30 (C) 24.10.2010 by Fr Christopher Gorst
The message of today's readings is really very simple: Ecclesiasticus has two messages. Firstly, God is no respecter of personages. He has no favourites, he listens to everyone. Secondly, the humble man's prayer pierces the clouds. The Gospel has two very similar messages: firstly, God is not impressed by the self-important, secondly, the prayer of the humble man is heard and he leaves the synagogue at rights with God. There hardly seems to be anything else to say. However, those of us who are not too proud to ask might make enquiries as to how we can become humble. Benedict is third in a line of monks who spend no little time in trying to answer that question. In the longest chapter of his Rule, he proposes 12 steps or aspects of humility which form an inverted ladder. We descend by self-exaltation and ascend by humility.
A Benedictine sister has translated these steps into bite-sized aphorisms to help those of us who haven’t the time to analyse Benedict’s whole chapter. I will go through each, and I hope you will see that they form a life-time task for those who are serious in their search for God, and desire to communicate with him.
In the first place: Recognise that God IS God. This is not just acknowledging there is a God, but we accept him as Lord. This is Thomas' cry 'My Lord and my God.'.
Secondly, we accept that God’s will is best for us. Even in adversity, God is with us, God loves us, and God carries us to draw us closer to him.
Thirdly, we are willing to receive direction. It takes a degree of humility to realise that we do not always know the way. We get lost. Our compass is going round and round. We can be too proud and foolish to receive direction.
Fourthly, we have the humility to endure and not grow weary. Weariness, especially in the spiritual life, shows we lack the humility to persevere, accept the rough moments and the unexciting periods of life.
The fifth step is to acknowledge faults. If we cannot admit we get things wrong and we cannot say sorry, we can never attain the heights of humility.
The sixth step is to be content with less and less. This is not the message of our culture and society. We are encouraged to seek more and more – possessions, knowledge, skills, information. But seek first the kingdom…says Jesus.
The seventh step is to let go (of any false sense of ourselves) St Bernard of Clairvaux said that all humility has to do with Truth, and this is especially true in this aspect.
Step number eight encourages us to learn from the community. We can think of this as the whole human community – all classes, all races, all religions. We do not have to agree with all their views nor with what they do, but we acknowledge that human beings have different perspectives, and we learn from them.
The next three steps concern our relationship with other people and our deep respect for them: these are Listen, Never ridicule, and speak kindly. Two reasons why Benedict encourages silence is so we have space to listen, and we learn to speak with few and sensible words. Humour is not discouraged, but laughter at another's expense is inflating our ego.
Finally, the twelfth step summarises all the others: Be serene – stay calm. We rest in faith and in God's love. As Benedict says – all the steps we did out of fear, become steps we make habitually and out of love for Christ.
In this way, our prayer is made in humility and purity of heart, and we go away, like the Tax collector, at rights with God.