Origen of Alexandria

Celsus, … as one who has heard the subject of humility greatly talked about but who has not been at pains to understand it, would wish to speak evil of that humility that is practiced among us, and imagines that it is borrowed from some words of Plato imperfectly understood, where he expresses himself in the Laws as follows: “Now God, according to the ancient account, having in himself both the beginning and end and middle of all existing things, proceeds according to nature and marches straight on. He is constantly followed by justice, which is the avenger of all breaches of the divine law: he who is about to become happy follows [justice] closely in humility, and becomingly adorned.” He did not observe, however, that in writers much older than Plato the following words occur in a prayer: “Lord, my heart is not haughty or my eyes lofty, neither do I walk in great matters, nor in things too wonderful for me; if I had not been humble,” etc. Now these words show that one who is of humble mind does not by any means humble himself in an unseemly or inauspicious manner, falling down on his knees or casting himself headlong on the ground, putting on the dress of the miserable or sprinkling himself with dust. But he who is of humble mind in the sense of the prophet, while “walking in great and wonderful things,” which are above his capacity—namely, those doctrines that are truly great and those thoughts that are wonderful—“humbles himself under the mighty hand of God.” If there are some, however, who through their stupidity have not clearly understood the doctrine of humiliation and act as they do, it is not our doctrine that is to be blamed; but we must extend our forgiveness to the stupidity of those who aim at higher things and owing to their foolishness of mind fail to attain them. He who is “humble and becomingly adorned,” is so in greater degree than Plato’s “humble and becomingly adorned” individual: for he is humble and becomingly adorned on the one hand, because “he walks in things great and wonderful,” which are beyond his capacity; and humble, on the other hand, because, while being in the midst of such, he yet voluntarily humbles himself, not under anyone at random but under “the mighty hand of God,” through Jesus Christ, the teacher of such instruction, “who did not deem equality with God a thing to be eagerly clung to, but made himself of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” And so great is this doctrine of humiliation that it has no ordinary individual as its teacher; but our great Savior says, “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.”

But lest we linger too long on the forms of individual virtues, we can briefly say that they indicate those things by which the church is adorned. Its faith can be compared with gold; the word of preaching with silver; bronze with patience; incorruptible wood with the knowledge that comes through the wood or to the incorruptibility of purity that never grows old; virginity with linen; the glory of suffering with scarlet; the splendor of love with purple; the hope of the kingdom of heaven with the blue. Let those, however, be the materials from which the whole tabernacle is constructed, the priests are clothed and the high priest is adorned. The prophet speaks in another passage about the nature and quality of their clothing: “Let your priests be clothed with justice.” All those garments, therefore, are garments of justice. And again the apostle Paul says, “Put on heartfelt mercy.” They are also, therefore, garments of mercy. But the same apostle no less also designates other more noble garments when he says, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and give no attention to the flesh for lusting.” Those, therefore, are the garments with which the church is adorned.

And in this way also the just give up to destruction all their enemies, which are their vices, so that they do not spare even the children, that is, the early beginnings and promptings of evil. In this sense also we understand the language of Psalm 137: “O daughter of Babylon, who is to be destroyed; happy shall he be that rewards you as you have served us; happy shall he be that takes and dashes your little ones against the stones.” For “the little ones” of Babylon (which signifies confusion) are those troublesome sinful thoughts that arise in the soul, and one who subdues them by striking, as it were, their heads against the firm and solid strength of reason and truth, is the person who “dashes the little ones against the stones”; and he is therefore truly blessed. God may therefore have commanded people to destroy all their vices utterly, even at their birth, without having enjoined anything contrary to the teaching of Christ. And he may himself have destroyed before the eyes of those who were “Jews inwardly” all the offspring of evil as his enemies. And, in like manner, those who disobey the law and word of God may well be compared with his enemies led astray by sin; and they may well be said to suffer the same fate as they deserve who have proved traitors to the truth of God.

And he prays “constantly” (deeds of virtue or fulfilling the commandments are included as part of prayer) who unites prayer with the deeds required and right deeds with prayer. For the only way we can accept the command to “pray constantly” as referring to a real possibility is by saying that the entire life of the saint taken as a whole is a single great prayer. What is customarily called prayer is, then, a part of this prayer. Now prayer in the ordinary sense ought to be made no less than three times each day. This is evident from the story of Daniel, who prayed three times a day when such great peril had been devised for him. And Peter went up to the housetop about the sixth hour to pray; that is when he saw the sheet descending from heaven let down by four corners. He was offering the middle prayer of the three, the one referred to before him by David, “In the morning may you hear my prayer, in the morning I will offer to you and I will watch.” And the last time of prayer is indicated by “the lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice.” Indeed, we do not even complete the nighttime properly without that prayer of which David speaks when he says, “At midnight I rise to praise you because of your righteous ordinances.” And Paul, as it says in the Acts of the Apostles, prayed “about midnight” with Silas in Philippi and sang a hymn to God so that even the prisoners heard them.