On humility, with no name attached so it is anonymous
A man's level of humility directly reflects his closeness with God, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, and when we humble ourselves and draw near to Him, then He will draw near to us. Yet, though we must cooperate with God and be humble, humility itself is upheld by the Holy Spirit, and is not a work which we can boast of. Indeed, if someone attempts to boast of one's humility, they automatically lose it, for they try to claim as their own that which is the work of God. By walking away from God, God walks away from them: therefore while a man's cooperation is necessary for humility, it can never be thought that humility is the product of a man's effort. The virtue is wholly divinely given and through divine means.
The more humble a man is, the more he understands the central paradox of Christian asceticism: that the divine virtues are impossible without the cooperation and effort of men, yet whenever a man tries to lay claim to some virtue or deed as though it is his own good doing, he watches the virtue dissappear before his eyes. Indeed, for such a man who wishes to point--or even acknoweldge--his own good deed, the virtue becomes like a drop of water which falls into the ocean. The virtue is no longer discernable, and the man has lost that which he thought to acknowledge he had. Sometimes this happens to a great, sometimes to a lesser, extent: yet it is impossible for a man to remain unharmed when he attempts to recognize his own supposed goodness.
Therefore, the humble man makes himself lower than all. The more one experiences humility, the more he understands his own sin. One mark of a truly humble man is that he persecutes himself, for he recognizes how far he still has to walk on the narrow road to the kingdom. Such a man may, perhaps, believe that all the world's sins are his own. Such a man may, perhaps, think of everyone else as good, virtuous, saintly people. At the very least, the truly humble man cannot help but to acknowledge that he must pray for the sins of all and take them onto himself when he can; and at the very least, the truly humble man cannot help but to acknowledge that everyone around him are far better than himself. Therefore, the truly humble man cannot judge anyone, for our Lord Jesus Christ said that a man must first remove the speck from his own eye before judging another, and the humble man quite readily admits that he not only has a speck, but has an eye full of planks!
The humble man, realising his worthlessness, wishes to remain unknown; to be even as though non-existent if possible. For this reason, it is possible that the most humble men are never known to be virtuous. It is true that "a city on a hill cannot be hid," but the humble man is so able to hide, as though by nature, his virtues from others, that only those with advanced spiritual discernment, with eyes to see, can perceive the man's humility. If someone says that a person is humble, though, and he is indeed truly humble, he will not agree in any way. A man who has humility to a lesser extent will react shyly and be embarrassed, and will try to change subjects or leave the area as quickly as possible.
The man who has humility to a greater extent, however, will belittle himself, and may very well say something about his own sinfulness that will shock those he is speaking to. Such a truly humble man has no thought about damaging his reputation, or harming a relationship with someone. All that matters is that the truth be acknoweldged: and the truly humble man cannot acknowledge any truth in such a case except that which notes his own unworthiness and sinfulness. Those who believe that they are before a humble man should never say so, then: it is a pointless thing, and perhaps even a dangerous thing, to compliment someone's humility. No purpose is served by such a compliment.
It certainly will not hurt the humble man if he is not complimented for his humility! Such compliments can only tempt him and cause spiritual harm. Indeed, a truly humble man constantly persecutes himself, constantly calls himself to judgement, and dies daily, always and in all things committing himself to make a new beginning since he has accomplished nothing thus far but failure. All this, however, is not to say that a humble man is a sad, depressed, or despairing man. Quite the contrary, these sins are completely unknown to the humble man. Depression, despair, and sadness concerning one's state comes from nothing but overestimating one's abilities. Put plainly, the humble man knows himself to be a sinner and God to be the source of all good, and therefore does not despair when he fails or sins, but simply accepts it, chastises himself, and decides to not do the sin again. It is rather the prideful man that becomes depressed, despairing, or sad when he fails, for in his pride he think that he should be progressing more than he is, and he thinks that he should be doing better than he is. The truly humble man is totally opposite the prideful man, though, and can constantly contemplate his own mortality or immorality without despair.
Our fathers teach that humility, faith and prayer are like three sides of a spiritual triangle. Without one of the sides, the triangle, that is, our spiritual lives, do not exist. This is said in the negative, but the relation is mostly a positive one: for all three of these things, and indeed all the other divinely given virtues, are interpenetrating. To become more humble means that one prays more and has a stronger faith; and to pray more means that one's faith grows and becomes more humble. And thus do all the other virtues work together as well. These virtues, including humility, can always be perfected to a greater and greater extent: we will never reach a point where we cannot go any further. However, the more perfected one becomes, the more one recognizes that they have done nothing of worth, and that even that which God has done in them is very little in comparison to the prime example of humility and virtue which we are to emulate, Jesus Christ. Still, for what God has done the humble man constantly shows his gratitude by joyously thanking God for the gracious gifts which he gives. The humble man is careful, of course, not to think about what those gifts are exactly, lest he fall into pride, thinking too much in his own part in attaining the gifts.
Humility is the calling of all Christians, not just a select few. It is foolish to say that true humility is only for saints since we are all saints in the making, and we are all to strive "to be perfect even as our Father is perfect". People are not humble and virtuous because they are saints: people are saints because they are humble and virtuous. Those who don't strive after and cultivate humility are by nature prideful: and those who are prideful have no part in the kingdom. This humility also extends to our faith, for the humble man does not judge, and does not offend, and does not exaggerate. Therefore, when a humble man speaks of the holy Orthodox faith, he does so in a humble, and not in a triumphalist, manner. This is not to say that humble men never offend: but only that humble men always do as much as they can to avoid offending, and if they do say something that offends they say it only because of an extremely pressing need. Indeed, they only say it because the Holy Spirit has inspired them to, for humble men, if left to their own inclination, would not say anything at all, much less a harsh or offending word (which would draw attention to them).
For someone to ask how a truly humble man knows that he is humble is a senseless question. Such is a worldly question, for prideful men like to acknowledge their supposed humility while putting up a front of false humility. A question of more worth, if asked for the right reasons, might be to ask how we know when someone else is humble. The first thing we must do is remember that it is in those whom we least expect that we will find the truly humble men. It is in the people that we may never have even noticed before that we might find true humility. We might also look for modesty and meekness, love, kindness and patience. The humble man is self-sacrificing, he is immensely generous, but he does so in a way that he makes sure it not publically known. Humble men are often times the most wise, though their humility itself prevents them from being recognized as such as they rarely speak. If they do say something, they will say it meekly, and the more humble they are the more simply they will try to say things (not wanting to draw attention to themselves or be questioned further).
The working of, and the fruits of, humility help all the other ascetic virtues such as love, faith, meekness, modesty, prayer, almsgiving, etc., to grow and thrive. Humility protects us from evil thoughts and from committing sins. It is that which can lead us through the snares that the enemy spreads over the world, it is that which keeps the passions subdued. Humility is, for the Christian, our riches, our honor, and our life. Indeed, humility gives a foretaste eternal life, even as it also leads us to eternal life.
