On Humility in the Interior Life

Taken from The Thre Ages of the Interior Life by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange. Page 366.

“Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:29 DR

The Interior Life

            Before considering the virtue of humility as the foundation of the interior life, we need to look at just what the interior life is as understood in the works of the great spiritual writers. I will endeavor to summarize the interior life to the best of my ability as found in the great spiritual writers such as Dionysius, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. John of the Cross as they are synthesized and explained in Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange.¹

By interior life, we mean the spiritual life of the Christian that is begun through the grace of baptism and is ordered toward the perfect unity with God in the beatific vision. It is called interior because it is found within the soul in relationship to Christ. Imagine that your soul is a house, and you are about to sit down for supper and there is a knock at the door. You rise and open the door and the Our Blessed Lord is standing there desiring to enter your house and dine with you. This knock happens at the door of each soul and the journey that the soul goes on towards unity with God is the inviting of the Lord in to dine with it. This journey is characterized by an ever-flourishing relationship between the soul and Christ where the soul becomes less and less other and more and more assimilated into Christ.

            Traditionally, following St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila, the interior life is summed up in three stages, sometimes referred to as ways, or as Garrigou calls them, the three ages of the interior life. He uses the term age, inspired by John of the Cross, since it corresponds to the growth of a human through the ages of life.² These ages are:

The Purgative Way (The stage of Beginners or Childhood)

The Illuminative Way (The stage of the Proficient or Youth)

The Unitive Way (The stage of the Perfect or Manhood)

The first stage is preceded by the first conversion, from a life of sin to a life of grace through the sacrament of Baptism. This is when the seed of glory, that of sanctifying grace, is first given to the soul. This seed is then meant to sprout and grow into the beatific vision should the devout soul reach the end of the Unitive Way. Entrance into the Purgative Way is characterized by acts of faith, hope, charity, and contrition for sins. For the majority, we lose the initial grace of baptism through mortal sin and must go to confession with contrition and amendment of life in order to return to that state of grace and then be able to begin our progression through the stages. This first conversion begins the Purgative Way. This first way is characterized by a beginning knowledge of both self and God. It is one where the soul will begin to love God in proportion to its knowledge of God. There begins to be an avoidance of mortal sin and deliberate venial sin. The danger though, and the reason that many souls remain here for so long is that God gives to the soul sensible consolations and the soul becomes far too complacent in them and refuses to let them go and so they remain in this way viewing these consolations as ends unto themselves.

            For those who progress through this way, the threshold of the Illuminative Way is what is referred to as the dark night of the senses. This is characterized by a purging from these sensible consolations. Found here is a great aridity in the spiritual life and aridity in prayer. Because of the struggle that this dark night presents, many souls do not make it through and remain in the Purgative Way. For those who progress through, the second conversion gives way to the Illuminative Way.

            The Illuminative Way is characterized by a deeper knowledge of God that is not simply knowing Him through a mirror but through the mysteries of salvation. These souls begin to see the fruits of contemplation and are brought closer to God through daily contemplation.³ According to St. Thomas, the soul rises in a spiral movement through the mysteries of the Incarnation, to the Infancy, to the Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, and finally to the Glory of Christ in heaven.⁴ There is in them an intense desire for God and the salvation of souls. According to Garrigou, the knowledge of these souls is in a sense spiritualized because they are lifted above normal preoccupations of human knowledge.⁵ The soul works for God and desires Him greatly, but he has not yet sufficiently forgotten himself.⁶

To further purify, the soul enters into the second dark night, that of the soul. This is a time of great suffering, not only for themselves but for those whom this soul has chosen to suffer for. Garrigou describes it like this:

“[T]he soul being deprived, not only of sensible consolations, but of its supernatural lights on the mysteries of salvation, of its ardent desires, of that facility in action, in preaching and in teaching, in which it had felt a secret pride and complacency, and by reason of which it had been inclined to set itself above others. This is a period of extreme aridity not only as regards the senses, but as regards the spirit, in prayer and recitation of the office.”⁷

For those who pass though, the love for God is immense as much if not all of the self-love, has been purged away. This is the third conversion.

