Judeo Christian's Journey To Calvary: Humility
Around the globe this week, millions will celebrate Holy Week, a time each year that Christians commemorate the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. In the spirit of Holy Week, it is fitting to explore a virtue exemplified by this most perfect of all leaders on His journey to Calvary: humility.
Humility comes from the Latin word, humilitas, meaning lowliness or submissiveness, and humus, of the earth. In the Judeo Christian tradition the word came to have two distinct but wholly connected meanings related to a person having a modest sense of his own self-worth or said in a person wholly aware of his own defects and faults: First, vertical humility which is necessary to remove pride, the primary obstacle to our faith not just in God but in others. …show more content…
And the less obvious opposite: pampering the pride in others as a way of ingratiating oneself. In other words, a suck up or sycophant; one who overly subordinates himself to another to appear humble when, in fact, he or she seeks their favor.
Consider these 4 ways to understand real humility and avoid false humility:
1. Humility is other centered
There is a story of a young man rushing down the stairs of Capitol building and barreling over the Abraham Lincoln sending the new President sprawling on the floor. Unaware of who he had just ran over, the young man yelled, “watch where you are going you big buffoon!” The new President’s sense of humility was revealed in his response, “What is troubling you young man?”
Notice the reaction of the President is not one of anger at being thrown to the floor or humiliation at being talked down to. Instead, Lincoln focused on the reality of the other person’s situation. So in this sense, a person can humiliate another by inflicting pain but we can only humiliate ourselves due to excessive pride in our position or status. Perhaps that is why Mother Teresa said that humiliation (the injury we feel from being humiliated) can be a path to real humility.
2. Cultivate the comfort of accepting criticism by seeking it (and accepting
Humility comes from the Latin word, humilitas, meaning lowliness or submissiveness, and humus, of the earth. In the Judeo Christian tradition the word came to have two distinct but wholly connected meanings related to a person having a modest sense of his own self-worth or said in a person wholly aware of his own defects and faults: First, vertical humility which is necessary to remove pride, the primary obstacle to our faith not just in God but in others. …show more content…
And the less obvious opposite: pampering the pride in others as a way of ingratiating oneself. In other words, a suck up or sycophant; one who overly subordinates himself to another to appear humble when, in fact, he or she seeks their favor.
Consider these 4 ways to understand real humility and avoid false humility:
1. Humility is other centered
There is a story of a young man rushing down the stairs of Capitol building and barreling over the Abraham Lincoln sending the new President sprawling on the floor. Unaware of who he had just ran over, the young man yelled, “watch where you are going you big buffoon!” The new President’s sense of humility was revealed in his response, “What is troubling you young man?”
Notice the reaction of the President is not one of anger at being thrown to the floor or humiliation at being talked down to. Instead, Lincoln focused on the reality of the other person’s situation. So in this sense, a person can humiliate another by inflicting pain but we can only humiliate ourselves due to excessive pride in our position or status. Perhaps that is why Mother Teresa said that humiliation (the injury we feel from being humiliated) can be a path to real humility.
2. Cultivate the comfort of accepting criticism by seeking it (and accepting