QUESTION I.
On humility with respect to its act, namely whether it belongs to Christian perfection to abase oneself for Christ.
And since a habit is known through its acts, therefore we must inquire about humility with respect to its act. The question, therefore, is whether it belongs to Christian perfection to abase oneself for Christ. And that it does is shown as follows:
1. First, by the authority of Christ himself, who says in Matthew 18: Unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven; but to make oneself little is nothing other than to become vile in one's own eyes and to wish to be regarded as vile by others: therefore, etc.
2. Likewise, Matthew 20: Whoever would be first among you shall be your servant: but to make oneself a servant of others is to abase oneself with the greatest abasement: therefore, etc.
3. Likewise, Luke 17: When you shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants: but whoever rightly says something wishes to be believed, and believes what he says to be true: therefore, for someone to be a perfect disciple of Christ, it is necessary that he regard himself as vile and that he wish to be so regarded by others.
4. Likewise, Luke 22: He that is the greater among you, let him become as the lesser; and he that is the leader, as he that serves: but if the least were to make himself as the greatest, it would be the height of ambition and pride: therefore conversely, when the greater becomes the lesser and the leader becomes as the servant, this will be the height of self-abasement: and this ought to be done according to the evangelical teaching: therefore, etc.
5. Likewise, John 13: You call me master and lord, etc., up to: to wash the feet; from this authority it is gathered by reasoning that the disciple of Christ, on account of his master, ought to bow himself down even to the most extreme form of humiliation and abasement.
6. Likewise, Philippians 2: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form, etc.: but to empty oneself is nothing other than to abase oneself: if therefore we ought to imitate Christ in this, self-emptying and self-abasement belong to evangelical perfection.
7. Likewise, on that passage Bernard says in a sermon on the Nativity of the Lord: "What necessity was there for the God of majesty to so empty himself, so humble himself, so diminish himself, unless that you should do likewise? Already he cries out by example what he will preach by word." And shortly after: "It is intolerable impudence that, where majesty emptied itself, a little worm should puff itself up and swell with pride." If therefore we ought to imitate Christ in such self-emptying, it remains that to be abased belongs to the perfection of virtue.
8. On 2 Kings 6, upon the text: Michal, the daughter of Saul, looking out, saw King David leaping and dancing, and she despised him in her heart; Gregory says: "Behold, the one whom the Lord singularly preferred above all others despises himself before the Lord by making himself equal to the least and by exhibiting what is abject. The power of kingship is not recalled to memory; he does not fear to become vile in the eyes of his subjects by dancing. What others may think of these deeds, I do not know; I am more amazed at David dancing than at David fighting: by fighting he conquered his enemy, but by dancing before the Lord he conquered himself." If, therefore, to conquer oneself is a work of perfect virtue, and this is accomplished through self-abasement: therefore, etc.
9. Likewise, a little further on in the same place: I will play and become yet more vile, etc.; upon which Gregory says: "As if he were openly saying: I desire to become vile before men, because I seek to keep myself noble before God through humility." If, therefore, to be noble before God is nothing other than to be perfect, and self-abasement makes one noble before God: therefore it is an act of perfect virtue.
10. Likewise, on Jonah 3, upon the text: Let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth: the Gloss says: "Behold, the king of Nineveh rises from his throne; he exchanges purple for sackcloth, ointments for mud, clean things for filth." But this is to abase oneself in the highest degree, not only interiorly but also exteriorly, and through this the wrathful God was appeased: therefore self-abasement is a work most acceptable to God.
11. Likewise, Augustine, in On True Religion: "All those things which we wrongly avoided losing because we desired to have them, Christ by going without them made vile: for no sin can be committed except by desiring what He despised or by fleeing what He endured." But Christ endured abasement not under compulsion but willingly, and He refused honors: if, therefore, we wish to be abased for His sake, let us conform ourselves to Him in the discipline of conduct.
12. Likewise, Gregory in the first book of the Dialogues says thus: "In the praises of Constantius, one must consider what degree of humility he possessed within himself, since he loved all the more the rustic man who despised him. For what sort of person anyone is in secret, an insult inflicted upon him proves. For just as the proud rejoice in honors, so the humble generally rejoice in being despised: and when they see themselves vile even in the eyes of others, they therefore rejoice, because they understand that through this the judgment is confirmed which they themselves had already formed about themselves within themselves." From this authority it is manifestly gathered that no one is truly humble unless he is vile in his own eyes and wills to be so in the eyes of others.
13. Likewise, Bernard, on the Song of Songs, homily sixteen: "The truly humble man wishes to be reckoned vile, not to be proclaimed humble." But humility is not virtuous unless it is true humility: therefore, if true humility cannot exist without voluntary self-abasement, by equal reasoning neither can virtuous humility.
14. This same point is shown by reason. As pride is related to exaltation, so humility is related to vileness: but there is never pride without a desire for exaltation: therefore there is never true humility without a desire for vileness.
15. Furthermore, as lasciviousness is related to austerity, so pride is related to vileness: but lasciviousness is not eradicated from us except through the rigor of austerity: therefore neither is pride except through the vileness of self-abasement: therefore self-vilification is an act that extinguishes pride, and thereby an act of perfect virtue.
16. Furthermore, no one can be justified from original sin unless he subjects himself to the Sacraments, which are sensible signs: but to subject oneself to a sensible sign cannot be without great abasement; yet more is required to remove actual sin: therefore, for someone to be justified, it is required not only that he be humbled interiorly, but also exteriorly.
17. Furthermore, a contemner of God is worthy of the highest reproach and contempt: but the sinner is a contemner of God, therefore he is supremely to be despised: therefore he who despises himself as a sinner does what he ought and judges himself justly. But this pertains to perfect virtue: therefore, etc.
18. Furthermore, there are two things in sin, namely concupiscence and contempt of God; but a man cannot be justified from sin in which there was concupiscence unless the pain of compunction is present: therefore by equal reasoning he cannot be justified from pride nor from contempt of God except through contempt and vilification of himself.
19. Furthermore, the city of God is the opposite of the city of Babylon: but the city of Babylon begins from love of self and arrives at contempt of God: therefore conversely the city of God begins from contempt of self and arrives at love of God. If therefore to despise and vilify oneself pertains to the foundation of the divine city: therefore it is a work of perfect virtue.
20. Furthermore, no one rightly walks the path of virtue unless he renders the honor due to God: but he who vilifies himself for God's sake is the one who honors God: therefore, etc. The major is manifest in itself; the minor is proved by what is said in Ecclesiasticus 3: Great is the power of God alone, and He is honored by the humble: and Baruch 2: The soul that is sorrowful over the greatness of evil and goes bowed down and feeble, and the failing eyes, and the hungering soul gives You glory and justice, O Lord.
21. Furthermore, the more one is conformed to the exemplar of the virtues, the more perfect he is; but Christ on the cross is the exemplar of perfect virtue, where He was in the utmost abasement; therefore each one is the more perfect the more he approaches that abasement.
22. Furthermore, no virtue is in the true perfection of virtue unless it approves each thing according as it is to be approved: but, as is said in the Psalm, every living man is altogether vanity: therefore no one is of perfect virtue unless he considers himself vain and useless, and wills to be so considered by everyone.