The first degree of humility, then, is that a person
keep the fear of God before his eyes and beware of ever forgetting it. Let him
be ever mindful of all that God has commanded; let his thoughts constantly
recur to the hell-fire which will burn for their sins those who despise God,
and to the life everlasting which is prepared for those who fear Him. Let him
keep himself at every moment from sins and vices,
whether of the mind, the tongue, the hands, the feet,
or the self-will, and check also the desires of the flesh.
We have two
different ways of looking at this passage. We are admonished to keep the fear
of God before our eyes and we are also challenged to be mindful of the
consequences of not being mindful of what all God has commanded of us.
Fear as used seems
to support the dreadful potential of burning in hell-fire. We should be fearful
of that outcome but I prefer to not focus on negative outcomes, not because I
have I don't accept that there is such a thing as hell-fire because it surely
exists but fear in this instance really means fear in the original sense of the
word which is synonymous with awe. When we say our God is fearsome God what we
really want to say is our God is an awesome God, a God who is not anxious to
doom us to life in darkness but desires only the best for us, He wants us to be
glad to be with him, to rejoice in his presence.
This God is one who
is worthy of our awe and who does not want our fear as in being afraid. In the
14 centuries since Benedict wrote this rule, we have come to see God as who
sent His Son to redeem us and not condemn us. We are invited but not threatened.
What does not change
is the need for humility which means we have to be willing to let God be God
and not take try to chart our own destiny. It takes humility to bend our will
to ask for God to reveal his will for us. There are times when I fail to bow in
respect and humbleness, not because of pride or willful disobedience but
because I don't stop to think. When we begin making decisions in the morning as
simple as choosing what to wear or what to eat for breakfast, we let ourselves
be conditioned to continue make decisions of increasing importance eventually
leading us to thinking that what ever we decide to do must be the correct
decision because our intentions are honorable.
I heard this to be
referred to as practical atheism. While we confess to the existence and
omnipotence of God, we deny him the opportunity to be God for us by not
stopping to consider what he would have do and in so doing we deny his power by
failing to turn our lives over to him. The slope to preaching belief but living
disbelief is a slippery slide that can befall us without warning.
Proper humility
allows us to welcome God into our lives and to move toward unity with him and
his plan. The good news is that no matter how many times we take up what we
should lay day through misplaced pride, intentional or not, we will be
forgiven, the act forgotten and we will be invited to find humbleness and joy
in submission that is not defeat.
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