Humility in Service
Humility in Service
A servant is supposed to be characterized by spiritual qualities, and perhaps foremost among them is humility. The importance of this virtue is shown in the fact that the Lord Christ said to His disciples: “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29).
He could have focused on many virtues manifested in His holy Person, but He focused on humility and meekness.
This is because the one who serves is often fought by pride or greatness, as he finds that he has moved from the ranks of the served to the ranks of the servants, and that he has become one of the important persons in the Church, among those whose opinions are considered in the ordination of a new priest for the Church, and perhaps he himself may be one of the candidates for priesthood…
Therefore we wish to present some remarks on this subject.
1. The servant must not forget that he is a servant!
He is a servant.
This title is good: he is a servant, not a master!
We did not give him the title of evangelist, or teacher, or instructor…
His task is to serve, not to dominate or be proud. Pride is not among the qualities of servants… And the amazing thing is that the Lord Christ Himself called Himself a servant. Although He is the “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16), yet He bent down and washed the feet of His disciples to give them an example (John 13:5, 15). He even said:
“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28).
The title “servant” was also given to the angels. It was said about them in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” (Heb. 1:14). And it was said in the Psalm: “He makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire” (Ps. 104:4).
Just as the angels were called servants, so also were the apostles:
St. Paul the Apostle says about himself and his companion Apollos: “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed?” (1 Cor. 3:5). About his helper Tychicus he says: “Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things known to you” (Eph. 6:21). And about Epaphras he says: “who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf” (Col. 1:7). And he said about St. Mark the Apostle: “for he is useful to me for ministry” (2 Tim. 4:11).
He also said generally: “Our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant” (2 Cor. 3:5–6). And he said that “God… has given us the ministry of reconciliation… We implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:18, 20). And when the apostolic fathers chose the seven deacons, they said: “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).
Our apostolic fathers had the ministry of the word and the ministry of reconciliation. And the priests in general are ministers of the altar. The word “deacon” means servant.
The priest who receives the sacrifice is called in the liturgy “the ministering priest.” Even the widow who served in the Church had to be “well reported for good works… lodging strangers, washing the saints’ feet” (1 Tim. 5:10). Caring for the poor we call social service.
Even the meeting of Sunday School teachers we call the “servants’ meeting.”
So as long as you, my brother, are a servant, walk in humility as a servant, and let not your heart be lifted within. Understand the word in its essential meaning, and do not let it lose its truth and significance… St. Augustine used to pray for his flock saying: “I beg You, O Lord, for my masters Your servants…”
If you are a servant, you must be characterized by obedience—
Obedience to God, and obedience to your superiors in service and your leaders.
Some Sunday School servants challenge the priest; they do not respect him nor obey him, yet they say they are servants!! And the same applies to a priest who does not obey his bishop!! And to members of the church council who act independently of their ecclesiastical leadership!!
Do not think that you are among the leaders of pastoral or educational work in the Church.
Rather remember constantly that you are a servant. And behave as is fitting for a servant… Beware lest you lose your humility. For as Scripture says: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18).
2. Another matter that brings humility in service: discipleship.
Discipleship:
Some servants think that once they have become servants, their age of discipleship has ended. This is a wrong understanding.
In order to preserve your humility, preserve your discipleship continually.
All Christians in the apostolic age were called disciples. And when the Lord sent the eleven to preach, He said to them: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19). And in the spread of preaching it was said: “Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly” (Acts 6:7).
Therefore remain a disciple of the Lord and a disciple of the Church, and let not your heart grow proud.
If you feel that you have become a teacher and risen above discipleship, know well that you have begun to fall into pride.
I remember that when we were servants in Sunday School at St. Anthony’s Church about 45 years ago, each servant would sit as a listener or disciple in four meetings every week: the family meeting, the servants’ meeting, the youth meeting, and the large class which began at 7:15 p.m., after teaching in the other classes ended. The servants were always learning from others, thus they remained in humility.
Say to yourself continually: I am still learning and need to know.
If you live a life of discipleship, you will escape many problems:
You will first escape the spirit of argument and excessive discussions. You will be ready to accept another opinion with a good spirit. For those who enter into the spirit of argument are delivered into stubbornness and rigidity of opinion, thinking they understand more than the elders, even thinking they themselves are the elders.
Keep therefore your spiritual childhood, according to the Lord’s saying:
“Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3).
How many examples there are of saints who lived as disciples:
Joshua remained a disciple of Moses throughout his life until Moses rested in the Lord. And Elisha remained a disciple of Elijah until he ascended to heaven, bidding him farewell with the words: “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” (2 Kings 2:12). St. Athanasius the Apostolic, although he was the Pope of Alexandria, preserved his discipleship to St. Anthony the Great. And when he wrote his life he said: “And I myself poured water on his hands,” meaning he served him.
In ancient times disciples sat at the feet of their teachers.
They did not sit beside them nor before them. The teacher sat on a chair, and all his disciples sat on the ground at his feet. Concerning this St. Paul the Apostle said: “brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel” (Acts 22:3). This is the humility of the disciple before his teacher. He also considers that the teacher not only instructs him but also nurtures and disciplines him.
