THE RULE OF BENEDICT: INSIGHTS FOR THE AGES
Joan Chittister, OSB
PROLOGUE
Jan. 1 - May 2 - Sept. 1
Listen carefully to my instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from one who loves you; welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice. The labor of obedience will bring you back to one from whom you had drifted through the sloth of disobedience. This message of mine is for you, then, if you are ready to give up your own will, once and for all, and armed with the strong and noble weapons of obedience to do battle for Jesus, the Christ.
First of all, every time you begin a good work, you must pray to God most earnestly to bring it to perfection. In God's goodness, we are already counted as God's own, and therefore we should never grieve God by our evil actions. With the good gifts which are in us, we must obey God at all times that God may never become the angry parent who disinherits us, nor the dreaded one, enraged by our sins, who punishes us forever as worthless servants for refusing to follow the way to glory.
In this very first part of the Rule Benedict is setting out the importance of not allowing ourselves to become our own guides, our own gods. Obedience, Benedict says – the willingness to listen for the voice of God in life - is what will wrench us out of the limitations of our own landscape. We are being called to something beyond ourselves. We will need someone to show us the way: the Christ, a loving spiritual model, this Rule.
PROLOGUE - Continued
Jan. 2 - May 3 - Sept. 2
Let us get up then, at long last, for the Scriptures rouse us when they say: "It is high time for us to arise from sleep (Rom. 13:11)." Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice from the heavens that every day calls out this charge: "If you hear God's voice today, do not harden your hearts (Ps. 95:8)." And again: "You that have ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches (Rev. 2:7)." And what does the Spirit say? "Come and listen to me; I will teach you the fear of God (Ps. 34:12)." "Run while you have the light" of life, "that the darkness" of death "may not overtake you (Jn. 12:35)."
We put off so much in life - visiting relatives, writing letters, going back to school, finding a new job. But one thing stays with us always, present whether pursued or not, and that is the call to the center of ourselves where the God we are seeking is seeking us. Benedict says: Listen today. Start now. Begin immediately to direct your life to that small, clear voice within.
PROLOGUE - Continued
Jan. 3 - May 4 - Sept. 3
Seeking workers in a multitude of people, God calls out and says again: "Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days (Ps. 34:13)?" If you hear this and your answer is "I do," God then directs these words to you: If you desire true and eternal life, "keep your tongue free from vicious talk and your lips from all deceit; turn away from evil and do good; let peace be your quest and aim (Ps. 34:14-15)." Once you have done this, my "eyes will be upon you and my ears will listen for your prayers; and even before you ask me, I will say" to you: "Here I am (Is. 58:9)." What is more delightful than this voice of God calling to us? See how God's love shows us the way of life. Clothed then with faith and the performance of good works, let us set out on this way, with the Gospel for our guide that we may deserve to see God "who has called us to the eternal presence (1 Thes. 2:12)."
Benedict obviously believes that life lived fully is life lived on two planes: attention to God and attention to the good of the other. The godly are those, this paragraph says, who never talk destructively about another person - in anger, in spite, in vengefulness - and who can be counted on to bring an open heart to a closed and clawing world.
PROLOGUE - Continued
Jan. 4 - May 5 - Sept. 4
If we wish to dwell in God's tent, we will never arrive unless we run there by doing good deeds. But let us ask with the prophet: "Who will dwell in your tent, O God; who will find rest upon your holy mountain (Ps. 15:1)?" After this question, then, let us listen well to what God says in reply, for we are shown the way to God's tent. "Those who walk without blemish and are just in all dealings; who speak truth from the heart and have not practiced deceit; who have not wronged another in any way, nor listened to slanders against a neighbor (Ps. 15:2-3)." They have foiled the Evil One at every turn, flinging both the Evil One and these wicked promptings far from sight. While these temptations were still "young, the just caught hold of them and dashed them against Christ (Ps. 15:4; 137:9)." These people reverence God, and do not become elated over their good deeds; they judge it is God's strength not their own that brings about the good in them. "They praise (Ps. 15:4)" God working in them, and say with the prophet: "Not to us, O God, not to us give the glory, but to your name alone (Ps. 115:1)."
