The retreat I went on last weekend was on humility, as St. Benedict presents it in his Rule. One comment a monk made, which I found very interesting, is that St. Benedict never uses the word "wisdom" in the Rule, but he always uses "humility" as basically a synonym for wisdom. For St. Benedict, humility is the root of all virtue, the root of all knowledge, the root of all healthy relationships, including our relationships with God and ourselves. In a way, humility is wisdom, though this was a wisdom that needed to be revealed by God, who took on the greatest humility possible. Such wisdom is not the wisdom of natural man; indeed, it appears like foolishness to him.
Another point that I got from the retreat was that the most effective way of growing in humility is by being humiliated (and this, the Abbot demonstrated by Mother Teresa's example). We should not actively seek out humiliation, or humiliate ourselves purposely, but when humiliation comes (and it inevitably will), this is the time to grow in humility.
Since the retreat, I have been reading over the Rule, reading other sections besides the one on humility. What strikes me with the rule is its extreme practicality, and its deep understanding of human nature. The essence of the rule is that it is not good to go alone, because we do not know what is good for ourselves, or, even when we do, were are not effective at carrying it out. It is better to be under someone, than to govern ourselves. Human nature is broken, and we are prone to weakness, contradictions, mistakes, and we need an environment that cultivates in us our best qualities so that we can become the persons God wills us to be. And this is what the Rule is for, for the creating of such an environment.
I am also struck by how "modern" the Rule is. We are entering a new Dark Age, where the very foundations of our civilization are crumbling, and every man is retreating to his own quarters and his own way of doing things, a (sub)urban feudalism, though this is masked by the pseudo-connectivity of the digital age. We need the wisdom of St. Benedict more than ever, that intentional community and friendships will form and carry our civilization forward to more happy and spiritually-thriving times. And, we need a new chivalry, a new class of men with a code of Christian honor, to rise to the needs of the poor and the weak, for we no longer can count on a government to provide these things, nor, sadly, our many broken families. These men must lay down their lives for Truth, as the knights of old, that it may everywhere be known and honored.
St. Benedict, pray for us.
Great post, Ross. Thanks for sharing your insights from the retreat. I pray the retreat continues to bear fruit for you.
ReplyDeleteI really need to read the Rule. I love the idea that humility and wisdom are one. It made me think of a passage from St. TBoC about discretion and holiness being one and the same. I went back to get the passage, which to my surprise, is drawn from her vast experience with the Benedictines.
It reads:
The Rule of St. Benedict is called discretione perspicua, that is, distinguished by discretion. Discretion serves as a distinctive seal of Benedictine holiness. But fundamentally there is no holiness at all without it; indeed, if one grasps it with enough depth and breadth it becomes the same as holiness.
The whole passage is awe inspiring and beautiful. It's from an excerpt of one of her essays and it's called Discerning God's Design.
Brittany, thanks for your comment. This is interesting, from St. TBoC.
DeleteAnother German Catholic philosopher from her time, Dietrich von Hildebrand, also wrote a lot about "discretio," but I had the sense that it was a technical term and didn't understand what he meant.
Do you know what St. TBoC means by discretion?
I looked up the two Latin words in the quote you provided:
discretio: discretion, discrimination, power of distinguishing, discernment, separation
perspicua: evident, transparent, clear
It seems, perhaps, what she (and perhaps von Hildebrand) means by discretion is something like "distinguishing, discerning, or separating things clearly," which is indeed an thought-provoking way of defining of holiness.
Actually, when I read the passage, I thought that by discretion she really was alluding to self-mastery.
DeleteShe writes about distinguishing and discerning as well here, but eventually says, "one might render discretio here as wise-moderation." She writes that discretion, rather than being a gift of the Holy Spirit, actually belongs to each of the gifts and that each of the gifts is a varying expression of discretion.
That's interesting. I would like to hear more about it. Which book is it from?
Deletehttp://www.amazon.com/Edith-Stein-Essential-Writings-Spiritual/dp/1570754284/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453693587&sr=1-1&keywords=edith+stein+essential+writings
ReplyDeleteIt's from this one. It's excerpts from various letters she's written and such. It doesn't tell a story or build one on the other so you can read random passages out of order for reflection.