How difficult it is when a servant reads one or two books and becomes proud over his teachers,
and also becomes proud over his priest-fathers, imposing his will upon his father-confessor: either the father agrees with his opinion, or he disobeys him!! Thus he becomes wise in his own eyes, a thing Scripture forbids: “Do not be wise in your own eyes,” “and lean not on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:7, 5). Live therefore as a humble disciple.
Seek knowledge from all its sources:
Be discipled to your father-confessor, to the fathers of the Church, to spiritual meetings. Be discipled to nature, to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. Be discipled to trustworthy books… And do not think—no matter how much you grow—that you have risen above the level of learning…
The history of the Church records amazing stories of saints’ humility in discipleship.
Imagine one of the great fathers like St. Moses the Black asking for a word of benefit from the young boy Zacharias. When the boy was ashamed, saying: “You are the pillar of the wilderness, and you ask me for a word?!” the saint answered: “Believe me, my son, I knew from the Spirit who is in you that you have a word I need to know.”
And St. Macarius the Great received a word of benefit from a cattle-herder…
The fathers used to seek a word of benefit, though they lived angelic lives from which many longed to learn.
Humility in Teaching
Believe me, what most troubles our Church today is the lack of humility in teaching.
Every servant who receives a new thought from his meditations or readings tries to make it a doctrine and teach it to the people… There is a type of writer who likes to cancel the prevailing understanding in order to present a new one—as if he had discovered what the whole Church and all people do not know! As if he knows what they do not.
The problem is presenting personal concepts, not the teaching and doctrine of the Church.
There is an attempt to argue, to prove, and to convince people that the prevailing understanding is wrong… Some may criticize the Church’s rite. Some change the words of the liturgy. Some present unfamiliar translations of the Holy Bible. Some permit marriages contrary to Church canons… Some serve liturgies unfamiliar to our Church.
Each of these considers himself a source of teaching.
As if he were an independent front in his teaching, or an island standing alone in the ocean. And if the Church intervenes to correct the situation, he causes an uproar and stands against the Church, proclaiming that his teaching is correct and all others are wrong!
You may find for each branch of religious education a separate curriculum.
The branch leader does not like the general curriculum, so he modifies and changes it, or he sets a special curriculum he thinks is better and more correct. God willing, we will establish a unified curriculum after consulting the fathers and the leaders of service. We hope that after establishing it, the servants will humble themselves and follow it… And no one will stand saying: I have the right to object… I have the right to refuse! I have the right to walk according to my own opinion! Otherwise, where is democracy in the Church!! And no one says to him: where is humility?!
The early Church was distinguished by its one mind,
because it was humble and submitted to the thinking of its leaders.
As for Protestantism, which preached freedom in interpretation and teaching, many denominations were formed in it—more than a hundred—and people were scattered in different doctrines… But the conservative traditional Church preserves the faith and does not allow individual concepts to become doctrines; rather it advises their holders to be humble.
The humble servant also does not showcase his knowledge!!
He presents teaching in a quiet spiritual style. He does not try to philosophize information, nor to seize upon certain words to present the Hebrew or Greek text or some English translations. The people might know nothing of all this. And it may not be necessary to prove the fabrication he presents. His references may not be sound. He may follow in this some denominations that walk by the rationalistic method, not the spiritual method…
The humble servant descends to the level of the served and does not dazzle them with information above their level that does not benefit them.
He does not think of himself and the image he wants people to have of him, but is concerned with the spiritual benefit of the people while his self disappears completely.
Therefore he prepares his lesson or sermon or lecture. And he does not mind that his preparation paper is visible. He does not lose the benefit of the listeners in order to give them an impression that he speaks from memory…
The humble servant cares about preparing his lesson.
He does not rely on past information or his memory, as some senior servants do, who do not prepare what they say, and thus their words sometimes appear weak because they were not humble but trusted in themselves and their abilities more than they should.
The humble servant respects the minds of listeners, no matter how young they are,
and exerts all his effort to present them solid words that satisfy them.
Humility and the Self
The humble servant denies himself. He disappears so that the Lord may appear, as St. John the Baptist said: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). But the one who is not humble uses service to build himself wrongly. He thinks how to rise in service, not how to raise the service. He thinks of the level of the platforms on which he speaks. Perhaps he seeks positions. He may clash with the Church leadership. He gets used to commanding and criticizing…
He may boast of his service, its duration, and its level.
He says: I have twenty years in service. I have produced generations… He grows in his own eyes. He wants to be obeyed, not to obey. He collides with established systems. He recounts stories of his past, and the spirit of glory enters him.
The humble servant is like a gentle breeze.
In his coming and going no one feels him. He is delicate, meek, kind, gentle in his dealings. He does not hurt anyone’s feelings, he wounds no person. He does not care for assuming positions in service. He obeys in everything assigned to him: “He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets” (Matt. 12:19). And “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think” (Rom. 12:3).
Beware lest service make you lose your humility.
Many were humble before service, then changed. But you, do not be like that. “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matt. 16:26). Beware of love of authority and control. Beware lest some convince you, in the name of holy zeal, to become a sword of fire. Rather say: Who am I?! “Who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” (Luke 12:14). Let your self be the last of all. Watch yourself,
lest as you grow in service your heart also grows.
As St. Anthony said: Some can bear honor but cannot bear insult. For bearing honor is harder than bearing insult.
In the humility of service, train in the services done in secret,
which no one knows, and no one praises you for.
And may God be with you and grant you the spirit of humility.
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