Who called my attention to the finding that gives its title to this article was the actor Eriberto Leao, in an interview given to the “Programa do Jo” (TV Globo) on December 11, 2009. At that time, he clarified that the word humbleness comes from the word humus, which means good land, able to receive the seed and make it germinate, bearing fruit and more fruit. So I went to the dictionary, and confirmed what Eriberto had said. Therefore, humbleness is fruitful. For me, this was one of the greatest discoveries of recent times.

It is a great opportunity to review the concept we had about humbleness, mistakenly interpreting it as lowering of the head, being simple, using frayed clothes and so on. To be humble is not this, luckily. And, to be humble does not mean to belittle ourselves. It is to let yourself be fruitful. This is much more fascinating and profound.

This finding leads us to read again some Gospel passages to realize the importance of being fruitful and allow the soil of our conscious to be fertilized by various seeds that life throws at us on a daily basis.

We shall start with the first of the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

In The Gospel According to Spiritism, Chapter VII, item 2, Allan Kardec reminds that Jesus, in the mentioned Beatitude, does not refer to those devoid of intelligence, but to the humble. Therefore, it is for the fruitful that the Kingdom of Heaven (permanent state of happiness, conscience and sense of accomplishment) is reserved. 

We should be fruitful, but how do we do this?

In the book The Voice of the Mount, the writer, Richard Simonetti, says it is not for nothing that this Beatitude is the first to be proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus Christ, being the Master Teacher, wanted to give a logical sequence to such great teachings. Therefore, He wanted to make clear that, to begin our evolutionary journey, we must be lucid and coherent, and we must be fruitful enough to have an accurate idea of who we really are. How do we do this? By recognizing that we are not perfect; that we also make mistakes; that we are not always right; that we should learn how to receive a critic, because the person, who offends us, may be going through a difficult time, and so on. These are some of the seeds that are thrown at us daily. If the soil of our consciousness is humble (fruitful and fertile), the seeds will grow into crops of self-understanding and inner knowledge, for example. But if the land is dry and not fruitful, the seeds will not germinate. The result is: anger, retaliation, wounded pride, insecurity, fanaticism and so many evils that affect us, due to the lack of humbleness.

Maybe that is why, in the Parable of the Sower, another known excerpt of the New Testament, Jesus makes a point of clarifying the nature of the types of soil that received the seed that the sower planted. The first three waves of seeds fell along the way, between rocks and in the midst of thorns. None of them sprouted; they were eaten by the birds, burnt down by the sun, or muffled by the thorns. They died due to the lack of humbleness, characterized by indifference, superficiality, oppression, selfishness, power struggle, contempt, and prejudice. 

Throw a stone, the one who is without a sin

On the other hand, the fourth batch of seeds fell on good soil and produced a hundredfold; others sixty, and some thirty. That is, according to the degree of fertility, people matured, let the voice of their conscience be heard, and produced in accordance with the understanding they had. But, they did not fail to produce. This means that even producing little, the trend is that fertility increases and gradually the human being improves its level of understanding, being able thus to be more humble, as he improves his perception and becomes aware of his imperfection, always needing to learn something and being open to the new.

Another good example, still using the New Testament, is the celebrated episode of the adulterous woman about to be stoned by the mob that lynches. Then Jesus says that the one without sin should throw the first stone. What did the Master do? He threw seeds of understanding, which, for various reasons, we believe, were understood by those men with their hands up holding stones. They were led to have a humble/fertile attitude. They let the teaching of Christ sprout in the soil of their consciences. They put aside the aridity of pride and intolerance. The seed fertilized the soil of each one of them. Therefore, many of them sprouted, and made those men think: - Wow, I also have several faults. – If I were in her place, would I like them to throw stones at me? – What am I doing with this stone in my hand, if I do not even know this woman? – I must not listen to those that tell me to throw stones on this poor creature. Otherwise, I will run the risk of being pointed out as an agitator!

Indeed, what does it mean to be humble?

Finally, seeds, then, made several land produce five, ten, twenty or a hundred, never mind. It was sufficient production for all drop their stones and go away, renovated that were to have left to fertilize the seed of Christ's teaching, which made them reassess, in a split second, their own values. This is to be humble. Each man was humble in his own way.

