PART 9

This is the English translation of the NINETH from twelve parts of a series of articles of
H.H.Pope Shenouda III that appeared in Watany weekly newspaper during the period
from July 9, 2000 to September 24, 2000




LIFE OF HUMILITY
AND
MEEKNESS
9





BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND
THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF ALL THE PREDICATION OF
SAINT MARK








Translated from "WATANY" newspaper 3 September 2000









MEANS AND SIGNS
OF
HUMILITY
(C)






















33. The spiritual humility of the humble person appears in the humility of his body too:
His humility appears in his face's features, in his voice's resonance, in his eyes' glances. He looks at people with meekness. He has no haughty glances and he does not look at people from above. His voice is calm. He speaks gently; not with power. He is not violent against anybody. He does not speak violently, not with proud resonance, not with a high voice, not despising anybody, not belittling anybody by not responding to him. He rather gently addresses everybody.
His humility appears also in the way he walks. He does not walk proudly or self-sufficiently. When sitting also, he sits politely. He is not puffed in his appearance.
He keeps away from magnificence at the level of his clothes, his instruments, his furniture, and luxurious life. People do not feel from his appearance and his looks, that he is of a high level.
His language shows him. He does not tell about the deeds which he has done. He does not boast. He does not draw comparisons between himself and others, that would prove his excellence, and how much he is higher than them, and that he understands the things which they do not understand.
34. The humility of the humble appears also in the style of his adoration and his prayers:
He enters the church with veneration, according to what the prophet David said: "But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; in fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple" (Ps. 5:7). He stands in fear, as it becomes to prayer and to the standing in the presence of God; as is has been said that the Cherubims and the Seraphims stand before Him, "each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew" (Isaiah 6:2).
He keeps well his senses. He is not preoccupied during his prayers by anything. He does not crowd others during the time of communion from the Holy Sacrament, but rather he presents himself as being unworthy.
He does not sit during the time when standing is necessary. Thus when blessing food on his table at home, he does not pray while sitting down...... but on every occasion he keeps the veneration of prayer.
Thus the humble person keeps his veneration during the times of fasting, because they are periods of mortification before God; and humility is becoming to mortification. Let us mention on this occasion what was said of the people of Nineveh: "So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes" (Jonah 3: 5-6).
35. If a humble man goes astray, and his sin is discovered to him, he will confess his error:
How difficult is it to confess an error, for a proud person who feels that this would belittle his value and his dignity in front of others. As for the humble, he does not attempt to flee from the responsibility of his errors, or to cover them, or to justify himself with excuses. He has no objection to saying: "I was wrong in that matter".
He says "I was wrong" before God, and before men. In the depths of his soul, with full conviction, his soul is not unerring in his eyes.
The humble is not "righteous in his own eyes" (Job 32:1). He is very far away from self-righteousness. He knows about his blunders more than people know about him.
36. Among the means which help towards humility, there is the life of true repentance, and the virtues which accompany it:
The repentant person is a person who feels the heaviness of his sins, and his sin is always before him (Ps. 51). He remembers it at all times and is mortified before himself and before God, feeling that he does not deserve anything. He constantly blames himself, and reproaches himself for his blunders, his weaknesses and his defects. In all that, he asks for the prayers of everybody....... thus he walks in humility, and is not proud as regards anybody, because the remembrance of his weaknesses makes him internally ashamed, and impedes pride from him externally...
As much as a man keeps away from the feelings, the heat, and the tears of repentance, so much he will be in danger of losing his humility.... Therefore, happy is he who continually lives in repentance. He does not consider it to be a stage that has passed in his life, but he sins every day of the days of his life. And as the apostle saint John said: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).
37. Among the means of humility, there is also: silence and not avowing knowledge:
He knows that "In the multitude of words sin is not lacking" (Prov. 10:19). He says to himself: "My previous transgressions are enough". He repeats the expression of saint Arsenius: "I have many times spoken and regretted it". Therefore he prefers silence, and he sees that listening is better than speaking. In listening, he gains knowledge, and in speaking he exposes himself to blunder. He repeats the expression of the prophet Moses: "I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue" (Ex. 4:10).
He remembers the story of saint Antony who asked some of his disciples about a certain verse. So each of them began to mention an explanation, except Abba Youssef who said: "I do no know". Saint Abba Antonius said to him: "Happy are you, O Abba Youssef, because you have known the way to the word "I do not know".
While the humble venerably sits silent, and people respect him, we see the proud person forcing himself into every subject, whatever it may be outside his speciality! He replies to every question, whether he knows or does not know. But the humble, if he is compelled to speak, he will reply calmly about things of which he is certain. He has no objection to saying sometimes: "I do not know", or "I shall try to study this question".
38. The humble person feels that he is in need of the saints' aid:
Therefore in many things, he does not lean only upon his private prayers, but he asks the Holy Virgin Mary, the saint angels, the souls of the martyrs and the saints, to support him in his efforts, and to intercede for him and for all his people before God. He says to the Lord in the prayer of "al agbia" (the prayers of the hours): "Surround us, O Lord, with your saint angels, so that we shall be guarded and conducted, in their assembly.....
His heart is not raised up saying: "I am not in need of intercession from any of those! I have a direct relationship with God! why should I ask from the Holy Virgin, or from saint Georges, or from the archangel Michael?!" He remembers that the apostle saint Peter asked, on the night of The Last Supper, from his companion saint John the beloved, who is smaller than he as regards age, to ask the Lord about who will betray Him. And it happened. (John 13: 22-25).
The humble rather asks for the prayers of everybody. Here is the apostle saint Paul asking from his people in Ephesus to pray for him "always with all prayer and supplication" "that utterance may be given" to him, that he may open his mouth to teach the Gospel (Eph. 6: 18-19).
39. The humble person does not ask to be one of those who have visions, or one from the doers of miracles and wonders:
He does not covet this desire and does not ask for it, because he knows the measure of his weakness, and the lowliness of his spiritual level. Great saints used to fear this matter, lest pride and vanity would combat them. They remembered the words of the Lord to his disciples about a similar matter: "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this......." (Luke 10:20). The humble remembers that many of those who have done miracles and wonders, will not enter the kingdom of heaven, and that the Lord will say to them: "I never knew you; depart from me" (Matt. 7:23).
Therefore the humble seeks for the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), and not for the gifts of the Spirit "(1 Cor. 12)...... The arrogants like visions and eyesights. How easy is it for them to fall in the deception of the devils.
It is easy for Satan to act "with all power, signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish" (2 Thess. 2: 9-10); as he will do in the last days supporting the Antichrist "who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God" (2 Thess. 2:4). Satan can also appear in the resemblance of an angel of light. "And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14). In that manner he can satisfy and deceive the lover of visions, and cause him to perish.
I mention here the story of that monk to whom the devil appeared in the form of an angel and said to him; "I am the angel Gabriel, and God has sent me to you". The monk humbly replied: "perhaps you have been sent to another than me, and you have lost your way. As for me, I am a sinner, and I do not deserve to have the vision of an angel." When the devil heard this humble expression, he vanished like vapor and disappeared.
40. If the humble person is active in service, he will not insist that God gives him the gift of speaking tongues, and he will not declare to people that this is the sign of fullness!
He will not look at him who speaks tongues, in a manner that belittles him as one who has not yet arrived! He will not call another person saying: "Come, let me handle to you the training of God, standing before people as one who grants gifts.