Jacob's Ladder Helps Us Establish Stability in the Workplace

Our Stability Project continues with St. Benedict's "Degrees of Humility" as laid out in his Rule. We've established a base for increased humility with our previous discussion of Obedience and Silence. Now we dive deep into the virtue of Humility itself with a view to how it can promote stability in the workplace.

We'll see how our saint uses the Biblical image of Jacob's ladder to illustrate the importance of our pursuing the virtue humility. But first, here are St. Benedict's introductory remarks about this all-important virtue:

"Holy Scripture crieth out to us, brethren saying: 'Everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Luke 14:11) When it so speaks, it teaches us that all exaltation is a kind of pride; which the prophet shows that he shunned in the words: 'Lord, my heart is not exalted nor mine eyes lifted up; neither have I dwelt on high things, nor on marvels that are beyond my reach.' And why? "If I was not humbly minded but exalted my soul with pride; as a child that is weaned from his mother, so wilt thou requite my soul.' (Psalm 53)"

In case we haven't thought about the importance of humility, just re-read those remarks. At the most basic level, humility is the opposite of pride. Pride will send us straight to hell if left unchecked. Develop humility - prioritize this, really work at it - and pride will at least be held in check. In time, with hard work, it may even whither. 

Now, a quick question related to stability in the workplace: Will a workplace filled with humble folks, or one infested with prideful people provide a more stable environment? The answer, of course, is obvious. 

Next question: Will a stable or unstable environment promote the production of excellent work, work that pleases our clients, customers, bosses? Which will best facilitate our desire to work for the greater glory of God? Again, an obvious answer here too.

Unless you're especially blessed, maybe your workplace contains a mix of humble and prideful. It is what it is. But your own place ought to be taken steadfastly with the humble. If this is not be the case, St. Benedict's degrees of humility should be a great motivator to change. Pay close attention to his remarks as we go through them. Don't consign this to a second tier. It needs to be at the top of your To Do list.

(I speak here from experience. I've learned a thing or two about humility, not the least from St. Benedict - and continue to learn.)

Now for St. Benedict's use of Jacob's ladder to drive home the importance of actively pursuing the virtue of humility, and how it will lift us from the entanglements of the world, the flesh, and the devil ultimately to our heavenly reward:

"...if we wish to attain to the summit humility and desire to arrive speedily at that heavenly exaltation to which we ascend by the humility of the present life, then we must set up a ladder of our ascending actions like unto that which Jacob saw in his vision, whereon angles appeared to him, descending and ascending. By that descent and ascent we must surely understand nothing else than this, that we descend by self-exaltation and ascend by humility. And the ladder is our body and soul, into which sides our divine vocation has fitted various degrees of humility and discipline, which we have to climb."

Picture the ladder. It consists of our body and our soul. It allows us to go up, but also down. We want to go up. Self-exaltation drags us down. Humility lifts us up. 

The choice really is quite simple, isn't it? Our decision to climb this ladder will pull us steadily out of the grip of pride, that favorite vice of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Of course, such climbing takes work - steady, persistent work. And the ladder has many rungs. It must, since it ultimately leads to Heaven. 

Our reward for our persistence will ultimately be our entry into Heaven at the end of our life. But while we're here on this earth we have the ancillary benefit of promoting the stability we need in our workplace. 

St. Benedict's ladder will be as long as our life. And considering how much of our time we spend working during our tenure on his earth, we should be prepared to steadily apply ourselves to climbing one rung at a time throughout the work day. And let's not forget that our climbing must always be up, leaving pride behind, striving to be humble. As St. Benedict puts it: "we descend by self-exaltation and ascend by humility."

Up, not down.