The Humble Path
47. He who has not yet attained divine knowledge energized by love is proud of his spiritual progress. But he who has been granted such knowledge repeats with deep conviction the words uttered by the patriarch Abraham when he was granted the manifestation of God: ‘I am dust and ashes’ (Gen. 18:27).
St. Maximus the Confessor Four Hundred Centuries on Love: #47
There is usually at least one of those moments of profound revelation—when the scale of the universe's grandeur becomes startlingly clear and one's place within it, startlingly small, in the chronicles of seekers and sages. It makes one think of the ancient mariner looking at the expanse of the limitless sea or the astronomer who gazes into the starry heavens with awe at the infinity before him and the subsequent conclusion of his limitation.
The journey to divine knowledge contains such moments when the soul wavers between pride of its own advancements and humility that brings true wisdom. Pride, that very old and wily enemy, finds fertile ground in the heart of him who perceives spiritual progress as a personal accomplishment, a rung climbed on the ladder of holiness, a jewel to be set into the crown of one's own self-importance.
But this is the true sign of divine knowledge—not swelling the chest, but bending the head; not blowing the trumpet of self-congratulation, but murmuring what he says in his very soul. That's very much the message that Maximus the Confessor tries to convey when he sets up the arrogant bearer of incomplete knowledge against the humble possessor of divine wisdom.
Picture the patriarch Abraham, standing under the expanse of the Middle Eastern sky, with the dust of the earth below his feet and the promise of God as vast as the stars above. When faced with the Divine, Abraham does not boast of his faith or his journey. He expresses himself more profoundly, admitting to how worthless he is: "I am but dust and ashes." It is not words of hopelessness, nor those of desperation, but they are those of pure, unadulterated truths evident in the presence of the almighty.
Theologians and mystics have contemplated for a long time that paradox in the invitation to become, according to the Judeo-Christian ethic, closer and closer to God, whereby the closer one draws to God, the more one recognizes one's own unworthiness. Knowledge of the divine, when energized by love, does not make one proud, but rather humble. It strips the layers of ego and self-deceit away and leaves one standing in the simplicity of his or her true state—absolutely human, absolutely dependent on divine grace.
Therefore, as we tread through the path of spiritual growth, let us be wary of being coiled by pride. Let us remember that each step forward, each insight gained, is not a personal triumph but a grace bestowal. Like Abraham, let us stand before God in the fullest knowledge of our abject state, for in it we find the truest knowledge and the purest love.
By accepting our 'dust and ashes,' we open to the expanse of divine wisdom; and in that opening, we are filled not with the fleeting satisfaction of pride but with the enduring fullness of God's presence. Let this humility be our guide, and let the wisdom it brings be the light that illuminates our way.