            After this third conversion, the soul enters into the Unitive Way. This way of the perfect is characterized by a quasi-experiential and almost continuous knowledge of God that persists outside of just in prayer but also during the normal work of the day. There is a constant sense of the presence of God within the life of the Perfect. This soul contemplates God through the divine goodness itself. Garrigou says:

“The perfect know themselves no longer merely in themselves, but in God, their source and their end; they examine themselves, pondering what is written of their existence in the Book of life, and they never cease to see the infinite distance that separates them from their Creator. Hence their humility.”⁸

Icon of Extreme Humility

Humility as Foundation

Hence their humility.

These last few words of the previous quote from Garrigou-Lagrange form a type of snapshot of the necessity of humility. Each soul is called by God to ascend to the heights of the Unitive Way. It is at the end of this Unitive Way that the devout soul will enter into the beatific vision and into heaven itself. To do that, however, at the very beginning of the Purgative Way, there must be the virtue of humility with will ultimately accompany and summarize each of the ages of the interior life. As the soul progresses through each stage, their humility grows to be more Christ-like, so that by the time they reach the unitive way, they are truly humble like Him and may gain entrance into the beatific vision. Garrigou writes:

“Thus, humility has often been compared to the excavation which must be dug for the erection of a building, an excavation which should be so much deeper in proportion as the building is to be higher.”⁹

This means that if we wish to ascent to the heights of the interior life, into the unitive way, humility must be ever deeper in our soul.

            Throughout the entirety of the Christian tradition, we find that humility is the basis of the spiritual life. The reason for this is because it casts out the sin of pride which forms the root of all other sins. This is why Our Lord speaks so often on the need for humility. He is encouraging His followers to cast out the sin of pride and to be humble like Him. But this is only the beginning. Repressing pride is not the only function of humility, it serves to orient the soul to God so that it sees itself as it truly is before God. If repression of pride were its only function, then Our Lord and Our Lady would not be perfections of humility since there was no need to repress pride in them since it did not exist in them. Instead, we find a virtue that ultimately shows the soul its true position compared to God. Garrigou writes:

“[Humility’s] essential act consists in abasing ourselves before God and before what is of God in every other creature. To abase ourselves before the Most High is to recognize, not only in a speculative but in a practical manner, our inferiority, littleness, and indigence, manifest in us even though we are innocent and once we have sinned, it consists in recognizing our wretchedness.”¹⁰

What should be noticed here is that humility is not solely toward God. It is certainly toward God first in that we recognize that we are immensely small before Him. He is ipsum esse subsistens, Being Itself. We exist because He has in His goodness caused us and continues to hold us in that being. As a result of this, humility also moves us to recognize the likeness of God in our neighbor and thus causes in us a desire for them to be preferred over us.

Humility inclines us toward the truth that God is far greater than we can ever be and that there is an infinite distance between God and creature. Thus, “the more this distance appears to us in a living and concrete manner, the more humble we are.”¹¹ Practically speaking, the higher the soul ascends in the spiritual life, the more this infinite distance is apparent to it. Thus, the higher we get and the closer we get to God, the more the abyss grows in our estimation. This truly places the soul at an absolute reliance on God. This is the purpose of it. The more reliant we are on God the more we know that we cannot cross this infinite abyss. We need Him to come get us. This is the nature of the interior life. We do not ascend through the interior life of our own will. We do not determine ourselves and say, “I will tackle the dark night of the senses today!” No! This type of thinking would be spiritual pride. Instead, it is an act of grace that moves us through the stages of the interior life. Our correspondence to that grace will bring us up this mountain to the glory of God. But it must be understood as a work of God, first. St. Paul beautifully speaks to this:

“What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift.” 1 Cor. 4:7 RSVSCE

St. Peter Crucified. Photo taken by me in the Church of Quo Vadis, Rome, Italy.

