There remains humility, which also has its straits — and not small ones. What does that Master command, who most truly said of Himself: Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart? Go, sit down in the lowest place (Matt. 11:29; Luke 14:10). And what He said, He did. For coming into this world, He lay at His birth in a manger, and at His death upon the cross. A humbler place He surely could not have found, either at His birth or at His death. And while He lived, He was poorer not only than men but even than brute animals: for foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but He had not where to lay His head. But what is the meaning of: Sit down in the lowest place (Luke 14:10)? It means this: whoever you are, and however great you are, always reckon yourself worthy of the last place. The Apostle gives the reason for this in the Epistle to the Galatians, when he says: For if any man think himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceives himself (Gal. 6:3); and he did not say, Whoever thinks himself to be great, or greater than others, whether in wisdom, or in power, or in virtues; nor did he say: If anyone thinks himself not great, nor greater than the rest, but yet equal to others; but he said, If anyone thinks himself to be something — and finally he did not say, Whereas he is poor, or unlearned, or inglorious, but, Whereas he is nothing. Therefore the Apostle could not have descended lower, to designate the lowest place and to explain the words of the Lord with a worthy commentary. But, they say, there must be men in high ranks — prelates, princes, kings, emperors, Pontiffs. So it is — there must; but each one ought to sit in the lowest place and wait for the Lord to say: Go up higher. Of this we have a notable example in St. Augustine, which I am glad to set forth in his own words. For thus he speaks in his sermon On the Common Life of Clerics: I separated myself from those who love the world; but I did not make myself equal to those who preside over the people; nor did I choose a higher place at the banquet of the Lord, but a lower and abject one. And it pleased Him to say to me: Go up higher. Yet I so feared the episcopate that, since my reputation had begun to be of some account among men, I would not go to any place where I knew there was no bishop. I was on my guard against this, and did what I could to be saved in a lowly place, and not to be put in peril in a high one. But, as I have said, a servant must not contradict his Lord. Would that all imitated this example! For we would have many good prelates, many good princes, many excellent magistrates. But because many thrust themselves forward and do not deign to await the call of the Lord, God is sometimes angered, and by way of example to others forces not a few to sit in the lowest place, so that all may understand that honors and riches, together with temporal and spiritual goods, depend upon His hand. For hence we often see the richest of men reduced in a short time to extreme poverty, and great princes cast down from their thrones.
But neither is it enough to await the call of God; one must also, in the prelature or principate itself, not think proudly, but, according to the counsel of the Wise Man, the greater one is, the more let him humble himself in all things (Sir. 3:18) — not in body but in heart, as St. Gregory teaches in his Pastoral Rule (bk. II, ch. 6); and more plainly St. Augustine in the Epistle which is the rule for consecrated virgins: Let her, he says, be set above you in honor before men, but beneath your feet before God (Ep. 109). For each one ought to believe all others to be better than himself, and for that reason greater. For he is properly and simply greater who is greater before God. And before God he is greater who is better; and he is better who excels in virtues — whatever may be said of prefectures, of riches, of titles, of crowns, of insignia. For virtues make a man good — not prefectures, riches, titles, and other things of that kind; and if virtues make a man good, greater virtues make him better, and the greatest make him best; and they who possess virtues in a more excellent degree surpass the rest. And that humility is one of the great virtues is known from this, that the Lord Himself attributed exaltation to humility, in that sentence so often repeated by Him: Everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted (Matt. 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14). This sentence was followed by the Blessed Virgin in her Canticle: He has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble (Luke 1:52); and by St. Peter: Be humbled under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in the time of visitation (1 Pet. 5:6); and by Saint James: Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you (James 4:10). Finally, St. Paul says of Christ Himself: He humbled Himself, and God exalted Him (Phil. 2:8-9).
Since, therefore, it is true virtues — and especially charity and humility — that make men good before God, and even better and greatest; and since certainly no one knows what he is before God, or what others are or shortly will be; therefore it is dangerous to put oneself before anyone, and most profitable to put oneself after all; therefore the Lord pronounces absolutely: Sit down in the lowest place. Yet how few are they who keep this precept of the Lord! Over what is there more contention among men than over precedence? How much labor must be undertaken by those who strive to bring to agreement men quarreling over points of honor! How many do we often hear misapplying that sentence of Scripture: My glory I will not give to another (Isa. 48:11) — and yet that sentence belongs to the Most High Himself in Isaiah, to whom alone it is justly fitting. For God alone must not be humble, because humility is the virtue that restrains man's desire, lest he wish to rise above himself; but God, since He is the Most High, has nothing above Him. It is therefore intolerable pride that a little worm should dare to say: My glory I will not give to another; and yet the same little worms, whom pride so inflates that they say with God, My glory I will not give to another, so abase themselves as to confess themselves slaves of honor — that is, of empty repute; and so faithfully do they serve their lord, human honor, that they would rather be cruelly challenged to a duel and go down to hell, and so lose eternal and temporal life together, than that any hurt be brought to their idol, honor. O vanity of vanities! How grievously has this smoke of honor blinded the eyes of the mind! And yet we are Christians, and we know that Christ heard from His enemies: Behold a man that is a glutton and a wine-drinker (Matt. 11:19); again: Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil (John 8:48); again: By Beelzebub, the prince of devils, He casts out devils (Luke 11:15); and yet no one heard from His mouth the word Thou liest, or anything of the kind; but because He was meek and humble of heart, when He was reviled, He threatened not, as the Apostle Peter writes (1 Pet. 2:23).
From this it is evident that the gate of eternal life is narrow — no less on account of humility than on account of the theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity — and that few can pass through it; and that therefore, to one who asks, "Are they few who are saved?" the most correct answer can be given: they are few, because few there are who strive, as they ought, with all their strength to enter through the straits of that gate.