Faith, simplicity, teaching, chastising, asceticism …
WATANI International
11 December 2011
Last week we spoke about the relationship between humbleness and grace, repentance, confession, and compassion upon sinners. Here we shall explain the relationship between humbleness and other virtues like faith and simplicity.
Faith & simplicity:
The humble has a simple heart that accepts everything from God without arguing or doubting, like a child receiving simply the rules of faith. The Lord therefore says, “Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18: 3) However, many people grow intellectually but their minds resist the simplicity of faith. They only accept what their minds can understand concerning God and His wise commandments! Actually with their limited minds they can never understand the Unlimited. This tendency led some philosophers to atheism, for, being proud of their intellect, they held fast to their own views, refusing God who they do not know or touch.
A philosopher once said that he was passing by a farm and saw a farmer kneeling down in prayer; he stood watching in wonder and said within himself, ##I am ready to assign half my philosophical knowledge, if only I get the simplicity of this farmer who was speaking with trust in his prayer to an invisible Being!!##
This story shows how humbleness with simplicity may lead to faith, compared to the knowledge that puffs up (1 Cor 8: 1) and leads to pride that denies God! Amazing indeed that the mind which is a gift from God be used by man to deny God who gave it to him! A philosopher who is supposed to have higher intellect deviates through pride into ignorance concerning God. Truly said, “The fool has said in his heart, ##There is no God##”! (Ps 14: 1)
• The proud mind denies the possibility of miracles!
The mind, being unable to understand the miracles, denies them, claiming that they are against reason! This is not true, but the fact is that they are too high for the mind to accept them. The humble believe in miracles, and ask God for a miracle, and God may grant it to them if it conforms to His will. The proud, on the contrary, reject the idea, and even if a miracle happens before their eyes they will try to ascribe it to natural causes or receive it with wonder, but never ascribe it to God.
• The creation and the resurrection are among the miracles which a proud mind denies.
The faithful all over the whole world believe in creation from nullity and in the resurrection from the dead. They accept simply what the divine inspiration say in the scriptures. Gnostics for instance deny the creation from nullity and consider material eternal, while there is nothing eternal except God.
What about life? Can the earthly life be from eternity? There was a time when the earth was an inflaming piece separated from the solar system, and the heat allowed no human or animal life on it. From where then did life come? Certainly from God! Here science conforms to faith, yet the proud refuse God, because their pride does not allow them to accept the idea that there is a God!
Furthermore most of the philosophers refuse the idea of the resurrection due to their pride that cannot accept what they do not understand! I wonder; do we not accept many new inventions which only professionals can understand?!
• Visions and spiritual apparitions are likewise seen by the humble due to their simplicity.
The humble receive such visions joyfully and wait for them, whereas the proud may not see them, because their hearts are not ready. Pride hinders faith within them. Even if they see lights from above, they try to deny their divine source, giving unreasonable and false explanations, claiming that such lights may be laser or UFOs! Continual rejection is what occupies their minds. Their intellect deceives them, and their pride deprives them of faith.
• The same applies to the Holy Scriptures; the humble accept them with faith and joy, while pride leads some people to Biblical Criticism. They make of their minds observers over the Holy Scripture, criticizing and analyzing it, accept what is reasonable and reject any other. Pride also makes the Holy Scripture subject to their whims, rejecting what does not satisfy such whims. An example is those who support the homosexuals, encourage them, or feel afraid of them, therefore they refuse the verses that condemn homosexuality.
They do not have such humbleness that receive God##s words and obey them, but reject what they cannot obey due to the lusts of their hearts! They refuse some things, not because these things are unreasonable, but because their minds are not free; they are tied with the bonds of their whims and lusts.
• The proud also have their special way of translating and interpreting the Holy Scripture.
Some of them give a translation that conforms to their beliefs, and distort and change the original versions, like Jehovah Witnesses and their translation “The New World Translation of the Scripture”. This version contains many distorted verses which they made to support their heresies. They use this translation in their books to lead people astray.
In their interpretation of the Scripture, the proud also follow their whims and understanding and their type of mind, even if this leads to new sects to appear. That is why there are many sects and many churches in the West.
Unlike those are the humble; they accept the Scripture as it is without mixing it with their own views whether in translation or interpretation. To understand the biblical texts they depend on the sayings of the early church fathers and the Tradition.
The relationship between humbleness and teaching:
Concerning teaching and learning:
• The proud likes to be a teacher, seeing himself capable of teaching the others, while the humble always prefers, and seeks, to learn from the others, even if the teaching comes in the form of reproach, or from a younger person.
• St. Anthony at the beginning of his monasticism used to sit at the farthest end of the village to learn virtue from the ascetics living there. One day a woman came to bath in the river, and she began to put off her clothes, so the saint said to her, ##O woman, are you not ashamed to appear naked before me, a monk?## The woman answered him, saying with mockery, ##Who said you are a monk? If you were, you would enter the deep desert, for this place is not convenient for monks!## The saint in deep humbleness obeyed, and considered her answer a message from God to him through her mouth. He soon left that place into the desert.
St. Makarius the Great likewise obeyed an advice said by a herds- boy! St. Moses the Black once asked young Zacharia for a word of benefit, and when the boy wondered, saying, ##Are you the pillar of the desert and a minaret asking me, a small boy?## The saint said to him, ##I am sure, my son, with the spirit that is in you, you have words that I need to know.##
St. Theophilus the 23rd Patriarch used to go to the wilderness asking for a word of benefit from a hermit like Abba Arsanius and abba Pevnotius. When any of them apologized, he benefited even from this and went his way!
• The proud is wise in his own eyes and boasts of his knowledge, therefore seeks knowledge from nobody! In his pride he sees that nobody exceeds him in knowledge to receive from him. The humble on the contrary does not refrain from asking, or from saying, I do not know. He listens to the others for benefit. The proud usually interrupts the others to speak, to affirm his views and his word, and argues continually.
• The humble has before his eyes the words of the apostle, “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things.” (Jas 3: 1, 2) Therefore he is always cautious concerning teaching lest he errs. He is ready to take the counsel of the others to be sure, or refers to the main sources to see if his teaching conforms to the church dogma and the sayings of the others, especially if he is teaching a new thought.
• The proud boldly introduces new teaching, which may cause him to fall in a heresy. He likes to embark upon deep matters that may be beyond his level, thinking of himself more highly than he ought to think (Rom 12: 3). He gives his opinion as if it is a new doctrine, and tries to establish it! If the church objects he will hold to his opinion and out of pride he cannot surrender, thus falling in a heresy. This is what happened to Tertullian, Origen, Arius, and Nestor. I actually wrote some articles in this context entitled: “A heresy is like pride, all those who fall by it are strong”
It is therefore very good to learn the words of the Lord, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” (Mt 11: 25) Yea! The humble do receive wisdom from above, because they seek it, but the proud being satisfied with their human wisdom cannot find the divine wisdom. The Lord has refused the wisdom of this arrogant world (1 Cor 1: 20), for many philosophies now in the world lead to doubt and confusion.
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