Philippe de Champaigne
I've been reading some stuff on humility to write about it here and, funnily, all the early christians agreed that humility is the first virtue one has to have in order to achieve any other virtue.
"First and foremost, we must lay down a solid foundation of profound humility to serve as the foundation of the tower of virtues that will rise up toward heaven."
- Saint John Cassian.
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"He who has mastered humility has mastered all virtues."
- Saint Maximos
"The humbleness of the heart comes ahead of all virtues."
- Saint Moses the Black
And so goes on. The thing is: that made me remember of our friend St.Augustine. When he talks about the potentialities of the soul, he mentions that the fear of the Lord is the first thing to achieve the other "degrees" of virtues. His foundation is Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". Fear of God (timor Dei), according to Augustine, turns one toward the divine will by quelling one's impulses of pride (superbiae motus) with thoughts of mortality. He also relates that to conversion. But what does the fear of the Lord has to do with humility? Everything!
Both are being used as the foundation of a virtuous soul and that because the fear of the Lord (Timor Dei) smashes our pride. Fearing the Lord is when you behold His holiness and realize your misery and then you fear cause you know He is, as Karl Barth would say, the wholly Other (otherness of God). How can we not feel humbled by such truth?
Saint Basilius the Great says that humility is achieved when man thinks that all mankind is superior to him. That happened to Paul. And we can smell his virtues throughout the entire history. That happened to the holiest of the saints. You want to achieve a virtuous life so you get united to Christ day by day? Start by knowing your place.
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