Happy St. Benedict's feast day! Benedict wrote a rule of life for Christians living in community. His rule of life has been used by people for over 1500 years to help them grow closer to God. I discovered the rule when I was in seminary and began adopting Benedictine principles for my own rule of life. The centerpiece of his rule is chapter 7 on Humility. Humility is not a best seller right now. It is hard for people to understand why humility would pull us closer to God. But for me, humility is the thing I most need to enjoy God and God's people most fully.
I could talk about humility a lot of ways, but for this post let me just say that humility is the only antidote I know of for shame. Shame is a physiological response. Mostly we want to ignore it, prevent it or avoid it--it is a yucky feeling and no one in their right mind wants to embrace it! But to avoid all of the spiritual and psychological problems that come from shame, that is exactly what we have to do--embrace shame. The only way to manage shame effectively is to allow it to move through us and then we move on. And that is what humility is--the ability to live with a spasm of shame and not get caught up with that.
Now for the spiritual part of this process: Humility is a gift from God. Like all of God's gifts, it infuses our bodies and our souls with grace. I believe grace is also a physiological process. Humility heals our wounds from shaming.
I have learned many things about being a friend of God from Benedict's rule. But this is the thing that has made the biggest difference.
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