Humility
Foundation of the Spiritual Life
Humility has a fundamental place within Teresia’s spirituality. She is convinced that spiritual life needs a foundation on which it can flourish. Without this foundation it is not possible that people will go through a spiritual growth.
On March 19, 1879, she wrote a very long letter on this subject wherein she pointed out to the Sisters: “This virtue, dear Sisters, is the foundation of all true and perfect virtue. If you are to build a spiritual structure in your soul, care then, in the first place, that you lay down a strong foundation of humility.” The conviction that was a very serious matter for her appears when, after 10 years, she wrote again a letter about it: “One often says: humility is beautiful virtue, and yet, you and i, must admit that it is a flower which is not planted in the garden of every Sister. Humility is however the foundation of all virtues. Without humility there is no virtue, no progress on the way to perfection.”
The development of spiritual life asks for a fundamental attitude, says Teresia. It is a way of being in life which is of utmost importance to our personal growth. Even more: It is the condition of our spiritual life and keeps it going. A Novice Mistress, especially, should know that a foundation is needed for the growth of spiritual life.
“Since she is responsible for the formation of the young Sisters, therefore, Teresia wrote to her: “A Mistress…who wants to be an example to her Novices and inspire them with a deep piety, should not at once speak of perfection, of spirituality and other elevated things. She should start to inspire them with the fear of God, with lowliness, the love for Jesus Christ, the love for the fellow-being, in order to start building the house of their perfection with the foundation and not with the roof.”
Where Humility Dwells
In her letters, Teresia clearly put into words what she meant with humility and its meaning in her daily life. In 1879 she wrote to the Sisters:
“…humility is a virtue through which a person, as a result of an honest self-knowledge, becomes low and disdainful in his own eyes. As a consequence, humility does not exist in words and external matters, but in the innermost of hearts, in feeling lowly and disdain of oneself and in the desire to be disregarded by the others and be considered as unworthy. And all these must proceed from a true and profound knowledge of oneself.. For one who is humble it is easy to be poor in spirit; but for the proud that can never be. She is the defender of the virtue of chastity. The humble mistrusts herself; she is convinced that she is weak and for every temptation she takes refuge in God.”
According to Teresia, humility has everything to do with the knowledge of yourself. To become humble, you must be able to see yourself critically. If you can do that and also do that regularly, you will discover who you are deep within. You will dare to see your own littleness and imperfection. Humility is the opposite of pride. It is knowing from within that by yourself, you are nothing. With this, it is not meant that you should disdain yourself in the sense of degrading yourself. It is more of a distinction. Teresia calls on the ability of her Sisters to distinguish. To be lowly, as she shows them, is knowing your place with respect to God. It is considering yourself lesser than Him. It is to become aware of your real impurity. This experience makes you realize what it is to be chaste and teaches you that you are completely dependent on God: “The humble one knows that everything has been granted to her from God the Father’s hand and that she cannot by herself deserve the grace and blessings.” Only in the light of the Other is our existence possible…, because He is our existence. This fundamental experience is pre-eminently a gift of God; “Let us pray daily, dear Sisters, that the good Lord finds it worthy to grant us the invaluable grace of true self-knowledge.” It is His gift to us and that liberates us from a certain complacency.
It frees us from ourselves and gives us courage and trust to meet the other openly and without prejudices:
“Everybody recognizes easily how humility is necessary for the love of one’s neighbor. Because what ordinarily diminishes the love of our co-Sisters in our heart is the unfavorable judgment that we pass on her shortcomings and the low opinion we have of her like she is full of imperfections and faults and therefore much lesser than us. The humble religious does not make this kind of uncharitable judgment. She looks solely at her own shortcomings and not at the faults of others. Therefore, she sees them all as good and virtuous.”
Lowliness brings us close to our neighbor. It makes us judge our fellow being mildly. For Teresia, it is clear: if you acquire this basic attitude in your life, then there is no more room for those vices that can diminish the mutual love: “where humility dwells, one perceives no hate or envy, no dispute or discord, no jealousy or bitterness.” This mild judgment on the other brings about, at the same time, the patience we have with the other. In contrast to one who is not lowly, the humble one does not indulge in self-pity when the other offends her. She does not feel wronged because she does not place herself on a pedestal. Because she is lowly, she knows her place with respect to the pre-eminently other: God. That makes her unassuming and contented and takes care that she can live in peace with herself and with others.
There where humility dwells love happens: “The holy Love, the love for God, is enkindled and increased through humility.” Because the lowly knows that her life in the light of the Creator is a given life, she cannot be otherwise than thankful for this life and feels strongly exhorted to love her infinitely good Benefactor with the most fervent love.
Lowliness, as known by Teresia, sets us on the trail of God. That is the reason why this attitude is so essential to one’s own spirituality. Once our path follows this trail, we are brought by itself to where we belong: to our neighbors who need us.