HUMILITY AND TRUTH

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Here are a few ideas and quotes I came across during the past few days while we in the monastery were on retreat.

Sr. Margaret Mary Funk, O.S.B. in Thoughts Matter notes that in the Rule of Benedict, "humility" is very similar to "wisdom." That makes a lot of sense. Just about any description of wisdom involves being in touch with what is truly and actually the case, knowing "the truth" in some deep sense. And most descriptions or real humility involve the idea of knowing and accepting the truth about oneself.

Let's say someone comes up to you after hearing you sing, and says, "My, you have a lovely voice." You're told that all the time, even by musicians; but you deflect the compliment as you always do, and say, "No I don't, not really." That's not humility because it's not in touch with reality. Humility would accept the fact that God's given you a lovely voice that people like to listen to, and respond to the compliment with something like, "Thank you, I love singing."

In our culture it seems that people think humility means "putting yourself down;" but being humble really means being in touch with and accepting the truth about yourself, including both your good points and your bad ones).

"Humility is far more fundamental than the practice of virtue: It is a matter of primary disposition rather than of behavior patterns" 
-- Michael Casey, OCSO, Introducing Benedict's Rule, 59)

"Humility matters. It is at the core of our experience of life in Christ. So central is this quality of being that it may be said that humility is for a Christian what enlightenment is for a Buddhist, realization is for a Hindu, sincerity is for a Confucian, righteousness is for a Jew, surrender is for a Muslim and annihilation is for a Sufi."
-- Margaret Mary Funk, O.S.B. — Humility Matters for Practicing the Spiritual Life

I came across the following on the last day of the retreat:

"Some of us try to commune with God without stopping to take off our shoes."

This final quote fit in perfectly with my reflections on humility. How can we ever approach God except in bare feet, humbly, acknowledging that we're being allowed to approach the divine mystery itself? There's a story about a rabbi who, before he went off to pray each morning would kiss his wife and children, just in case the Lord should choose to come so close to him in prayer that he wouldn't survive the experience.  

St. Benedict's Chapter on Humility is usually seen as the most important one in his entire Rule for Monks. All of us Christians spend our entire lives working on humility, learning how to "walk humbly with God."