An Instruction for the Sunday of the Man Born Blind: On Self-Conceit and Humble-Mindedness

Beloved brethren! Our Lord Jesus Christ, after healing the man born blind, concerning which we heard today in the holy Gospel, said: “I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see might see, and those who see might become blind” (Jn 9:39). These words of the Lord could not be heard with indifference by the proud wise men and righteous ones of the world, such as the Pharisees of the Jews were. Their self-love and high opinion of themselves took offense. In response to the Lord’s words they posed a question in which there were expressed at once indignation and self-conceit, mockery and hatred of the Lord, combined with contempt for Him. “Are we also blind?” they said. In His reply to the question of the Pharisees, the Lord revealed to them the state of their soul that was the initial cause of their question. “If you were blind,” He said to them, “you would not have sin; but now you say, ‘We see’: therefore your sin remains” (Jn 9:40-41).

What a terrible spiritual affliction is self-conceit! In human affairs it deprives the proud man of the help and counsel of others, but in God’s work, in the matter of salvation, it has deprived and continues to deprive the haughty Pharisees of the most precious treasure—the gift of God brought from heaven by the Son of God, and deprives them of divine revelation and the blessed communion with God that is joined to the reception of that revelation.

The Pharisees considered themselves to be seeing, that is, adequately and in the highest degree acquainted with true knowledge of God, needing no further progress or instruction, and on this ground rejected that teaching about God which was taught directly by God Himself.

The virtue opposite to pride, and to the particular expression of it in the human spirit itself—self-conceit—is humility. As pride is pre-eminently the affliction of our spirit, the sin of the mind, so humility is the good and blessed state of the spirit, is pre-eminently the virtue of the mind. For this reason it is very frequently called in Holy Scripture and in the writings of the holy Fathers humble-mindedness. What is humble-mindedness? Humble-mindedness is the correct understanding of humanity in general, and consequently it is the correct understanding of oneself. The direct action of humility, or humble-mindedness, consists in the fact that this correct understanding of humanity and of oneself reconciles a person with himself, with human society, with its passions, defects, abuses, with particular and general circumstances—reconciles him with earth and heaven. The virtue of humility received its name from the inner peace of heart it produces. When we have in view the single tranquilizing, joyful, blessed state produced in us by the virtue, we call it humility. When, however, we intend to indicate together with the state also its source, we call it humble-mindedness.

Do not think, beloved brethren, that the definition we have given, in which humble-mindedness is called the correct way of thinking of a person in general about humanity and in particular about himself, is an arbitrary definition. Such a definition of humility and humble-mindedness is indicated by the Lord Himself. He said: “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:31-32). But what is spiritual freedom, granted by Truth, if not the holy gracious peace of the soul, if not holy humility, if not evangelical humble-mindedness? Divine Truth—our Lord Jesus Christ (Jn 14:6). He proclaimed: “Learn from Me,” from Divine Truth, “for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:29). Humble-mindedness is the way of thinking about oneself and humanity, inspired and continually inspired by Divine Truth. Self-conceit is the grievous and pernicious self-deception, the deadly delusion by which blinded humanity deceives itself and by which demons deceive it.

False are the views and foundations of human pride and self-conceit. The proud man looks upon himself as a self-existent being, not as God’s creation; he regards earthly life as endless, death and eternity as non-existent. Divine Providence does not exist for him: he recognizes human reason as the ruler of the world. All his thoughts crawl along the earth; his life is wholly given over to earth, on which he wishes to establish endless indulgence in sin. And toward this mad, impossible goal the blinded Pharisees and Sadducees strive with all their effort.

