Hermitage Note: Humility and the Brother's Keeper Principle

It is a New Year.

Yea!?.

I am feeling better this week. Last week? Not so good.

It was not that I felt so terribly bad. I have physically felt a lot worse. Perhaps, and I tend to think, the inoculations we received earlier in the year are to be credited with the lack of severity of the Covid-19.

Where do I rate this thing on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst I have ever felt with any kind of flu that I have had?

I will rate the miserableness at a 4.

Sore muscles, joint pain, low grade fever that occasionally came and went for a few days. Throw in some symptoms that resembled a head cold with some upper respiratory complaints and shortness of breath. These were accompanied by a lot of fatigue and a brain-fog. The mailbox was a long walk. Expressing myself intelligently was a chore. The short walk to the kitchen or bathroom in this little house left me exhausted. Uncommon naps in my recliner became common along with 10 to 12 hours of sleep at night.

My senses of taste and smell left me. I am not sure just when that happened. But, one of those mornings, I realized that I could not smell the coffee making and that my favorite morning beverage tasted like warm muddy water with a splash of asphalt or used motor oil.

I am not complaining.

Yes, it is a shame that someone crossing our path passed this thing to us. We have our suspicions as to who and when it happened. Suspicions cannot be proved though. And what good would it do if we could prove it, other than to use it to point “shame” or “blame” toward those who gave it to us.

At this point in the history of the Covid virus, I am just thankful that we are no worse than we are.

We have lost family members and friends to this virus. We have friends who have lost family members and friends to Covid. The Covid realities are deeply saddening. It is sad that so many make light of this global pandemic that is far from over.

I return again and again to the “brother’s keeper” principle where Covid and its resultant pandemic is concerned. It is the principle that rang out clearly to me at the beginning of Covid. It is the principle that continues to ring out clearly.

The narrative of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4 is an interesting one. It is illuminative. The narrative obviously points out the jealousy and anger that motivated Cain. But, where human nature is concerned, something lies deeper near the core. There, deep in Cain’s heart, he selfishly placed his own right to life above that of his brother and killed him.

I cannot help how others respond to their call to be their “brother’s keeper” where this virus is concerned. I cannot help how others go about exercising responsibility to look out for those whom they share the planet with. Nor will I be held accountable for the responses of others in this matter.

I can only do what I can do.

The whole of The Rule intimates that I live in a way that shows preference for the welfare of others rather than pushing a preference for myself. Saint Benedict’s chapter on Humility [Chapter 7] cuts across the grain of any kind of personal selfishness. The Saint tells us that we are not to love our own will or take pleasure in the satisfaction of our desires. [The Rule 7:21] It is interesting how this deference fills the pages written about the early pioneers of Christian monasticism. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and The Philokalia are full of examples of crucifying the self for the sake of the other.

Reigning in this self is not just something for monks and other monastic-types.

Jesus is quite direct when he tells us in Matthew 7:12, “All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.” Elsewhere [Mark 12:31] he tells us, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

I cannot possibly love my neighbor as I ought as long as the love that I have for myself is selfishly motivated. As long as my love for myself is selfishly motivated, I will always be just another “Cain” jealously pushing myself through this world, insisting upon having things “my way”, without regard for the results of my actions on others.

I continually remind myself that my own personal behavior does make a difference. Not only does it make a difference in the here and now, it is also being monitored, indelibly recorded, and will have an effect in eternity [Revelation 20:12]. In the grand scheme of things, things that I both do and refuse to do will be measured in the light of this “brother’s keeper” principle.