Benedict introduces very early in the Rule the notion of responsibility for the human community as the benchmark of those who “dwell in God’s tent,” know God on earth, live on a higher plane than the mass of humanity around them. The really holy, the ones who touch God, Benedict maintains, are those who live well with those around them. They are just, they are upright and they are kind. The ecology of humankind is safe with them.
PROLOGUE - Continued
Jan. 5 - May 6 - Sept. 5
Paul the apostle refused to take credit for the power of his preaching. He declared: "By God's grace I am what I am (1 Cor. 15:10)." And again Paul said: "Whoever boasts should boast in God (2 Cor. 10:17)." That is why it is said in the Gospel: "Whoever hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise person who built a house upon rock; the floods came and the winds blew and beat against the house, but it did not fall: it was founded on rock (Mt. 7:24-25)."
With this conclusion, God waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, these holy teachings. Therefore our life span has been lengthened by way of a truce, that we may amend our misdeeds. As the apostle says: "Do you not know that the patience of God is leading you to repent (Rom. 2:4)?" And indeed God assures us in love: "I do not wish the death of sinners, but that they turn back to me and live (Ez. 33:11)."
Clearly, for Benedict, God is not something to be achieved; God is a presence to be responded to but to whom without that presence we cannot respond. God isn't something for which spiritual athletes compete or someone that secret spiritual formulas expose. God is the breath we breathe.
PROLOGUE - Continued
Jan. 6 - May 7 - Sept. 6
Now that we have asked God who will dwell in the holy tent, we have heard the instruction for dwelling in it, but only if we fulfill the obligations of those who live there. We must, then, prepare our hearts and bodies for the battle of holy obedience to God's instructions. What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask God to supply by the help of grace. If we wish to reach eternal life, even as we avoid the torments of hell, then - while there is still time, while we are in this body and have time to accomplish all these things by the light of life - we must run and do now what will profit us forever.
We are not capable of what we are about to do but we are not doing it alone and we are not doing it without purpose. God is with us, holding us up so that the reign of God may be made plain in us and become hope to others. If we can become peacemakers, if we can control our need to control, if we can distinguish between our wants and our needs, then anybody can.
PROLOGUE - Continued
Jan. 7 - May 8 - Sept. 7
We intend to establish a school for God's service. In drawing up its regulations, we hope to set down nothing harsh, nothing burdensome. The good of all concerned, however, may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love. Do not be daunted immediately by fear and run away from the road that leads to salvation. It is bound to be narrow at the outset. But as we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God's commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love. Never swerving from God's instructions, then, but faithfully observing God's teaching in the monastery until death, we shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ that we may deserve also to share in God’s eternal presence. Amen.
The spiritual life takes discipline. It is something to be learned, to be internalized. It's not a set of daily exercises; it's a way of life, an attitude of mind, an orientation of soul. And it is gotten by being schooled until no rules are necessary.
CHAPTER 1. THE KINDS OF MONASTICS
Jan. 8 - May 9 - Sept. 8
There are clearly four kinds of monastics. First, there are the cenobites, that is to say, those who belong to a monastery, where they serve under a rule and a prioress.
Second, there are the anchorites or hermits, who have come through the test of living in a monastery for a long time, and have passed beyond the first fervor of monastic life. Thanks to the help and guidance of many, they are now trained to fight against evil. They have built up their strength and go from the battle line in the ranks of their members to the single combat of the desert. Self-reliant now, without the support of another, they are ready with God's help to grapple single-handed with the vices of body and mind.
Third, there are the sarabaites, the most detestable kind of monastics, who with no experience to guide them, no rule to try them as "gold is tried in a furnace (Prv. 27:21)," have a character as soft as lead. Still loyal to the world by their actions, they clearly lie to God by their signs of religion. Two or three together, or even alone, without a shepherd, they pen themselves up in their own sheepfolds, not God's. Their law is what they like to do, whatever strikes their fancy. Anything they believe in and choose, they call holy; anything they dislike, they consider forbidden.
