#5: Humility, Poverty, Dependency

The fifth understanding calls members of the community to the consistent and thoughtful practice of humility.  We are to understand ourselves as dependent on one another, open to the movement of the Spirit, and ready to accept our own "spiritual poverty."  Oh my goodness, is this one hard!  I can, of course, hope that my difficulty with the spirit of humility and dependence on others is just a cultural bias -- we "Yankees," or "New Englanders," or "Americans" don't live that way -- we're strong, and self-reliant, we can take care of ourselves.  But if I'm really honest about it, I can see in my past (and sometimes if I'm lucky, in the present moment) occasions when my "strength" and "self-sufficiency" were  actually more like pride, and arrogance, and self-deception. And, while I do strive to keep a handle on that kind of behavior, it may be that the true exercise of humility comes when I simply accept that there's no one else to blame but my own self for this behavior, and that I will probably never be able to stuff it, repress it, or be cured of it completely.

Sigh.  

We are also reminded in Understanding #5 that true humility is a form of love that respects and esteems others.  That seems somehow achievable.  As though shifting the focus off myself and onto another person's needs, abilities, and cares can bring me closer to this spiritual ideal.

Fr. Laurence Freeman of the World Community for Christian Meditation teaches that praying with a single mantra (the WCCM suggests using "Maranatha") is a form of spiritual poverty, that we learn to let go of filling our spiritual time with verbal prayers or beautiful images in order to experience a degree of openness and humility in our prayer.  The theory is that if we can do this in our prayer, then we can take it into our lives.  It is a practice that I often turn to in my times of solitude.  In light of the call that comes to me, to each of us, in this Understanding, I hope it works.