Humblification of Life Together

For the privileged, humility is low-hanging fruit.

It’s Saturday morning and I am still pondering humility. It started yesterday on Facebook, but here I am still playing with language.

From yesterday’s post:

I was playing with language and in a silly turn discovered “humbleification.” Humiliation is not what I’m after, so I needed something else. I like the playfulness of humbleification. It’s a nonsense word, and yet it regards humility not simply as a virtue, but as a process. One becomes humble. Sometimes in fits and starts. Other times gradually. Every so often, it happens suddenly. We are laid low by awe and a deeper knowledge of the mystery of God, The World, and Everything. In any case, it is not a static state of being. It is a process founded upon one’s relationship with God, self, and others.

Humbleification.

Today’s Franciscan Nugget: “Day Twenty Three - The First Note, cont'd - Humility confesses that we have nothing that we have not received and admits the fact of our insufficiency and our dependence upon God. It is the basis of all Christian virtues. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said, "No spiritual house can stand for a moment except on the foundation of humility." It is the first condition of a joyful life within any community.”

I write from a place of immense privilege. I’m a Berkeley-educated liberal from rural Virginia. White. Cis. Male. It is critical that I learn to embody this virtue. Privilege quickly becomes pride of place when one lacks humility. Putting others before myself is low hanging fruit. Not so for the marginalized and oppressed. This whole system of humbleification assumes we’re living above a survival threshold.

But what is humility if not the glue that holds together community? This is the opposite of Father-knows-best patriarchalism. Here it is better to say that, through humility, the community knows best. This attitude is, of course, anathema to the Western ear who prizes individualism above all.

This is not to say that communities, by virtue of being community, know best. Far from it. It is humility that is the tell. Is the community’s humility evident? Are the least first? Are the marginalized cared for? We’re coming up on Advent in many Christian calendars and this comes to mind as a way of understanding Humility.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him

in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,

he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,

and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel

for he has remembered his promise of mercy,

the promise he made to our fathers,

to Abraham and his children forever.

Humbleification is not a weak stance in the face of power. Rather, it is the growing strength that comes from faith in God’s saving intention for all humanity. There is power in putting others before oneself.

And this is how we live Life Together. Humbly.