Hubris and Humility

Last week I had a bite of reality.  I was diagnosed with pneumonia which was and is a first for me (consequently no edition of News and Views last week).  It stared with cold-like symptoms and the pneumonia bug, opportunistic, sneaky little devil it is, took up residence and has been hanging on by its finger nails since.  I have, for a long time, been proud of my ability to resists colds.  I can count the number of colds I have had in the last ten or fifteen years on one hand.  It was a matter of pride me.  Well as they say pride goeth before the fall and fall and it certainly did.

On reflection, I realize that pride can come in small and large ways but it is still pride.  Coincidentally, if you believe in coincidences, the Gospel reading from last Sunday here, ended with Jesus saying, “whosoever exalts himself shall be abased and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.”   So, here I was with a case of pride about what I thought was my great immune system which did not turn out to be as great as I thought it was.  Now you can say what harm did it do for me to do that and that is true.  It didn’t affect anyone else but me.  After all I didn’t think less of people who were susceptible to colds, not much anyway.  However, it did bring home to me the fact that pride can be very insidious.  If I felt that way about a small think I can easily be thinking that way about bigger and more significant things.    

It seems inevitable that we humans will compare ourselves to others.  How am I doing in x or y.  Well, I seem to be doing better than him and not as well compared to her and so on and on.  It can be anything from success (as the world defines it of course), a bigger house, a nice car or cars, a better job, higher on the career ladder.  It can be physical characteristics, better looking, bigger, or stronger.  It can even sneak into areas that you least expect.  Well, I’m a better Spiritual Director than that person or I am a more spiritual person than those people.   Boy I sure am more mature than she is.  Wow, I am closer to God that they are.  It really is insidious and perhaps that serpents in the garden is still at work albeit with a different kind of fruit than it used on our first ancestors.

I have been interested in the idea of humility for many years.  It comes with its with its evil twin hubris.  They are perhaps the opposite sides of the same coin, but perhaps not.  Hubris is, I believe, the consequences of comparisons.  I am better than others.  Indeed, I am so much better that I can do it all on my own and I don’t need anyone else and indeed I don’t owe my success to anyone else.  I certainly don’t need or owe anything to God.  One definition of hubris which catches the sense of it is:

a personality quality of extreme or foolish pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with arrogance. In its ancient Greek context, it typically describes behavior that defies the norms of behavior or challenges the gods, and which in turn brings about the downfall, or nemesis, of the perpetrator of hubris.

To return to the Gospel passage from Sunday, we have those who exalt themselves being humbled in the next life and visa versa.  It may not be accurate to say that to exalt oneself (pride) is the opposite side of humility but they certainly are related.  I would say that humility is the cure for hubris or foolish pride.  I have been attracted to various writing about humility over the years, perhaps because I knew it was secretly an issue with me which I didn’t want to acknowledge to myself.  The first thing about humility that I remember reading was that a truly humble person can’t be humiliated.  I clung to that as an anecdote to past and future humiliations.  However, the best definition of humility that I have come across is, “to see things clearly.”  I wasn’t clear initially what that was getting at. 

However, on reflection and consideration it became clearer.  If I can see myself clearly, I will know and acknowledge that I am not the master of my fate.  I will know that I am truly not in charge and whatever small gifts I have are not due in large part to the benefits I have received in life which I didn’t earn.  I will begin to acknowledge that, in one way or many ways, they are gifts from God.  It is foolish pride to challenge God or the gods. 

Another definition about humility which I can across recently addresses this.  It defines the characteristic of humility as, “the self-forgetfulness which makes room for God.”  That is the challenge; how to make room for God in all aspects of life.  That is something I continue to struggle with and probably will.  However, if I try really hard I might do it better than others. 

Blessing on your journey with pride and humility.