The Degrees of Humility

St. Thomas records seven degrees of humility taken from St. Anselm.¹² They are:

1.     To know that one is contemptible

2.     To feel affliction at this knowledge

3.     To confess that one is despicable

4.     To wish one’s neighbors to know this

5.     Patiently to endure them saying so

6.     To submit to being treated as worthy of contempt

7.     To like being treated so

These degrees of humility, as severe as they sound, are occasions of purification along the way of perfection. These degrees serve to purify the soul as well as the theological virtues from all human pride so as to more perfectly have faith, hope, and charity for God. Once a soul has ascended through the seven degrees, the true motives of the theological virtues shine through. Garrigou beautifully sums this up:

“Then the formal motives of the three theological virtues appear in all their sublime grandeur: the supreme Truth that reveals, Mercy ever ready to help, sovereign Goodness, ever lovable for its own sake.”¹³

The journey of the soul through the stages of the interior life as well as the degrees of perfection are characterized by a successive and complete detachment from this world, and most especially, of self. We no longer desire to be preferred to other people. We no longer desire the temporary comforts and consolations that this world provides because we are so enraptured in God as our greatest Good that all things of this world are seen as what they are, corruptible and finite. The incorruptible and infinite Good stands as our greatest solace in this vale of tears.  

            Upon reaching the higher degrees of humility, what is referred to as heroic humility begins in us. This humility more closely conforms us to the Lord. This can be seen in the recitation of the Beatitudes by Our Blessed Lord. The final two Beatitudes correspond to the final three degrees of humility:

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matt. 5:10-11. RSVSCE

Our Lord embodies this when He willingly goes to the passion for love our salvation for us. His entire passion is a movement of the heroic virtue of humility in Him. We willed the humiliations of the passion for our sake. Likewise, we can see this in Blessed Peter who at the end of his life willed that he be crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy to die as Christ did.

Conclusion

            The virtue of humility, in its fullness, is a recognition, acceptance, and love that we are nothing compared to God. That, if it were not for God, we would be left to our sinful wretchedness since all that is good in us is a participation in the perfect goodness of God. The more we allow this humility to excavate the ground of our soul, the more the castle of the interior life can be built in us. Humility causes complete abandonment and reliance on God knowing that it is only in Him that we may find our rest and it is only through His grace that we can be brought across the infinite abyss that exists between the human and the divine.

            Garrigou sums it up beautifully:

“Humility… abases man before the Most High that he make take his true place. It abases him before God only to allow God to act more freely in him. Far from becoming discouraged, the humble soul entrusts itself to God and, if the Lord does great things through it, it does not glorify itself any more than the ax in the hands of the woodsman…”¹⁴

We are the ax in the hands of the woodsman. Christ reminds us in the Gospel of John, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”¹⁵ True humility embraces this truth and gives themselves over to God knowing that it is only in God that we will ever reach the beatific vision, that eternal embrace of the divine prepared for those who follow Christ along the Ages of the Interior life and along the way of the cross.

The truly humble will be able to say with Our Blessed Lady:

“I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.” Luke 1:38

1. There is a beautiful line that connects all of these great mystics to one another. What began in Dionysius during the Patristic era has come to fruition in the great spiritual doctors of the church. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange admirably takes these great thinkers, synthesizes them, and explains them better than any theologian before or since his time. Truly, the work of Garrigou-Lagrange is some of the most precious and applicable to the world today.  

2. For an extended summary of each of these stages see Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life, (Charlotte, NC: TAN Books, 2015). This little text is a summary of Garrigou’s magnum opus The Three Ages of the Interior Life. It is an excellent introduction to his thought.

3. A note can be made here on daily recitation of the Rosary which Garrigou calls the School of Contemplation.

4. Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae IIa-IIae q. 180, a. 6.

5. Cf. Conversions of the Spiritual Life, 90.

6. Ibid. 91.

7. Ibid. 93.

8. Ibid. 96.

9. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, 117.

10. Ibid. 118.

11. Ibid.

12. ST IIa-IIae q. 161, a. 6.

13. Conversions of the Spiritual Life, 64. Emphasis is Garrigou’s.

14. The Three Ages of the Interior Life, 122.

15. John 15:5.