Steps on the Road to God – From humility: respecting others
Steps on the Road to God
I continue with you our talk about humility. Let us contemplate together one of the qualities of the humble, which is respect for others.
From humility: respecting others
The humble person respects others, whether small or great. As for the arrogant person, he exalts himself over those who are smaller than him and does not respect the great.
The Lord Christ, in all His greatness, gave us an example in respecting people.
How wonderful it is when He says to John the Baptist: “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15). (It is respect for people and for the Law.)
And in His humility, He submitted to the Law in all its details. We are amazed when, after cleansing the leper, we hear Him say to him: “Go, show yourself to the priest” (Matt. 8:4). My Lord, are You not the High Priest? What need do I have of a priest?! No, my son, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness and to give everyone his due—giving the priest and the Law their respect.
Likewise, when He chose Saul of Tarsus, He sent him to Ananias; and when He decided to accept Cornelius, He asked him to call Simon Peter. And when He called Barnabas and Saul for service, He asked the apostles to set them apart.
It is amazing that the Lord, in His humility, does not bypass His stewards.
We do not say that He respects His servants, for perhaps this expression is not theologically acceptable. Rather, we say that in His dealings with them, He preserves their dignity: “No longer do I call you servants… but I have called you friends” (John 15:15).
Thus, He does not disdain to call them His brothers, and He becomes the firstborn among many brethren. And He says to Mary Magdalene: “Go to My brethren and say to them” (John 20:17). And in His humility He washes the feet of His disciples. And He says to Judas the betrayer: “Friend, why have you come?” (Matt. 26:50)—“friend,” not “betrayer”!
He does not wound the feelings of anyone—neither the betrayer nor the sinful woman.
He did not rebuke the woman caught in the act, but said to her: “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:11). And He said to the Samaritan woman: “For you have had five husbands” (John 4:18). He used the word “husbands” so as not to wound her feelings or offend her modesty. And He surrounded this confession with two gentle phrases: “You have well said… this you have spoken truly” (John 4:17–18).
He gives us a lesson in preserving the dignity of people, no matter how much they may seem inferior, whether in position or in spiritual rank.
His humility also appears in His respect for His mother and His obedience to her, as in the example of turning water into wine, although He saw that His hour had not yet come (John 2:4). Nevertheless, He fulfilled her request.
On this path the saints walked in respecting the elders—not only elders in kinship and position, but also in age.
Consider the Apostle Paul saying to his disciple Timothy the bishop: “Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father; younger men as brothers; older women as mothers; younger women as sisters” (1 Tim. 5:1–2). Although all were his children spiritually and pastorally, he calls them fathers, mothers, and brothers. And the same Apostle Paul says: “Greet Rufus the chosen… and his mother and mine” (Rom. 16:13).
Respect for elders is found very clearly in the Desert of the Monks.
And in the story of Job the righteous, we find that Job’s three friends debated with him for twenty-eight chapters, and there was a fourth named Elihu who remained silent out of respect for their age. Finally he said to them: “I am young in years, and you are very old; therefore I was afraid, and dared not declare my opinion to you. I said, ‘Age should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom’” (Job 32:6–7).
The Scripture says: “You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man” (Lev. 19:32). And in the etiquette of the Desert of the Monks: “If you sit among the elders, keep silent; and if they ask you about something, say, ‘I do not know.’”
The same situation—respect for elders—is found in our rural morals.
They kiss the hand of the father and grandfather, respect the uncle as the father himself, speak to elders with reverence, do not sit while an elder is standing, and dismount from their animals before one older than them. These are spiritualities that entered into the etiquette of society.
Likewise, the same respect is found in ecclesiastical etiquette—in speech and in behavior.
If a metropolitan requests something, they say to him: “From your mouth, our master…” And a priest does not begin the prayer unless the bishop first gives him permission. And clergy do not wear their priestly vestments—in the presence of the bishop—unless he first blesses them. It is respect for fatherhood and priesthood.
Respect for the men of the priesthood is respect for God Himself, because they are His stewards, and about them He said: “He who honors you honors Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me.”
As for Protestant thinking, there is no respect for fathers in it, because there is no humility in it. And in error and pride, it tries to interpret the phrase: “Call no man your father on earth”… nor master, nor teacher (Matt. 23)! And it also says in pride that all people are kings and priests, without distinction!!
And the lack of respect for fathers and the priesthood led to a lack of respect for the saints!
