Healing the World Through Humility

The ancient Greeks had a word for pride and ambition run amok: ”hybris,” which we have translated in English as “hubris.” As it says on the Merriam-Webster Web site, “To the Greeks, hubris referred to extreme pride, especially pride and ambition so great that they offend the gods and lead to one's downfall. Hubris was a character flaw often seen in the heroes of classical Greek tragedy, including Oedipus and Achilles. The familiar old saying ‘Pride goeth before a fall’ is basically talking about hubris.”

Tragically, humans don’t seem to be able to learn how to avoid hubris from the innumerable examples offered by history and literature. Indeed, stories of the rise and fall of people and cultures afflicted with this grave character flaw have been playing on a continual loop since the beginning of recorded history and continue today, as recent events in the United States have demonstrated.

Saint Benedict was aware of the insidious ease with which hubris sprouts in each of us and thus devoted the longest chapter in his Rule to the development of humility, in what was perhaps the world’s first 12-step program. It’s easy to decry hubris when it plays out on the world stage, but if we are to countermand it, we must root it out in ourselves.

As Sr. Ilia Delio notes, “If we preach the Gospel ideals of Jesus, then we must first be willing to put them into practice. After all, if we want the world to overcome it’s addiction to power, money and progress, then we must be willing to disengage ourselves from these things; for where else shall the world find its image?”

Humble people — those who have learned to turn their attention away from themselves and rely solely on God — are the ones who have been able to break the interminable cycle of hubris and effect true peace and fullness of life among us. Mary of Nazareth, Jesus, St. Benedict, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and many others like them all started in the same place we must: by recognizing and acknowledging our pride and cultivating humility. When we accept this challenge, ever so slowly but inexorably, peace and compassion rather than the tragedy of ambition and greed will spread throughout our world.