I believe that when we think of humility, we must also be sensitive to realize its significance goes beyond the pride of antonym.

In his book Working for Yourself, the author, Jose Carlos Leal, tells us a story of a teacher, who, after 20 years teaching at a college, was fired. He then took the money he received and opened a school. Today, he has a much better income and is his own boss. He was humble! He let himself be fertilized by the opportunity that this difficult situation presented and turned it over. If he had not been humble, he would have fallen into depression, or would have gone and look for another job that would have paid him a similar salary. Or, with his pride wounded, he would simply be very angry and feel bitter towards his former employer. Humbleness has, therefore, a lot to do with entrepreneurship, a word very much used these days. We are being fertile when we understand that we can try another way. 

Humbleness can be an ally to a good sense of humor

Evaristo Antunes, my grandfather’s cousin, and for many years, the President of the Spiritist Municipal Union of Petropolis (Umep), once witnessed a traffic discussion. When trying to calm down one of the drivers, the man told him he was very angry, because the other driver had told him to go and… Evaristo, very calmly and with a sense of humor, said: “Well, my son, just don’t go!” It was as simple as that. Now, here is the humbleness that is a synonymous of a good sense of humor. We must be fruitful enough to be a good sport, when someone offends us. This is humbleness full of presence of mind. Generally, we disarm the offender and he is left with no action, since we were humble enough not to give any importance to the offending words. The offender will be embarrassed, because his offense was not taken into consideration. The offender will be embarrassed, and will become aware that his offense means nothing at all, and therefore, he will leave, with our fruitful reaction in mind. There is the risk that later, he will laugh at the situation, as I have already seen it happen.

In the late 1970s, there was on TV an advertising campaign called “Disarm up and live better”. It consisted of several commercials where aggressive people were "disarmed" by kindness. I remember that in one of the commercials, a man began to argue with another, because he believed that he had jumped the queue at the restaurant. This second man, instead of continuing the discussion, humbly apologized. Then, overcoming the stress of that moment, he invited the couple to sit with him and his wife. The person, who had begun the discussion, smiled embarrassed and accepted the invitation. 

Humbleness requires presence of mind

I know a great story about two people (not sure if relatives, or friends), who began to argue. One of them, at the height of the fight, said to the other something like: "You are this and that!” “Do you really think I am all that?” “Yes, I do!” replied the first one angrily. The other one, then, said very calmly: “OK”. And put an end to the argument leaving her opponent with no action whatsoever.

Sometimes, humbleness is difficult, because it requires presence of mind, something that is presently forgotten. We prefer to appeal to stress, to a heated discussion, bad mood, and wounded pride. The result is: a fertile soil for no seed to sprout.

Miriam Machado, with whom I worked at Editora Voices, once told me that her ex-husband wanted to emancipate their daughter, then 16. With this purpose in mind, he insisted so much with the teenager, and began to plant this idea in the mother’s mind too. What did Miriam do? She was humble. In what way? She agreed at once with the emancipation, claiming that, if the daughter and her ex-husband wanted, she was already outvoted, and therefore she would not fight (to fight is lack of humbleness). The matter died there and there. If Miriam’s intelligence had not worked in a humble way, she would have had a fight with both of them, and the three would be affected by an endless stress.

There are many other behaviors that demonstrate our lack of humbleness/fertility. Stubbornness is one of them. You know those people who insist on a lost cause? There are several such stories. People who refuse to see the obvious and pass sometimes a whole life working out in cold iron. 

The daughter, who did not become a Princess

I met a widower, who did not accept his only daughter’s choices. He wanted his daughter to be a princess and a good student. But, she never cared to study (with difficulty she completed High School), and she did not marry too by the rules. She went to live together with the man she loved, took a course in hairdressing and went to work at a hairdresser’s salon. It was perfect for her and she always looked after her father, her children and her husband. However, her father, instead of being humble and accepting his daughters’ choices, he rather decided to make her life a misery: for years and years he verbally abused her and her husband too. In this father’s opinion, his daughter had to go back to her studies and marry dressed in white. Decades went by and this father went on stressing the family, being stubborn, not accepting the obvious, like a dog trying to bite his own tale, running round and round in circles and getting nowhere, until he passed away. We should learn how fruitful and fertile it is to regard our children’s choices, even though they may not correspond to our dreams. To be humble is to respect other peoples’ choices.

