Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraph 13)


The sixth step of humility for monks or nuns is to accept without complaint really wretched and inadequate conditions so that when faced with a task of any kind they would think of themselves as poor workers not worthy of consideration and repeat to God the verse of the psalm: I am of no account and lack understanding, no better than a beast in your sight. Yet I am always in your presence. (From para. 13 of Ch. 7 of Saint Benedict's Psalm, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

The important sentence here, for me, is the last one. It's hard for me to read Benedict's admonition to think of myself as worthless. But, the fact is that I sometimes do feel quite unworthy. And yet, that is perhaps a grace in disguise that helps me to remember that am nothing without God, and yet, I am always in his presence. What changes is my fickle and limited point of view. What is constant and redeeming is the divine energy that sustains me.

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