The fundamental virtue for living the the Christ-life, as envisioned by monastics, is humility. The virtue is not a popular one today, but it is so fundamental that as oblates we must reflect on it. To begin with, humility is essential for the imitation of Christ. Benedict quotes Phil 2:6-11 where St. Paul celebrates the humility of Christ as an example for us to follow in our own Christ-life. Humility is the disposition which opens the way of ongoin conversion and progressive growth in spirituality. Humility is, in essence, a turning away from the many fantasies we entertain concerning ourselves, the world around us, and the Creator; and a turning towards reality at it has been created.
The first step toward humility is to be absolutely present in the Spirit of Light. We must remember that we are of the same clay, but there is One Light. Through humility the oblate is of the disposition to receive truth, not only as revealed in the Psalms, but also in the revelations in daily comunity life. When one is humble, one does not have to "put on an act" to draw attention to one's self. The virtue of humility is the virtue of acting naturally.
In an era when we have become sensitive to the destructive result of growing up with a negative self-image, it may seem that humility can do more harm than good. After all, we have discovered that it is hard to function well in life and relate to creation when we don't feel reasonably good about ourselves. However, if humility is primarily the way to truth, then humility not only guards us against a swollen ego, but a shrunken one as well. In humility we may learn that we are not always as good as we think we are, but we also learn that we are not as bad as we think.
