Abbot Clement’s Talk on Tuesday, 27 August 2002

        Second degree of humility is when one does not love his own will, nor desire, nor wish to fulfill his desires, satisfy his desires, but to put into practice that Word of the Lord. " I came not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me." It is also written that self-will has its punishment, necessity wins the crown. Why is this degree of humility, which focuses on the abnegation of the will, in the chapter on humility? Humility is truth. Why the will? I think it’s there for the simple reason that we are being addressed. Who are the we being addressed? The truth of us is, that we are creatures of God. That we are disciples of God and children of God. That’s the truth. And humility is the way that we enter into the fullness of truth. So if we’re going to be truly who we are, we have to practice this degree. To deny our own will. It doesn’t mean to repress our feelings. It doesn’t mean not to have any good times. It means that we see clearly that doing God’s will is what fulfills us. And we desire it, we long for it. And if you look at the Latin text it really says, "Islam vocem", that voice, that word. And then of course, it gives that particular passage of John 6:38. So the real issue is what word of God builds your house? You know words and language are very important things. If I place you in a community in which there’s a lot of cussing, and swearing, and negativity, I guarantee you will come out negative. You’ll have to be a very strong person not to come out swearing and negative. If you’re in the company of people whose hearts are dragging the ground, and you do that 24 hours a day, I guarantee your heart will be dragging the ground. And so St. Benedict is aware that we need to put an umbrella over our life. He tells us to do lectio, he gets us in the rhythm of the Divine Office throughout the day, and of course, then we come to Mass and hear the proclamation of the gospel and so we are under the umbrella of the truth. Unless of course you cheat and watch too much TV. Or maybe fill your mind with all kinds of other stuff. So what does it mean then to be one who is going to choose God’s will freely? It means that we see that I have to be true to myself. That’s the truth of things. But the real self, the child of God. What does it mean to be true to yourself? It means your words, your thoughts, and your action are unified. You don’t have your words going one place, and your thoughts going the other and your actions somewhere else. You’re not a schizophrenia being. They’re unified. And of course, unified in the Word of God. The unique being you are as a child of God. And therefore you unfold. You become that which God sent you to be. To be a Benedictine, to be a priest, to be a Monk, to be all that God intends you to be. In one sense we have difficulty because we are given a lot of richness and gifts and therefore it is easy for us to be good teachers, or good nurses, or whatever and think that that’s the level that it’s on. But it’s not on that level. It’s on the level first and foremost, of being a child of God. And therefore to be Jesus. That’s who we are called to be. To be a little Jesus. Some bigger, some more radiant but, to be Jesus. How do we know this? Because if you’re going to look at this degree of humility correctly you have to see what is it that I came to do, God’s will.

        What is God’s will for us? Well, one passage that Jesus uses to tell us is, " I came that you may have life and that you may have it abundantly" - not just come to the Prior and say, "give me some money." The prior answers "no, no, no. We’re poor" - No, abundantly! What is this life? It’s Jesus’ life. It’s His existence, it’s His being, it’s His life, it’s His knowledge, it’s His love, it’s everything He is. He gives it all to us, everything! But we can’t receive it unless we do God’s will. So the second degree puts a wedge between doing my own will and God’s will. Put the wedge between my selfish self and my true self. And Jesus’ grace, the gift of life moves us into the direction that we will become the children of God that God intended us to be. And where do we get the resource to do this? Well besides the Word of God, obviously in the liturgy. Especially in the Mass. Jesus gives his whole self to us in the Eucharist. This is God’s plan. Not just for me and you but for the Church. If we are open then to this life and we become more authentically who we are meant to be then we will radiate Jesus. And to the degree we radiate Jesus, God’s plan for the salvation of the world will be fulfilled by us. I come not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me.

        God gave us a mission. That mission is to radiate Jesus. There is the source of vocations, there’s the source of drawing people to Jesus. So I must make one comment on the last sentence because a lot of people don’t understand it. Self-will has it’s punishment. That doesn’t mean that every time you do your will it’s going to be punished, it means every time you do your selfish will or you will that’s not in line with your true self then you’ll pay the consequences, why? Because you’re choosing yourself. And when you choose yourself that’s what you get this little picayune embodied being. And therefore isolation, cut-off-ness, darkness, etc., diminishment of life. That’s the self-will that has it’s own punishment. It’s inevitable. You can’t be selfish and not end up being isolated. And necessity wins the crown. Necessity here means when duty or truth confront us and we embrace it regardless of how we feel, consciously do it then we’re really doing God’s will and so we will get the crown. Obviously, the whole monastic tradition saw the value of this degree of humility because it’s really a summary of some passages in scripture. It nips in the bud the source of evil. Selfish self-will is what moves us into sin and into the other side. So we need to ask St. Benedict, especially when we’re at the liturgy, that he would deepen our appreciation in knowing God’s will for us. He has come to give us life, and that in abundance.