Benedict of Nursia is the founder of Western monasticism. His “Rule of Benedict” lays out in specific (and often mundane) ways how Christians can best live in the world. This attempt to apply to teachings of Jesus to everyday life remains one of the most impactful writings in Christianity.
Perhaps the most well-known section in Benedict’s Rule is his teaching on humility. Benedict saw humility as one of the key virtues and he pictured it as a ladder with 11 rungs (similar to Jacob’s ladder, Gen. 28).
Benedictine scholar Joan Chittister explains that Benedict wrote about this ladder of humility with a specific context in mind. In the Roman Empire, in which Benedict lived,
“the helpless were being destroyed by the warlike; the rich lived on the backs of the poor; the powerful few made decisions that profited them but plunged the powerless many into continual chaos” (76-77 The Rule of Benedict).
Humility was the antidote to this injustice and inequity. Joan Chittister writes,
“When we make ourselves God, no one else in the world is safe in our presence. Humility, in other words, is the basis for right relationships in life.” (77, The Rule of Benedict)
For the next 11 days, we’ll briefly explore each rung on Benedict’s ladder as a series of steps we can take toward being safe people and having safe communities and laying the basis for right relationships in life.
Rung #1: “Always have the fear of God before your eyes (Ps. 36:2) and avoid all thoughtlessness so that you are constantly mindful of everything God has commanded.” In other words, the first step is to awaken to a God who is always present to us.
This matters immensely because we are so often tempted to treat people one way in public and another way in private. We act as if God is only present when we are in public. We act as if God is somehow barred from seeing who we are in private. And so, we’ll use language in private that is demeaning, devaluing and discriminatory. We’ll bully, belittle or browbeat in private people whom we believe are literally worth-less than us. We’ll make decisions as boards, staff or parents behind closed doors that negatively impact people of color or people of another class or creed.
Ps. 36, which Benedict cites in this first rung, tells of a person who “makes malicious plans”; uses words that are “malicious and deceptive” and “flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out.” This is a person who believes he can do what he wants to other people because God will not find out.
But humility, and thus the right treatment of others, comes as we learn that all of our life, public and private, is walked in full view of God. God is present everytime we sit at a keyboard to email, everytime we sit at the conference table in a closed-door meeting, everytime we pick up the phone for a personal call, everytime we lean in to whisper something, everytime we make a decision in the privacy of our home or car. He sees everything we do or fail to do that results in the ejection and exclusion of others.
For those who are our victims, this is good news. God sees your wounds and those causing them. And he cares deeply.
For those of us victimizing others, this is bad news. God sees the wounds we cause and those we have wounded. And he cares deeply.
But it’s also good news–because it means that God is also present when we make the Christlike move to include rather than injure. Even when no one else sees that card we write, that call we make, that action we take, that silence we fill–God does. Our ever-present Father sees any sacrifice we make for the sake of others and shows his delight as a result.
