"Once, while I was wondering why Our Lord so dearly loves the virtue of humility, the thought suddenly struck me, without previous reflection, that it is because God is the supreme Truth and humility is the truth, for it is the most true that we have nothing good of ourselves but only misery and nothingness: whoever ignores this, lives a life of falsehood. they that realize this fact most deeply are the most pleasing to God, the supreme Truth, for they walk in the truth."
—St. Teresa of Avila
The Rule of Benedict discusses humility. In fact the entirety of chapter 7 is dedicated to this one topic. The chapter begins with the following words:
“Whoever exalt themselves shall be humbled, and whoever humble themselves shall be exalted” (Luke 14: 11, 18: 14). In saying this, therefore, it shows us that every exaltation is a kind of pride…
Our Holy Father Saint Benedict describes for us The Twelve Degrees of Humility. I quote here from: The Via Vitae of St. Benedict By Dom Bernard Hayes.
THE STEPS OF HUMILITY OF SOUL
First Step.— To check all sinful desires, moved by the fear of God and the sense of His presence.
1. Compunction of heart ; fear of God and His judgments; recollection of the Divine Presence.
Second Step.— Not to content ourselves with checking directly sinful desires, but in order to do so more efficiently, to control and check all desires, even lawful ones, except the desire of God and of virtue. Pride, like every other vice, arises from want of selfcontrol in what is pleasing to flesh and blood.
2. To deny our own will.
Third Step.— In order to control our desires more efficiently, to give up to another our very faculty of desire, our will.
3. To obey, for the love of God, those who are placed over us.
Fourth Step.— To carry out this self-surrender to its full logical conclusion by patiently and gladly enduring a Superior who is harsh and even unfair. It is just then that our obedience is really useful— i.e, when it really checks and thwarts our natural desires.
4. To bear sufferings and injuries patiently.
Fifth Step.— To make this self-surrender even more complete, by revealing our defects even of thought to our Superior, in order to receive guidance and correction from him.
5. To confess our temptations and sins to our Director.
Sixth Step.— To go further still by submitting to harsh treatment, not merely from motives of duty, but because we feel we really deserve it as being faithless and unworthy servants.
6. To be contented under every humiliation, and to think oneself unfit for any good undertaking.
Seventh Step.— To look on ourselves not merely as unworthy, but as the most unworthy in the whole community.
7. To be persuaded that we are inferior to everyone.
OUTWARD HUMILITY, OR HUMILITY OF THE BODY
Eighth Step.— Not to put ourselves forward by following out a line of our own, but, shunning singularity, to follow on the beaten track of the Rule and of the traditions of the monastery.
8. To avoid singularity in our words and actions.
Ninth Step.— Not simply to refrain from putting ourselves forward, but positively to keep in the background, by refraining from obtruding our own opinions, by loving silence, and by not speaking till spoken to.
9. To love and practise silence
Tenth and Eleventh Steps.— Even when we have to talk, doing so with gravity and self-restraint, without loud laughter, humbly, reasonably, and with as few words as possible.
10. To shun immoderate mirth.
11. To speak gently, quietly, humbly, gravely, with few and reasonable words.
Twelfth Step.— To show forth humility not only by restraint in action, but in our whole appearance, gait, and carriage; with the downcast demeanour of the man who feels he merits God's awful judgment for his many sins, ever saying to ourselves like the publican, " Lord, I, a sinner, am not worthy to raise mine eyes to heaven."
12. To comport ourselves exteriorly as poor sinners convinced of our unworthiness.
WOW!!!
At first glance and taken in context of today’s society one might ask, “Why would anyone in their right mind think this is the way I want to live?”. This sounds almost barbaric if read with the eyes of this world, and context of the 21st century. Time and arrogance have distorted the concept of humility with the lack of self-esteem. Humiliation has become conflated with the idea of humility. Pride “illusion” rules the day.
The holy Patriarch himself is asking us to be detached from the world, and from ourselves. We must look at the virtue of humility in the light of Truth, knowing our own nothingness without God, putting our arrogance and pride aside. To abandon ourselves to God and to trust with the heart of a child. We must see humility in this perspective.
As Oblates we make a promise of “reformation of our life”. This reformation will never be accomplished without humility, without Truth. Spiritual maturity cannot be achieved without our acceptance of our nothingness and total reliance upon God, Truth/Humility, Humility/Truth.
How can one come before the other when they are in fact one and the same?
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