I have been sharing thoughts about the 25th Step of John’s Ladder, which is HUMILITY. John writes: There is a difference between being humble, striving for humility and praising the humble.

We are tempted to be passive about the virtues. We think of faith, humility, patience, self-control and all other virtues as nothing more than divine gifts – you have them or you don’t. But then there would be no sense in God commanding us to have faith, to be patient, to pray, to forgive. We are all capable of growing in virtue just as we are all capable of falling into sin.

While it is true that God does not give spiritual gifts in equal measure, it is clear that we will have to account for what we have done with the gifts God has given us. A person of meager virtue who has strived harder than another who possesses greater virtue may be the more virtuous in God’s eyes, simply because his virtue was acquired by working for his salvation with the little he had, while the other has complacently relied on God’s gifts. St. John says: Whoever is eager for the peaceful haven of humility will never cease to do all that he can to get there.

The humble are always ignorant of their humility. In the same way, the repentant are always ignorant of their repentance, for only the humble can repent. So we have in the spiritual life a certain paradox: we cannot acquire virtue without repentance, but we cannot repent without virtue.

So how can we acquire humility? St. John tells us the answer is different for each person:

Some: drive out empty pride by thinking of their past misdeeds, for which they are forgiven; remember the passion of Christ and their eternal debt; think of their daily lapses; and others come to posses the mother of graces by what of their continuous temptations, weaknesses and sins are the opportunities to spur them to humility.