Reading: Lenten Weekday

Humility 6
From the Epistles of Elder Paisios of Mount Athos

Blessed are those who manage to imitate the humble earth, which, while it
is stepped on by everyone, lifts everyone with its love and nurtures them with
affection like a good mother, which has also provided the material for our flesh.
It accepts with joy anything we throw away, good fruits as well as dirty trash,
converts them quietly into vitamins and, with its fruits, offers them back
plentifully to both good and evil people, without discrimination.

The humble person, as is manifest, is the strongest in the world because he
is always triumphant, but also because he bears other people’s loads with an
untroubled conscience. Although he lives scorned and unjustly treated due to the
errors of others that he assumes out of love, internally he feels the greatest joy in
the world, for he has disregard for this vain world. Insults, injustices… are the
best lancets for those who are at fault, because old wounds are thus cleansed. For
those who are not at fault, however, they are like the executioner’s knives; people
who joyfully accept them for the love of Christ are considered martyrs.

Adults who do not accept insults and biting criticism, that they might be
healed or receive a reward (when not at fault), are more foolish than little
children who don’t want to even hear about the doctor, for fear of the injection
(not wanting to be pierced by the needle). Hence, they continually suffer from a
cough and fever… He who humbly prostrates himself and accepts blows from
other people, removes his own tumours, becomes beautified spiritually as an
angel, and thus fits through the narrow gate of Paradise.

…No one climbs to Heaven through worldly ascent, but through spiritual
descent. He who walks lowly always walks with surety and never falls. He who
does not seek counsel on his spiritual journey, confuses the routes, becomes
exhausted, and is delayed. If he does not humble himself and solicit counsel,
even if at a later stage, he will hardly reach his destination. Those who take
counsel, however, walk tirelessly, with surety, and are covered by the Grace of
God and are enlightened, inasmuch as they have been humbled… He who lacks
humility and good thoughts is full of doubts and questions. Since he will be
constantly perplexed, in the beginning he has need of an Elder with great
patience to constantly provide him with explanations until his mind and heart are
cleansed so he can see clearly.

As the humble and kind-hearted man has purity and internal as well as
external serenity, he also has spiritual depth, perceives profoundly the divine
meanings, and is greatly benefited, and his faith increases even more, for he lives
the mysteries of God. He who is proud, apart from being darkened, is always
unsettled inwardly as well outwardly. Due to the flightiness of his egotism, he
always stands on the surface of things and cannot proceed to the depths, where
the divine pearls are found, so as to be spiritually enriched.

6 Elder Paisios of Mount Athos. Epistles. Vasilika, Thessaloniki, Greece: Holy Monastery of the
Evangelist John the Theologian, 2002. 116-119.