Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraphs 1-3)
The word of God in scripture teaches us in clear and resounding terms that anyone who lays claim to a high position will be brought low and anyone who is modest in self-appraisal will be lifted up. (From Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
I understand the modesty Benedict describes as neither self-inflating nor self-denigrating, but the modesty of clear vision, the clear vision of the heart. The ego, through puffing up and deflating, can obscure this vision; the ego can creep into anything. Benedict reminds me I will be "lifted up", or liberated, from the ego's controls, as I remain true to my practice of selfless attention.
"Humility" is lived. It is lived with God and others in community. I believe that at the root of humility is love- love of God, love of neighbor and love of self. In that order, I see where I fit, at the end. But wait, Fr. Laurence reminds me (Daily Wisdom,5/18/16)that "the way to God is the way of self-knowledge. We cannot know God without knowing ourselves." St. Augustine long before, prays,"May I know myself, that I may know thee."
ReplyDeleteIt is not knowing myself in isolation but in relationship to God and to others. It is self-knowledge through meditation and in living out that knowledge in community. So it really goes back to love. The love with which I am loved into and kept in existence and with which I love God and others. It is a love that I experience in prayer, meditation and daily living. It is putting myself in the right place in this life with God , my neighbor and myself. I have to live humbly.