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 hear Benedict making a distinction between the floundering and noisy self-inflation of the ego, and the selflessness necessary to "be lifted up". I have experienced self-inflation as a weighty mixture of pride, anxiety and blindness. I don't think that silence or selflessness weighs anything, and, so, like a tiny bird, is free.
Thank you, Abba, for one more day on the planet. You invite me once more to follow you in humility. You humbled yourself by becoming man, becoming "humus", becoming dust, like me. Thank you for giving me this vehicle for humility, the mantra. With it you invite me, twice a day, to lay aside all of my exalted thoughts, even, and, perhaps, especially, the holy ones, all my brilliance, everything I have read and accomplished, all my merit badges. You invite me simply to trust in your presence, and thereby you continue surprising me with joy and peace.
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