Pride is a Dead End

One of the great educators in American history was Booker T. Washington, the son of black slaves. After his family was freed following the Civil War, Washington worked in a coal mine as a teenager; then, after receiving an education as a young man, he became a professor and soon gained a national reputation. Because of his impressive achievements, Washington was chosen in 1881 to organize a special educational institute for blacks in Tuskegee, Alabama. Shortly after arriving there, he was walking down a residential street past the home of a wealthy white family. The woman of the house, not knowing who he was, called out to him and asked him to chop some wood for her. Instead of being insulted or saying, “Madam, don’t you know who I am?,” Professor Washington took off his coat, chopped the wood, and carried it into the kitchen. After he left, a servant girl who had recognized him informed the woman of his identity. 

The next day, the embarrassed wealthy white woman went to his office and apologized, but Washington said, “It’s entirely all right, madam. I like to work, and I’m delighted to do favors for my friends.” The woman was greatly impressed by Professor Washington’s charm and humility; she became one of his greatest and most fervent supporters, and she persuaded all her rich friends and acquaintances to donate thousands of dollars to the Tuskegee Institute (Herbert Prochonow, 700 Illustrations, p. 28).

In almost all of our dealings with other people, we have a choice between being proud or humble. Humility is always the better choice, because it brings us closer to God. Pride cuts us off from God and other people, whereas our humble willingness to help others assures us of God’s blessing.

The practice of humility allows us to approach God and to be at peace in His presence. The Book of Sirach (3:17-18, 20, 28-29) states,

Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God. 

Humility doesn’t mean denying our abilities and our inner goodness; rather, it simply means giving all the credit to the Lord and seeking His glory instead of our own. God the Father created us; Jesus redeems us, and the Holy Spirit sustains us in the way of grace. By remembering this and acting accordingly, we are able to share in the new covenant mentioned in the Letter to the Hebrews (12:18-19, 22-24) —a covenant, or sacred agreement, allowing us to one day live in the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Gospel of Luke (14:1, 7-14), Jesus tells us that humility is necessary if we are to enter into the heavenly banquet prepared for all true children of God. The Lord will exalt us in His Kingdom only if we humble ourselves here on earth—and as Jesus says, a practical sign of this humility is our willingness to help and serve others without expectation of recognition or repayment. Proud people are constantly calculating how they might make a certain situation work to their advantage. Jesus wants us to be humble, thinking not about ourselves and our own benefit, but about how we can glorify God and respond to the needs of the people around us.

There’s a story about Harry S. Truman, who today is regarded as one of our more popular and down-to-earth presidents. After he had completed his term and left Washington D.C., Truman was returning to his home town of Jefferson City, Missouri, being driven by an officer of the local police department. While going down Highway 40 in Missouri, Truman suddenly told the officer to pull over to the side of the road. A woman was trying to round up a bunch of hogs who had gotten out of their pen, and Truman said to his driver, “Let’s help that lady get her hogs in.” He and the police officer did this. Later someone in Jefferson City asked him, “Mr. President, is what we heard true—did you help a woman round up her pigs?” Truman replied, “Yes, somebody had to help her. Anyway, I was a farmer long before I became president” (Phil Barnhart, Seasonings for Sermons, pp. 31-32).

There are great and important people, like Booker T. Washington and Harry S. Truman, who know how to be humble and helpful—and this is a lesson Jesus wants all of us to learn and practice, too. Maybe it means stepping forward when volunteers are needed in the parish or the community, or saying “yes” when asked to do something, even though it would be easier to say “no.” Perhaps we can practice humility by going out of our way to compliment other people, looking for opportunities to express praise and appreciation. Humility might mean a conscious decision on our part to stop keeping track of how many people owe us favors; it certainly means not acting as if we’re better or more important than others, or thinking that we should always get our way. Being humble often means taking an honest look at ourselves, admitting our faults and weaknesses, and seeking God’s grace in order to overcome them.

Humility is a virtue all of us need to keep on developing and practicing, especially by helping those in need and doing so in a gracious, respectful way, without looking for praise and without expecting to be repaid. One of the most important, and difficult, places to be humble is within the home. It’s so easy to take our family members for granted. Humility means treating them as important persons who deserve our appreciation and support: even  the husband who’s better at making messes in the kitchen than cleaning them up, even the wife who borrows her husband’s tools and forgets to put them back where they belong, even the teenagers and children who have a habit of forgetting or ignoring whatever their parents ask or tell them, and even the parents who seem behind the times and have a habit of embarrassing their children. We all have our faults, and we’re all important in God’s eyes. Pride denies or forgets these truths; humility accepts them and acts accordingly. Pride is a dead end, because it ultimately leaves us only with ourselves. Humility leads us to Christ’s Kingdom, because it enables us to love God and our neighbor. Let us live humbly in this life, so that God may exalt us in Heaven.