Develop Humility or "Do the Work"

Much like AA's "serenity" or Buddhist "vulnerable heart," Christian "humility" is a gentle, open-heartedness that accepts oneself, and others, as we really are. This naturally leads to experiencing God as unconditional love, and an outpouring of love and compassion towards others.

In monasteries like the one I was in, a lot of lip service was paid to humility. Yet my experience was that development of humility and love always took a back seat to "getting the work done."

Every weekday morning we had “chapter.” One of us would read a passage from the Rule and then those who wished would comment on it. Once we were reflecting on the passage where Benedict says to choose as Prioress one who excelled in humility.

A sister visiting from another Benedictine community said, "Oh every community has those very humble sisters. They are a joy to be around. They care for everyone, and are so gentle and kind. But they never get elected to the leadership because they are no good at getting things done."

There lies an obvious difficulty. The only thing Benedict seems to want monastics to do is to help one another "go together to everlasting life," through growth in humility and love. Work in the monastery is a tool for this, not an end in itself. Putting down the work and sitting, like Mary, in listening silence - without agenda or program - is also a tool. But it is the "better part." Only those by nature incapable of contemplation are to keep busy.

Benedict's Rule has a chapter on "artisans." This would have included any craftsperson from icon painter to rope maker - so it basically applies to almost every kind of work. The chapter has two paragraphs. The first says if their work takes monastics away from humility, they must no longer be allowed to do it. The second says that if a particular work distracts the whole community from focusing on humility (whether from pride or dependence on the income), the work must be abandoned.

And Benedict prescribed at least a few hours a day for "study." His monks wouldn't have had many books, as I heard one Benedictine expert suggest, so by "study" Benedict probably meant lectio divina. Lectio divina uses scripture as a lead-in to contemplative listening, but it is the contemplative listening which matters.

Only, yucky-in-the-extreme: whenever we stop to listen, the first thing we hear are the yammering negative voices in our heads.

Add that to the persistent survival anxieties that swamp even the wealthy and no wonder we'd rather keep busy!

But my experience echoes that of many other practitioners. Just keep listening. Eventually the yammering drifts off and a clear, joyous light bubbles up in its stead, like a tiny spring through a muddy pool. As time goes on, the mud clears faster and more easily... And when it doesn't clear, there is something in that mud that needs attention. (This happens annoyingly often in my case).

As to survival anxieties, the Gospels say it well: (Matt 6:25, 27-29, 34) "Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on... Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his [or her] span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these... Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself." (Also Luke 12:22-29 & Thomas 36)