Understanding the humility of Christ

UNDERSTANDING THE HUMILITY OF CHRIST

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

            There are so many talks and so much written about humility. Humility is, indeed, a human virtue. It comes from the word ‘humus’ which means ‘earth’ in Greek. In one of my previous articles called ‘God’s greatness – Part 2,’ [please check out my older posts], I had highlighted the aspect of how Jesus literally stripped Himself of many divine qualities in order to become like us. Perhaps, it may not make sense for you and me because we do not understand its implications clearly. Consequently, we take it for granted, given the fact that we constantly come across this teaching now and then. Bishop Fulton Sheen in his book, ‘Life of Christ’ gives us a good illustration to vivify this point. Imagine, if it were possible, a human person’s soul is removed from the body and sent to the body of a serpent. It would be a double humiliation, namely, accepting the limitations of a serpent organism, knowing all the while his mind was superior and that fangs could not adequately articulate thoughts no serpent ever possessed. The second humiliation would be is to be forced as a result of this ‘emptying of self’ to live in the companionship of serpents. But all this is nothing compared to the emptiness of God by which He took on the form of man and accepted the limitations of humanity, such as hunger and pain. For all the Wisdom that He had, He chose to associate with poor fishermen who knew so little. But this humiliation which began in Nazareth was not the first of many to counteract the pride of man, until the final humiliation of death on the Cross. If there was no Cross, there would be no crib; if there had been no nails, there would be no straw. But He could not teach the lesson of the Cross as payment for sin; He had to take it. God the Father did not spare His only Son – so much did He love humankind. That was the secret wrapped in swaddling bands.


            The ancestral background of Our Lord also gives a good picture of our Lord’s lineage. If we go to see, it will be found that over there too, the ancestry of our Lord was marked or tarnished by the mark of sinners. There is no doubt that our Lord was a descendant of David’s blood but as mentioned previously, there were areas in which the lineage of Christ was stained by impure blood. Consider for example, Rahab who although was a foreigner was received into the nation; Bathsheba whose sin with David cast shame upon the royal line. Thus, we could ask ourselves as to why should such be the case for our Lord, a Person who is ‘Purity’ itself? Possibly it was in order to indicate Christ’s relationship to the stained and to the sinful, to harlots and sinners and even to the Gentiles who were included in His message and redemption. Such is the humility of our God. 

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