Athos


I think it was the Protestant theologian and thinker Paul Tillich who referred to God as “The Ground of Being”. [ You may gently correct me if I am incorrect. I was never much for Protestant theology or for systematics! ]

“Ground” is in the Latin root of “humilitas”. I understand a humble person to be almost the opposite of what it has become to mean to most today. To me, a humble person is strong, aware, courageously self-examining, committed to seeking Reality, a tough and deep and broad thinker. In other words: Grounded.

I’ve always been intrigued by the words attributed to Jesus, that we would know the Truth and the Truth would set us free. At the deepest level, I think of a humble person as someone who has no fear whatsoever of the Truth. The Israelite prophets are a good example; great or lowly, they “spoke the truth to power” – and we know that this is fearful to those who are trying to hide the truth from themselves or from others. In his own quiet way, Darwin was another humble man. So was Jesus, and the Buddha.

If I had to choose any character above all else to have, Humility would be it. I’ve tasted the freedom and joy every now and then of facing the truth about myself and about Life. It is one of the most exhilarating of experiences.

One embraces the Mystery called "God", as well as the deepest ground of our Humanity, in Humility, in Truth. In Humility, "God' and we become as One.

I hope as I get older to get much much better at it. And hence grow freer. I wish it for you too.

Brian+