Psalm 130:1

swing for the fences, aim for the ground

Lord, my heart is not exalted: nor are my eyes lofty. Neither have I walked in great matters, nor in wonderful things above me. (Psalm 130:1 DR)

Humility is one of the highest of the virtues, ordered by St. Thomas Aquinas as directly below the theological virtues, intellectual virtues and justice since it “makes a man a good subject to ordinance of all kinds and in all matters; while every other virtue has this effect in some special matter.” (ST, 2.2., Q. 161, A. 5.) That is, as a virtue it doesn’t only deal with one type of matter but has reference to them all; in this manner it serves as a quasi-gateway to all other virtues; a sort of sine qua non of virtue.

The Scriptures are replete with passages extolling the good of humility and its necessity for the spiritual and the physical life. Proverbs 22:4 states:

The fruit of humility is the fear of the Lord, riches and glory and life. (Proverbs 22:4 DR)

Our Lord’s Incarnation is marked by humility (cf. Philippians 2:6-11) and He specifically draws men to Himself by means of this virtue:

Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light. (Matthew 11:28-30 DR)

Humility serves as a counterpart to magnanimity in respect to the appetite for a difficult good; it restrains the mind from things too high for it, as St. Thomas explains:

[F]or those appetitive movements which are a kind of impulse towards an object, there is need of a moderating and restraining moral virtue, while for those which are a kind of recoil, there is need, on the part of the appetite, of a moral virtue to strengthen it and urge it on. Wherefore a twofold virtue is necessary with regard to the difficult good: one, to temper and restrain the mind, lest it tend to high things immoderately; and this belongs to the virtue of humility: and another to strengthen the mind against despair, and urge it on to the pursuit of great things according to right reason; and this is magnanimity. (ST, 2.2., Q. 161, A. 1.)

When we desire something that is difficult to obtain, we can go wrong in one of two ways.

1. The first is to simply give up because it is too difficult, even if it is a desirable good and one that is proper to us. Growing in virtue, as an example, is certainly a difficult good and thus takes effort and self-discipline to achieve. But the very difficulty means that it is easy to despair if not obtained immediately or with more difficulty than imagined. Here magnanimity as a virtue steels the resolve, as it were, to press forward to obtain that good.

2. The second is to immoderately pursue a good beyond reason or for an immoderate or bad end. To be successful in one’s work, as an example, is certainly a good thing and laudable to pursue, but twisting that good into an immoderate desire for wealth or power or fame or what-not would turn a virtue into a vice. Humility tempers the pursuit of a difficult good so that it accords with virtue and right reason.

As a race we struggle with pride, and thus humility is a necessary antidote to this sickness. The Psalmist recognizes this in himself and thus chooses humility of heart, despising the temptation to exalt his heart or his eyes. This was not accidental but rather an intentional disposition of heart and mind:

Let this be more plainly spoken and heard. I have not been proud: I have not wished to be known among men as for wondrous powers; nor have I sought anything beyond my strength, whereby I might boast myself among the ignorant. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 130, 3.)

Pride can lead us into dangerous places, and ambition for things beyond God’s will for us is fraught with peril. St. Augustine notes of Simon the Sorcerer that his downfall was his pride, for he was more enamored with the power of the Apostles (which was a grace granted to them) than with the righteousness of Christ as evidenced in the lives of the Christians (ibid.). He got puffed up by the thought of having a power which comes only by grace (and thus is not the Apostles’ own properly speaking) which seemed to him exteriorly praiseworthy, rather than to in humility accept God’s will for him and allow the grace of God to transform his own heart. The truly humble man understands that whatever is done is done “as to the Lord, and not to men” (Colossians 3:23 DR).

To be sure, it is often the “as to men” part that forms the basis of our pride and vainglory. After all—to put it bluntly—God cannot be impressed by our efforts, for without Him we can do nothing (cf. John 15:5). But humans can in some instances be impressed by our efforts, or at least we like to delude ourselves into imagining this. But rather than setting our focus on the opinions and praise of men, we should orient all our motivations and actions around pleasing God. This forms the framework for evaluating ourselves properly:

For I say, by the grace that is given me, to all that are among you, not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety, and according as God hath divided to every one the measure of faith. (Romans 12:3 DR)

The Psalmist sees in himself a man who is prone to too high an opinion of himself, and thus consciously chooses to refrain from pride, both interior and exterior, in words and deeds:

Some are fond of boasting of being able to do, or of having done, or of being about to do greater or more wonderful things than they could possibly do; and thus, “they walk in things above them,” as to their speech; and others undertake to do what they are quite unequal to, and “they walk in things above them,” in their actions or in their works; but David, grounded in true humility, knew his own place; neither in word nor deed “walked above himself in great and wonderful things;” that is to say, never boasted of having done great and wonderful things beyond his strength, nor attempted to do what he felt himself unequal to. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 130, 1.)

In humility we imitate our Lord and Savior and open ourselves to the operation of grace in our lives, which is promised to the humble in heart:

But he giveth greater grace. Wherefore he saith: God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble… Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:6, 10)

Humility becomes the sure ground to stand on, for in doing so we have a right opinion of ourselves and our abilities, recognizing that all that we have and are comes from God alone:

What is above my strength, he says, I have not sought; I have not stretched myself out there, I have not chosen to be magnified there. How deeply this self-exaltation in the abundance of graces is to be feared, that no man may pride himself in the gift of God, but may rather preserve humility, and may do what is written: “The greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you shall find favour before the Lord:” [Sirach 3:18] how deeply pride in God's gift should be feared, we must again and again impress upon you... (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 130, 3.)

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For this animation I wanted to try and capture a bit the moment of temptation towards the exaltation of the heart. I found this image of a man standing and looking off into the distance, with sort of a hesitance or the sense of a moment of decision about it.

I cut the figure out in Photoshop and precomped it in After Effects. Since the original image had a heaving silhouetting and highlights I tried to find some background textures and images that would be within the same sort of color space. I found this image of clouds which I applied loopFlow to. I then added in a colorful abstract texture and also applied loopFlow to it, but then also added in some pixel sorting to give it an interesting and unsettled look.

I finished by adding in some text and color correction.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: