Humility

The culture in which we live constantly instills in us the sense of pride, of self-glorification, and of self-righteousness.  It is built on the assumption that man can achieve anything by himself, and it even pictures God as the One who all the time “gives credit” for man’s achievements and good deeds.  Humility—be it individual or corporate, ethnic or national—is viewed as a sign of weakness, as something unbecoming a real man [or woman]….  But what is humility?  The answer to this question may seem a paradoxical one for it is rooted in a strange affirmation:  God Himself is humble! Yet to anyone who knows God, who contemplates Him in His creation and in His saving acts, it is evident that humility is truly a divine quality, the very content and the radiance of that glory which, as we sing during the Divine Liturgy, fills heaven and earth.  In our human mentality we tend to oppose “glory” and “humility”—the latter being for us the indication of a flaw or deficiency.  For us it is our ignorance or incompetence that makes or ought to make us feel humble.  It  is almost impossible to “put across” to the modern man, fed on publicity, self-affirmation, and endless self-praise, that all that which is genuinely perfect, beautiful, and good is at the same time naturally humble; for precisely because of its perfection, it does not need “publicity,” external glory, or “showing off” of any kind.  God is humble because He is perfect; His humility is His glory and the source of all true beauty, perfection, and goodness, and everyone who approaches God and knows Him immediately partake of the Divine humility and is beautified by it.

Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent, p. 19f