On the contrary, the remembrance of death accompanies the humble-minded person throughout his earthly life, teaches him to act on earth for eternity, and, wonderfully, his very actions are animated by a particular beneficence. The humble-minded person acts for virtue, not from the impulse of passions nor for their satisfaction; consequently his actions cannot but be beneficial to human society. The humble-minded person sees himself as a mere speck of dust amid the vast universe, amid the times, generations, and events of mankind that have passed and shall come. The mind and heart of the humble-minded person are capable of receiving divine Christian teaching and of making continual progress in Christian virtues; the mind and heart of the humble-minded person see and feel the fall of human nature and therefore are capable of recognizing and accepting the Redeemer.

Humble-mindedness sees no merit in fallen human nature; it contemplates humanity as an excellent creation of God, but at the same time it also contemplates the sin that has penetrated all of mankind’s being, that has poisoned this being; humble-mindedness, acknowledging the magnificence of God’s creation, acknowledges also the deformity of the creation distorted by sin; it continually grieves over this calamity. It looks upon the earth as the land of its exile, and strives through repentance to recover for itself the Heaven lost through self-conceit. But pride and self-conceit, having brought about the fall and destruction of humanity, neither see nor acknowledge the fall in human nature: they see in it only merits, only perfections and graces; they even regard the very spiritual ailments and passions as virtues. Such a view of humanity makes the thought of the Redeemer utterly superfluous and foreign. The sight of the proud is a terrible blindness; but the blindness of the humble is the capacity to see Truth. And to this refer the words of the Lord: “I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see might see, and those who see might become blind”. The humble received the Lord and were illumined with Divine Light; the proud, content with themselves, rejected Him, and became even more darkened by their rejection and their blasphemy against God.

Brightly shine countless stars on the clear sky during the night, competing with one another in the abundance of light; but when the sun appears the stars vanish—they vanish, as if becoming altogether non-existent, although in reality they all remain in their places. So too human virtues, when compared with one another, have their light; but when set beside divine goodness they vanish before the Light of the Godhead. The Apostle, speaking of the virtues of the patriarch Abraham, said that Abraham “might have something to boast about, but not before God;” but with respect to God, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Rom 4:2-3). Thus should the Pharisees, who boasted of their descent in the flesh from Abraham but separated themselves from him in spirit, have acted. In contrast to Abraham’s manner of action they wished to retain for themselves the supposed merits of the old man and thereby rendered themselves incapable of self-knowledge and knowledge of God; they heard the Lord’s terrible judgment: “If you were blind,” that is, if you had acknowledged your blindness, “you would not have sin; but now,” being blind, “you say, ‘We see’: therefore your sin remains”. You have assimilated it to yourselves and sealed it in yourselves through your self-conceit.

In his youth the holy Apostle Paul was trained by the Pharisees; but he did not follow their hardening and self-conceit. He was, as he himself relates for our instruction, “a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever things were gain to me,” he says, “those I have counted as loss for Christ. But indeed, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:5-8).

Beloved brethren! Let us imitate the holy Apostle Paul and the other saints, the beloved of God: let us draw near to God by completely renouncing the pernicious self-conceit through the aid of humility. Through humility let us cleave to God; let us attract to ourselves through humility the attention and compassion of our God, Who said: “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Is 66:2). Through the vision and consciousness of our sins let us include ourselves in the number of the sinners beloved by God; through the rejection of self-conceit let us exclude ourselves from the number of the false righteous, lest God, who said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance,” reject us (Mt 9:13). Let our heart be built up by humility into a spiritual altar to God, and the priest of God the Most High—our mind—let it offer to Him spiritual sacrifices, let it offer the sacrifice of compunction, the sacrifice of repentance, the sacrifice of confession, the sacrifice of prayer, the sacrifice of mercy, permeating every sacrifice with humble-mindedness: for “a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Ps 50:19). Amen.

“The lips of the humble-minded speak truth,” said St. Mark the Ascetic. See Discourse on the Spiritual Law, Chapter 9.

The Venerable Pimen the Great said: “There was permitted to the Israelites only one place where they might offer sacrifices and perform public worship. In the spiritual sense this place is humility.” The Alphabetical Patericon.