Pride and Humility

There is, therefore, something in humility which, strangely enough, exalts the heart, and something in pride which debases it. This seems, indeed to be contradictory, that loftiness should debase and lowliness exalt. But pious humility enables us to submit to what is above us; and nothing is more exalted above us than God; and therefore humility, by making us subject to God, exalts us. . . . And therefore it is that humility is specially recommended to the city of God as it sojourns in this world, and is specially exhibited in the city of God, and in the person of Christ its King; while the contrary vice of pride, according to the testimony of the sacred writings, specially rules his adversary the devil. And certainly this is the great difference which distinguishes the two cities of which we speak . . . (City of God p461)

I have found Augustine's treatment of the two cities (the city of God and the city of man) to be tremendously helpful in understanding how we are to live in the the world, 'the city of man', as strangers and sojourners, citizens of the 'city of God'. He defines the cities in this way:

When, therefore, man lives according to man, not according to God, he is like the devil. . . . When, then a man lives according to the truth, he lives not according to himself, but according to God; for He was God who said, 'I am the truth.' When, therefore, man lives according to himself - that is, according to man, not according to God - assuredly he lives according to a lie; not that man himself is a lie, for God is his author and creator, who is certainly not the author and creator of a lie, but because man was made upright, that he might not live according to himself, but according to Him that made him - in other words, that he might do His will and not his own; and not to live as he was made to live, that is a lie. (ibid p445)

The city of man is comprised of the proud, who live according to themselves; the city of God is comprised of the humble, who live according to God, doing His will and not their own - and that by the grace of God.

I desperately want our children to see the wisdom of God in saving the humble. To be even more clear: I want them to see that God saves the proud by making them humble, for there are no citizens of the city of God who were not formerly citizens of the city of man. I want them to see that this God-granted humility is not merely the means to joy for citizens of the city of God; it is their joy for God to be all in all. And so it is that "humility, by making us subject to God, exalts us" by taking us from the ruin and futility of our pride to be subject to God.