Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582)
Once I pondered why God loves humility so much, and suddenly, without any previous reflection, it occurred to me that it must be because He is the Sovereign Truth and that humility is truth. And it is a great thing when we realize that we have nothing good in ourselves, only wretchedness and nothingness. The more someone understands this, the more pleasing they are to the Sovereign Truth, for they walk in It. – May God grant us..., that this self-awareness never weakens in us! Amen.
Oh, self-awareness! Understand me well...! It is so necessary that even a soul whom God allows into His abode must never neglect it, even though they have reached such heights. Moreover, they could not neglect it even if they wanted to, for it must, like bees in a hive, make that honey from humility, without which everything is lost. However, just as a bee does not cease to fly out to draw from flowers, so too must the soul occasionally rise to contemplate God's greatness and majesty, even while exercising in self-awareness. Only then can it better perceive its own wretchedness than when remaining solely in itself; it will also be less troubled by the unclean creatures that enter the first rooms where it exercises in self-awareness. Nevertheless, it is a great grace to be able to exercise in it, although, as they say, it can be overdone or neglected. In short, trust me: we will work much more virtuously with God's help than if we cling to our wretchedness.
I do not know if I am expressing myself well. Knowing ourselves is so important that I would not want you to weaken in that, even if you have already reached the highest heavens, for as long as we are on earth, nothing is as necessary as humility. Therefore, I repeat again, it is very useful – rather supremely useful – to enter those abodes reserved for self-awareness before flying to other dwellings, for they are the paths leading to those higher realms. Why then do we want wings for flying when we can walk on solid and safe ground? Rather, let us strive in every way to deeply know ourselves.
But I think we will never know ourselves well if we do not simultaneously take care to know God. If we gaze upon His greatness, we will discover our own wretchedness; considering His purity, we will acknowledge how much dirt is in us; and before His humility, we will see how far we are from it.
Therefore, let us fix our gaze on Christ, our good, and on His saints, and there we will learn true humility. Then our intelligence will become more experienced, and self-awareness will cease to paralyze us and make us cowards.
(The Castle Within, 6. and 1. abodes)
