Rule of Benedict 49
April 7, 2010
Chapter seven is the longest chapter so far in the Rule of Saint Benedict. Today we look at verse 34. The divisions of the chapters I have been following come from a book I’ve referred to periodically called Preferring Christ by Norvene Vest and the translation of the Rule itself is done by Fr. Luke Dysinger, OSB (Order of Saint Benedict).
7:34 says: The third step of humility is that for the love of God a person submits himself to his superior in all obedience; imitating the Lord, of whom the apostle says: He was made obedient even to death (Phil 2:8).
Benedict here is direct as he has been all along. He has advocated that to live by the Rule around which a group may gather means to have a humble spirit. The first step in the ladder toward humility (the Ladder of Humility is attributed to Cassian from whom it is believed that Benedict borrowed it):
A person always keeps the fear of God before his eyes. We tend toward self-exaltation. Keeping our lives in the fear of the Lord moves us in the direction of humility.
The second step is not to love our own will (or kingdoms or actions). humility demands that we do not gratify the desires of the flesh but to trust in the Lord’s will and to live in a kingdom of his making, submitting to its actions and rules.
The third step, in verse 34 quoted above is to learn obedience to someone further along the Road less traveled. That’s what Benedict means by superior.
Comment: The third step on the Humility Ladder is hard to do. In the Christian tradition in which I live and work, we prize the individual’s right to live out her call as an individual. Often the way this works out borders on individualism, a plight seen in the Dream of many in the West. I am the captain of my ship, the master of my own destiny. Letting someone else direct my life, to whom I am responsible for the choices I make (beside God, that is) is not part of my tradition. Yet I see the benefit of humbly submitting to someone who is further along the Way.
Humility must move from the inward aspects of our lives (pride, fear of God, desiring the will of God) to outward expressions such as surrendering to the direction of another person of God’s choosing who may input into my life, and may encourage further obedience along the journey of faith in God.
Prayer: Dear God, help me to be willing, as I listen to those who are further along the life everlasting, to be obedient to the unmistaken voice of God. Help me to be humble and search out someone who may listen to your movement in my life and to do as he advises. Lord, have mercy, and guide me, and enable me to be obedient to those who have known true obedience through humility.
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