Fourth and finally, there are the monastics called gyrovagues, who spend their entire lives drifting from region to region, staying as guests for three or four days in different monasteries. Always on the move, they never settle down, and are slaves to their own wills and gross appetites. In every way they are worse than sarabaites.
It is better to keep silent than to speak of all these and their disgraceful way of life. Let us pass them by, then, and with the help of God, proceed to draw up a plan for the strong kind, the cenobites.
Cenobites are the seekers of the spiritual life who live in a monastery--live with others--and are not a law unto themselves. Holiness, Benedict argues, is not something that happens in a vacuum. It has something to do with the way we live our community lives and our family lives and our public lives as well as the way we say our prayers.
CHAPTER 2. QUALITIES OF THE PRIORESS
Jan. 9 - May 10 - Sept. 9
To be worthy of the task of governing a monastery, the prioress must always remember what the title signifies and act accordingly. She is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery. Therefore, the prioress must never teach or decree or command anything that would deviate from God's instructions. On the contrary, everything she teaches and commands should, like the leaven of divine justice, permeate the minds of the community.
The prioress and abbot provide an environment that confronts the monastic with the presence of God that shows them the Way. After that it is up to the monastic to let the practices of the community and the rhythm of the prayer life work their way until the piercing good of God rises in them like yeast in bread.
CHAPTER 2. QUALITIES OF THE PRIORESS - Continued
Jan. 10 - May 11 - Sept. 10
Let the prioress always remember that at the judgment of God, not only her teaching but also the community's obedience will come under scrutiny. The prioress must, therefore, be aware that the shepherd will bear the blame wherever the owner of the household finds that the sheep have yielded no profit. Still, if she has faithfully shepherded a restive and disobedient flock, always striving to cure their unhealthy ways, it will be otherwise: the shepherd will be acquitted at God's judgment. Then, like the prophet, she may say to God: "I have not hidden your justice in my heart; I have proclaimed your truth and your salvation (Ps. 40:11), but they spurned and rejected me (Is. 1:2; Ez. 20:27)." Then at last the sheep that have rebelled against her care will be punished by the overwhelming power of death.
Benedict puts a great deal of responsibility on the shoulders of people in authority, but not all of it. Abbots and prioresses are to teach, to proclaim, but the community's responsibility is to listen and to respond.
CHAPTER 2. QUALITIES OF THE PRIORESS - Continued
Jan. 11 - May 12 - Sept. 11
Anyone who receives the name of prioress is to lead the community by a twofold teaching: she must point out to them all that is good and holy more by example than by words, proposing God's commandments to a receptive community with words, but demonstrating God's instructions to the stubborn and the dull by a living example. Again, if the prioress teaches the community that something is not to be done, then neither must she do it, "lest after preaching to others, she herself be found reprobate (1 Cor. 9:27)" and God some day call to her in her sin: "How is it that you repeat my just commands and mouth my covenant when you hate discipline and toss my words behind you (Ps. 50:16-17)?" And also this: "How is it that you can see a splinter in another's eye, and never notice the plank in your own (Mt. 7:3)?"
Benedict is saying that the function of spiritual leadership is not to intimidate people into submission by fear or guilt. The function of spiritual leadership is to show in our own lives the beauty that oozes out of those who live the spiritual life to its fullness. The function of spiritual leadership is to enshrine what a good life can be.
CHAPTER 2. QUALITIES OF THE PRIORESS - Continued
Jan. 12 - May 13 - Sept. 12
The prioress should avoid all favoritism in the monastery. She is not to love one more than another unless she finds someone better in good works and obedience. One born free is not to be given higher rank than one born a slave who becomes a monastic, except for some other good reason. But the prioress is free, if she sees fit, to change anyone's rank as justice demands. Ordinarily, everyone is to keep to their regular place, because "whether slave or free, we are all one in Christ (Gal. 3:28; Eph. 6:8)" and share equally in the service of the one God, for "God shows no partiality among persons (Rom. 2:11)." Only in this are we distinguished in God's sight: if we are found better than others in good works and in humility. Therefore, the prioress is to show equal love to everyone and apply the same discipline to all according to their merits.
