Canticle 5
January 18, 2009
The last part I’ll comment on from the canticle in the morning office of CDP is: This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Lowliness and meekness spell out the virtue of humility that every Christian should ask for from the Lord who dwells within.
This prayer is asking the Lord to manifest himself within us in lowliness and in meekness. Frankly, I am not given to ask for this meekness and lowliness by nature. They ran out of humility when my turn came. I am more inclined to assert myself. Perhaps I can blame society’s influence on me: lowly and meek are out, brash and proud are in. Perhaps it’s not society at all; it’s just my human nature taking its time dying. Blame is not a very productive defense mechanism.
All the same, this prayer of receiving the humility of my Lord is a needed corrective for me. Perhaps it is for you too. Notice also the dailiness of this part of the prayer. I get the manna of humility in daily but sufficient portions. Sufficient unto each day its dose of humility. Tomorrow, I start over again and the day after until lowliness and meekness become inherent character traits in me. Or as Dallas WIllard says until humility become second nature in me.
Biblical lowliness and meekness are not self-deprecating nor are they cowing down to others. In fact the very opposite is true as the words yet all-powerful affirm. Our king Jesus had unlimited power from God while on earth, but willingly laid those aside exercised in order to teach us to negotiate the virtues of lowliness and meekness. How much self-control did he have to learn (he learned obedience through the things he suffered)? Did he pray daily for humility? While I can’t answer those questions for my Lord, I can use all the means of grace available to me to help me on the path of humility. It takes the powerful energy of the Holy Spirit within me to be self-controlled when my tendency is to exert unnecessary power when humility works better. Not everyone will see self-control as power. No matter, we know that “pupils are not above their teacher, but when we are fully formed we will be like our teacher.”
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I love this series on the canticle. Very good stuff.
Paul,
Thanks for the encouragement, Paul. I really enjoyed reflecting on the canticle. This canticle, in its simplicity ,speaks deeply to our needs. and what is prayer other than asking God to meet our needs because no one else can.
All the prayers in CDP are simple and I can’t help think they are so by design. This way we don’t get lost inside the language! I tend to want to decorate my prayers with unnecessary verbiage but the prayers of our sacred rhythm permit me to forgo this tendency.
Really looking forward to seeing you on Thursday.