How strange is the saying of the Plymouth Brethren about Abraham the father of fathers (“Brother Abraham”), and about the two great apostles Paul and Peter (“Brother Paul” and “Brother Peter”). They even say (“Brother Jesus”) or just (“Jesus”)!!
As for the Church, it has accustomed us to say: “The great saint Paul the Apostle, may his blessings be with us all, Amen.” And it has accustomed us to say before the Gospel: “Our Lord and our God and our Savior and our King of us all, Jesus Christ, to whom is the everlasting glory forever, Amen.” Yes, this is how respect and reverence should be.
Our respect for the Lord calls us to bow before Him and to pray while standing—not as some do, praying while seated!
And our respect for the Lord calls us to respect His Book: we read it in the church while standing, and we precede its reading with incense and with a prayer that He may make us worthy of hearing and doing. In the same way we respect the church, we respect the saints and seek their intercessions, celebrate their feasts, build churches in their names, ask for their blessings, and light candles before their icons. They are our fathers and our masters, and they will remain so.
We say with all respect: “Our Lady of us all, the holy and pure Mother of God Mary.” And we say: our masters the apostles. And we use the title (Mar), meaning (Lord), so we say Mar Girgis, Mar Mina, Mar Ephrem, and Mart Mary.
In the same way, we respect the priest fathers and the monk fathers. We say to the monk “Our Father so-and-so,” and to the nun “Our Mother so-and-so,” out of respect for their consecration to the worship of God and His service, even if they are newly ordained.
The Orthodox Church is famous for its humility, its respect for others, and its respect for everything that is holy and dedicated to God.
In the same manner, we respect the ecclesiastical canons, traditions, the sayings of the Fathers, the decisions of the holy councils, and the words of our fathers, and we ask for their blessings.
As for other denominations, they do not have this respect for canons, nor respect for the sayings of the Fathers, nor respect for ecclesiastical authorities. Therefore, everyone interprets as he wishes and submits to no one. The result was that dozens, even hundreds, of denominations were formed, without restraint.
Sonship and fatherhood in our Church are wrapped in humility and feelings of respect. The son respects the father, and the father preserves the dignity of his son, in humility.
Take as an example of this matter what we have learned in the parable of the Prodigal Son, whether from the side of the son in his respect for his father, or the father in his humility.
The son comes to say to his father with respect: “I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” And the father, in love and in concern for his son’s dignity, overwhelms him with compassion and does not allow him to say the last phrase: “Make me like one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:18–19). And with the same humility the father speaks with his angry elder son, explains to him and convinces him, without rebuking him for his harsh manner and his mistreatment of his brother.
This also makes us search the subject of rebuke, and how far it aligns with the spirit of humility, and to what extent a person can rebuke.
Many put before them the saying of the Apostle Paul to Bishop Timothy: “Reprove, rebuke, exhort” (2 Tim. 4:2), as if they have the authority of the Apostle Paul, or the authority of his disciple the bishop. They may rebuke with severity and harshness, without respect for people, and think this a virtue… forgetting how Saint Paul—who said this phrase—used to rebuke and reprove.
He says: “For three years… I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31). And he also says: “Now I, Paul, myself plead with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when present among you, but bold toward you when absent” (2 Cor. 10:1).
Notice that he “warns with tears,” and is “humble when present.” Therefore, he is encouraged to write and considers himself “bold toward them when absent.”
This is the style of the humble person when he rebukes—not with a spirit of arrogance, nor with harshness of manner, nor with a loud, domineering voice, but in the manner of one who feels the beam in his own eye while removing the speck from his brother’s eye.
It is the manner of one who seeks God’s right from himself first, before seeking God’s right from others. Thus, he rebukes in “the meekness and gentleness of Christ.” What, then, was the meekness of Christ?
How strange are those who see the Lord Christ only holding a whip, and hear Him only in the phrase: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites” (Matt. 23:13), as if the life of Christ were only this!!
The Lord Christ dealt with the scribes and Pharisees with all gentleness and all long-suffering, without answering them back. Rather, He used to visit them, and with all meekness and patience He tried to convince them. As for this rebuke, it was especially in the last week, when He wanted to prepare for changing the leadership before His crucifixion, so that it would not dominate the new Church which He would establish by His blood.
Therefore, He exposed their hypocrisy in the last week, after long patience—not only them, but also the Sadducees, the lawyers, and the priests—because He was about to deliver the new Church from the old leadership, so that this leadership would not continue to corrupt it and destroy the spiritual work.
So are you in the same position as Christ? And do you have His authority? And do you have His meekness and patience? Or do you rebuke without humility?
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