Some thoughts from The Steps of Humility and Pride by St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Quoting from p. 30:
“2. To define humility: Humility is a virtue by which a man
has a low opinion of himself because he knows himself well.”
In a note the translator cites a caveat pertinent to this
definition: “For Bernard, humility is truth, the low opinion of self must be
based on fact.” In a letter to Abbot Baldwin St. Bernard stated, “Humility is not
praiseworthy when it is not in accordance with the facts.”
St. Bernard was certainly a pious man, a talented man, a
gifted leader. His contemporaries, the monks he shepherded, his fellow Abbots, and
even the Popes of his day went to him for spiritual guidance and leadership. How
is it then that he could honestly assess his abilities and still have a low
opinion of himself?
The only way these apparently contradictory positions can be
true is if he does not consider those gifts to be his but to be enabled by the
grace of God and therefore belong to God. Once that realization takes hold then
a low opinion of ones-self is easy to assume. What do we have that has not been
given to us? If we compare ourselves to our God how can any one consider himself other than very low?
Quoting St. Augustine from Confessions:
“Men pay You more than is of obligation to win return from You,
yet who has anything that is not already Yours?”
THE STEPS OF HUMILITY AND PRIDE, CISTERTIAN PUBLICATIONS
INC., 1973
