Humility, Steps One Through Four

 

In the first step, the monk is called to keep the fear of the God always before his eyes[1].  What is meant by the fear of God?  Certainly it is putting God above all else – especially self.  Whoever is trapped by his own ego cannot be open to God or to his fellow man, indeed he becomes blind to God’s instruction and becomes indifferent and coarse.[2]

St. Benedict expands his vision of the monk in the second step of humility by calling the monk to love not his own will nor take pleasure in the satisfaction of his desires; rather he shall imitate by his actions that saying of the Lord:  I have come not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.[3]  Obviously we hear the words of Christ in the Gospel of John (6:38) in the last part, but there is so much more.  It is the radical call of Christ to the lawyer who asked, “What is the greatest commandment?”, only to hear the answer of the twofold call of love:  love of God and love of neighbor. 

The third step calls the monk to submit to his superior in all obedience for the love of God.[4]  We hear echoes of this in Chapter 1 (The Kinds of Monks) and Chapter 2 (Qualities of the Abbot).  We are not submitting to the superior because he is the “boss”; no, we submit to the superior because we first of all submit to Christ.  As Benedictines, we believe that the abbot holds the place of Christ in the monastery – therefore it is to Christ that we submit when we show obedience to the abbot.

St. Benedict binds the above three steps together in the fourth:  in this obedience under difficult, unfavorable, or even unjust conditions, his heart quietly embraces suffering and endures it without weakening or seeking escape.[5]  When Christianity became an accepted religion, martyrdom was no longer a threat.  Men and women began to go out into the desert seeking a way to give their lives radically to God.  This “white martyrdom” makes the “red martyrdom” seem like a cake-walk.  Dying to self/self-will over and over again doesn’t get easier as time goes by.  Every death is a death – and no one wants to die.  Unfortunately, it is only in going through the process of dying to self that the monastic can truly become open to God and his work in his life.

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[1] RB 1980, 193.

[2] George Holzherr, The Rule of Benedict, A Guide to Christian Living with Commentary tr. Monks of Glenstal Abbey (Dublin, Ireland:  Four Courts Press 1994), 104

[3] RB 1980, 197.

[4] Ibid, 197.

[5] Ibid, 197.