Benedict does not want people in positions simply to get a job done. He wants people in positions who embody why we bother to do the job at all. He wants holy listeners who care about the effect of what they do on everybody else. Imagine a world that was run by holy listeners.
CHAPTER 2. QUALITIES OF THE PRIORESS - Continued
Jan. 13 - May 14 - Sept. 13
In her teaching, the prioress should always observe the apostle's recommendation, in which is said: "Use argument, appeal, reproof (2 Tm. 4:2)." This means that she must vary with circumstances, threatening and coaxing by turns, at times stern, at times devoted and tender. With the undisciplined and restless, she will use firm argument; with the obedient and docile and patient, she will appeal for greater virtue; but as for the negligent and disdainful, we charge her to use reproof and rebuke. The prioress should not gloss over the sin of those who err, but cut them out while she can, as soon as they begin to sprout, remembering the fate of Eli, priest of Shiloh (Sam. 2:11-4:18). For the upright and perceptive, the first and second warnings should be verbal; but those who are evil or stubborn, arrogant or disobedient, can be curbed only by blows or some other physical punishment at the first offense. It is written, "The fool cannot be corrected with words (Prv. 29:19);" and again, "Strike your children with a rod and you will free their souls from death (Prv. 23:14)."
Benedictine authority is expected to have meaning. It is to be anchored in the needs and personality of the other person. For the prioress or abbot or parent or supervisor, it is an exhausting task to treat every individual in their care as an individual but nothing else is worth their time.
CHAPTER 2. QUALITIES OF THE PRIORESS - Continued
Jan. 14 - May 15 - Sept. 14
The prioress must always remember what she is and remember what she is called, aware that more will be expected of one to whom more has been entrusted. She must know what a difficult and demanding burden she has undertaken: directing souls and serving a variety of temperaments, coaxing, reproving and encouraging them as appropriate. She must so accommodate and adapt herself to each one's character and intelligence that she will not only keep the flock entrusted to her care from dwindling, but will rejoice in the increase of a good flock.
We must each strive for the ideal and we must encourage others to strive with us, not because we ourselves are not weak but because knowing our own weaknesses and admitting them we can with great confidence teach trust in the God who watches with patience our puny efforts and our foolish failures.
CHAPTER 2. QUALITIES OF THE PRIORESS - Continued
Jan. 15 - May 16 - Sept. 15
Above all, the prioress must not show too great a concern for the fleeting and temporal things of this world, neglecting or treating lightly the welfare of those entrusted to her. Rather, she should keep in mind that she has undertaken the care of souls for whom she must give an account. That she may not plead lack of resources as an excuse, she is to remember what is written: "Seek first the reign and justice of God, and all these things will be given you as well (Mt. 6:33)," and again, "Those who revere God lack nothing (Ps. 34:10)."
The prioress must know that anyone undertaking the charge of souls must be ready to account for them. Whatever the number of members she has in her care, let her realize that on Judgment Day she will surely have to submit a reckoning to God for all their souls - and indeed for her own as well. In this way, while always fearful of the future examination of the shepherd about the sheep entrusted to her and careful about the state of others' accounts, the prioress becomes concerned also about her own, and while helping others to amend by her warnings; she achieves the amendment of her own faults.
Benedict's leaders are to birth souls of steel and light; they are to lead the group but not drive it; they are to live the life they lead; they are to love indiscriminately; they are to favor the good, not to favor the favorites; they are to call the community to the height and depth and breadth of the spiritual life; they are to remember and rejoice in their own weaknesses in order to deal tenderly with the weaknesses of others; they are to attend more to the spiritual than to the physical aspects of community life; and, finally, they are to save their own souls in the process, to be human beings themselves, to grow in life themselves.
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