The First Step of Humility

The first step of humility, then, is that a man keeps the fear of God always before his eyes.

The Rule of St. Benedict, 7:10

It’s fitting that the first step on the path to humility is to focus the gaze on God, who is the center of all things. In order to feel the proper amount of humility, the amount requisite to our status as fallen beings, we must be reminded that we are not the center of the universe, and that our word is not the final one.

The concept of the fear of God is one that is often problematic in more progressive or affirming strands of Christianity. A God who is all loving is hard to square with a God who is also to be feared. But I think it is an important element of our relationship with God. We should fear God because God is the most awesome, the most majestic, the most incomprehensible. Our minds cannot wrap themselves around God, and this is a properly fear-inducing thing for limited beings. It’s not a fear borne of terror and control; instead, it is a fear borne of the majesty that is God, and the mystery that is wrapped up with that. And so, in order that we might not exalt and overinflate ourselves, we must keep our eyes on just how much more great God is than us – indeed, on the fact that no human category of greatness or majesty or awe can contain or describe God, that God is so far beyond human understanding of those things that it is almost comical to use those words.