I want to talk about another example of lack of humbleness: the difficulty some people have to accept the changes that the world is going through. I speak of reactionary people, who refuse to admit that new times always follows. Yes, reactionary plus an arid soil, and we have here a very uncomfortable partnership. They never give in, and they own the truth. We need a shovel, a hoe, rake, pick and fertilizer to work this soil. Even with all this work, many of them continue dry as a cork. What a pity! 

The example of a supportive man

My consolation is to know that one day, under painful blows the Earth will have to become humble, and finally accept to be fruitful and fertilized by the new mentality seeds. If this does not happen in this life, it will take place on the next one, or even in the spiritual dimension. After all, the stubborn will also disincarnate one day. And in my opinion, there is not a greater gesture than that of the humble, who accept becoming fertilized by the spiritual life. For the one who is arid, it must be a major blow. Perhaps this is the reason why the mediumistic séances have so much trouble in clarifying those, who have left this world, and do not accept the fact.

I also have to talk about people, who are not aware that they commit mistakes too, and do not apologize, even when they know they did wrong. Have you noticed how these people are dry and with no inner peace? How many marital, family and friendship relationships have crumbled, because we do not say we are sorry! We are like dry soil! And what must we say regarding the fanatics, whether it is about religion, football, and politics and so on? Only they are right! The others, who think differently, are wrong! Their minds are closed and they refuse to be fertilized, becoming humble, through the ability of perceiving that everything is relative in this world.

To end, I will tell you about a story I heard today on TV Globo, “Jornal Hoje” (Today’s News), which took place in the 90s. It was about a man in the city of Ituiutaba (State of Minas Gerais), named, Deocles Gomes Machado, affectionately called Uncle Doc. One day, Doc’s wife passed away. He was already retired, and old, but instead of isolating himself, he chose to help others. He looked for vacant plots, asked their owners to authorize him to plant and thus he began to plant vegetable gardens. He bought the seeds and went on buying them with the money of his retirement. It did not take long for the carrots, radish, cabbage, spinach, potatoes, chayote, pumpkin, lettuce, chicory, tomatoes, beetroots, and watercress to start sprouting. He also planted oranges, apples, papayas, bananas, avocados and many other fruits and vegetables. 

It was nice to discover that humbleness is fruitful

Uncle Doc then picked up the handcart and began distributing the crops in nurseries and city nursing homes. "When I die, I will not take anything. I have to take my good deeds. Work for the benefit of your neighbor", he said with a humbleness that only those, who have come across it, know it. I confess that I wept with shame in front of the TV. I was deeply moved by this man’s attitude. I felt so small that I wanted to cry and hide myself under the table. I was crushed by his greatness. This was a man, who accepted being fruitful and let the seeds germinate in an unconditional love of his neighbor. The seeds sprouted in the form of donations and produced food for the needy. And all this thanks to a simple, strong and beautiful initiative!  

Almost 20 years later, Uncle Doc passed away, and the Jornal Nacional (TV Globo) gave the news of his death and told us that he fed approximately 1,200 people every month. He was 105 years old and sure went to the spiritual plane, reaping abundant fruits, germinated in the soil and in his heart.

The story did not stop here. Uncle Doc left followers. Among them was Valmir, another retired old man, who was taking care of the gardens left by Deocles and inherited from him the love for the land and for children and elderly people. As he said: “Because, if someone does something, the other can do it too. Ten thousand helping and what is going to happen? There will be a great improvement, won’t there?”

There are so many vacant or enclosed grounds spread around! Imagine if every person grows a garden in these plots and shares the results with those who need it badly.  

It was so good to find out that humbleness is fruitful! I believe that this can make things easier and morally change many people, beginning by myself. 

Bibliography:

1- LEAL, Jose Carlos. Working for Yourself. Publisher: Mil Folhas, 4th Ed. 2000, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.

2 SIMONETTI, Richard. The Voice of the Hill. Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), 3rd Ed., 1989, Brasilia, DF.