The Humility of Honesty....

Buried within Chapter 55 is a simple but remarkable glimpse into the heart of Saint Benedict.

... we need to be who we are. We need to look inside ourselves for our value and not pretend to be what we are not. We need to stop putting on airs in separating ourselves out and pretending to be what we are not. Fraud is an easy thing. The honesty of humility, the humility of honesty are precious and rare.

At first, Benedict seems merely to be talking about clothing—what the monastic should wear, how much is necessary, what is appropriate to place and circumstance. But beneath these practical instructions lies something much deeper: live truthfully.

We need neither adorn ourselves to become more than we are nor neglect ourselves as though appearances and material things have no meaning. Benedict's way lies somewhere between vanity and carelessness. Simplicity is not sloppiness. Humility is not indifference. To care properly for what we wear, what we possess, and how we present ourselves is part of learning to care properly for the world around us.

There is a natural progression here. If I learn that things are neither trophies to accumulate nor objects casually to discard, I begin to understand stewardship. I care for my clothing, my possessions, my surroundings, the countryside, natural resources, and ultimately the Earth itself—not because they belong to me, but precisely because they do not.

And then Sister Joan takes us one step further:

Benedictine spirituality does not understand a world that is full of glorious garbage while the poor lack the basics of life.

There is the challenge.

Chapter 55 is finally not about clothing at all. It is about enoughness. It asks whether we can possess what we need without allowing possessions to possess us; whether we can live beautifully without extravagance, simply without neglect, gratefully without grasping.

And beneath it all stands that wonderfully Benedictine virtue: the honesty of humility—the humility of honesty.

To know who we are.
To need no disguise.
To take what is necessary.
To care for what is given.
And to leave enough for the other.