Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - January 23, 2022
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
Author Kathleen Norris, writing of Benedictine influence on her work, comes to the matter of humility (Benedict epitomizes the monastic ideal in humility) and says that humility is “not usually associated with writers”. Is writing incompatible with humility and life in Christ? Isn’t writing bound to be egotistic, an effort to produce something which others will applaud? Doesn’t the writer expect to have others, whether they agree or not with the work, at least read it? Is some sort of self-centeredness intrinsic to a writer’s work?
A lack of humility also bumps up against the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matt 7:12 and Luke 6:31). And: “Do nothing from selfish ambition.... Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others” (Phil 2:3,4). A twentieth century writer Hilaire Belloc was up-front about self-interest: “When I am dead I hope it can be said/ ‘His sins were scarlet, but his books were read’ “.
Indeed the issue is broader. What about self-promotion, e.g., my resume? Where does justifiable and necessary pride come in? Self-esteem? Good deeds? Someone asks: “Can an individual ever truly act for others in complete disregard for his/her own interests?” What about a line from Nietzsche to the effect that even when we are doing good for others we are patting ourselves on the back for doing it?
Another writer has leaped in, entitling his new book On Myself, and Other, Less Important Subjects. Buddhism and Christianity in their own ways have as the ideal what we can call selflessness. The Rule of Benedict: “No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else.” (Chapter 72) Are new parents an/the example of truly unselfish love as they dote on their newborn? And what about those grandparents who literally worship the little dears? – Much to mull over. To pray over?
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
