After several brief chapters in the Rule, Benedict writes a rather lengthy and detailed Chapter Seven on “Humility.” It is a chapter based in paradox: the way “upward” to God is the way”downward” in humility. We ascend by descending.
Using the image of the ladder between heaven and earth that connected God and Jacob, Benedict describes a twelve-rung process that creates increasing humility, but (paradoxically) also increasing intimacy with God. I wish it were possible to describe each rung in the ladder in detail. There is great value in pondering each of them. But that cannot happen in a brief blog. I hope you have a copy of the Rule, so you can meditate on the steps as Benedict intended.
For now, I will simply take you to the top of the ladder, which for Benedict is our arrival at the life of perfect love—the place where we love God and our neighbors. Of this Benedict writes, “Through this love, all [the monk] performed with dread, he will now begin to observe without effort, as though naturally, from habit, no longer out of fear of hell, but out of love for Christ, good habit and delight in virtue.” (7:68-69).
This is the journey I have described for years as “moving from duty to delight.” Without even looking at the steps of humility, we see the shift in motivation which it brings—moving from fear to love. This movement, Benedict says, creates an “effortless” Christianity—one that now seems natural—simply because it is. It is the life God intended for us all along, and provides for us through grace.
This is not the suspension of the will; it is the surrender of it. As E. Stanley Jones so often said, “Your self in your own hands is a problem and a pain; your self in God’s hands is a power and a potential.” It is what Henri Nouwen wrote so beautifully and powerfully about in his book, The Inner Voice of Love.
I used to think that the opposite of love was hate, but Benedict and others show that the opposite of love is fear. That’s why John said, “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). The Rule of Benedict shows us the way to this love. It is humility—gained step-by-step, but with each step further enabling us to move out of the house of fear into the house of love.
Oboedire 