HUMILITAS: A LOST KEY TO LIFE, LOVE AND LEADERSHIP

John Dickson’s book Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership carries the following story: 

Three young men hopped on a bus in Detroit in the 1930s and tried to pick a fight with a lone man sitting at the back of the vehicle. They insulted him. He didn't respond. They turned up the heat of the insults. He was very composed throughout and did not react. Eventually, the stranger stood up to alight the bus.

He was bigger than they had estimated from his seated position — much bigger. He reached into his pocket, handed them his business card and walked off the bus and then on his way. As the bus drove on the young men gathered around the card to read the words: Joe Louis. They had just tried to pick a fight with the heavyweight boxing champion of the world from 1937 to 1949, the number one boxer of all time, according to the International Boxing Research Organization (second on the list is Muhammad Ali)!

Here is a man of immense power and skill, capable of defending his honor with a single, devastating blow. Yet, he chooses to forgo his status and hold his power for others — in this case, for some very fortunate young men.

Doesn’t this story resonate the story of Jesus Christ’s passion and death on the cross? As St. Paul has exhorted the Philippians to  have the mind of Jesus and marvelously stated that he “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2: 5-8)

An author has put the following eight surprising ideas about humility. It is good to contemplate these during this year’s Passion Week.

1. Humility presupposes your dignity... which is why it should not be confused with having low self-esteem or being a doormat for others.

2. It is impossible to be humble... without a healthy sense of your own worth and abilities.

3. Healthy self-worth is rooted far more in service than achievement, far more in giving than taking.

4. Humility is willing. It is a choice. Otherwise, it is humiliation. 

5. Humility is social. It is not a private act of self-deprecation — banishing proud thoughts, refusing to talk about your achievements and so on... Humility is about the redirecting of your powers [physical, intellectual, financial or structural] for the sake of others.

6. Humility, rightly understood, has often marked the most influential and inspiring people in history. [Likewise,] some of the most influential people in our daily lives exert their influence with humility.

7. Humility is not an ornament to be worn; it is an ideal that will transform.

8. Humility is more about how I treat others than how I think about myself.