Thursday 23 March: Humility

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A vision of hope

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Bible reading: Genesis 2.5–7

St Augustine said that humility is the foundation of all the other virtues. But what is humility? I like to think about it this way: it is related to the Latin word ‘humus’ or ‘soil’. Think back to Genesis, where it is written that God made humanity from the dust of the ground. To have the virtue of humility, to be humble, is to really be what you are. It is, in other words, to be true.

And what we are is dust of the ground. A breath that passes in the wind. A note in a song that, once played, is not heard again. We are human; we are not God.

But! We are children of God, adopted and blessed. We are little less than the angels. Indeed, one day we will judge angels.

Humility means holding these truths in tension, without losing sight of one or the other, and without blending them into some kind of nebulous soup. Humility is neither rising higher than we ought, nor abasing ourselves more than we should. To be gifted by God, as we all are, and not to use that gift, in an effort to be humble, is bizarrely enough a form of pride!

Let’s pray for the foundational gift of humility: to know who and what we really are, in all its glory and ugliness, giftedness and limitations. And let us pray for the grace to live out of that truth.

This reflection was written by Stuart Ford, from Bible Society's Supporter Relations team.