THE RULE AND THE ABBOT
Brian Wangler, OSB
Talk One
Several years ago a Harvard student in his graduation speech said: “Among my classmates, however, I believe there is one idea, one sentiment, which we have all acquired at some point of our Harvard careers; and that , ladies and gentlemen, is, in a word, confusion”. That graduate went on and said: “They tell us that it is heresy to suggest the superiority of some value, fantasy to believe in moral judgment, slavery to submit to a judgment sounder than your own. The freedom of our day is the freedom to devote ourselves to any values we please, on the mere condition that we do not believe them to be true” (The Good Society, p. 49).
The cultural wars going on in our midst have been commented on by many in our society. These so called wars are disagreements over values and rules. People from all walks of life believe that many of the values and rules dominant in our society today are destructive and evil. Values leading to abortion, living together and having children without marriage, individualism, euthanasia, excessive self-aggrandizement are considered by many as destructive and a source of social disintegration. Many think that the lack of objective moral norms causes some people to have a sense of being lost, rootless and open to whatever cults or interests come their way. Other people believe the opposite or something in-between.
We modern people think of ourselves as free people. But free for what? We can come and go as we please. If we want to live in the south, north, east or west we may do so without asking the permission of anyone. We can believe in God or not believe. We can make God the center of our life or make someone or something else the center. We can be part of the political process or remain on the outside. We tend to think of ourselves as choosing the rules we live by. We are individualistic, setting our own path. We think that freedom of choice constitutes true freedom.
But there are people in our midst, monks for example, who think and live differently. Monks “serve under a rule and an abbot” (RB 1:2). Is the choice to serve under “a rule and an abbot” something totally distinctive to monastic life, or can it offer insights into life in general? In dealing with this question we soon find that we are dealing with the difficult area of rules and authority. Just the mention of the word under should give us notice. Monks freely place themselves under a rule and an abbot when the wisdom of the world says “do it my way”. To this the monk says NO. “I will live my life not my way but the rule’s way and the abbot’s way”. We should note how radical this is.
Most monks in the western world follow the Rule of St. Benedict which is over 1400 years old. Why keep a rule so old? What does it have to offer? Before addressing that question we have to inquire why rules are necessary for us human beings. In the first four talks I will speak to the idea that rules help us live as God intended. I will reflect on authority as it exists in rules, including the Rule of St. Benedict. In the fifth talk I will address authority as it exists in a living person, the abbot.
WHY DO WE NEED RULES
When God issued the warning to Noah about the coming flood, the Book of Genesis records these awful words as coming from the mouth of God: “I have decided to put an end to all mortals on earth; the earth is full of lawlessness because of them” (Gen 6:13). God had noticed that “no desire his [man’s] heart conceived was ever anything but evil” (Gen 6:5). It is noteworthy that even after the flood Scripture has God observe that “the desires of man’s heart are evil from the start” (Gen 8:21).
Even with these statements from Scripture, the Catholic Church understands that the human heart is not totally evil. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that “human nature has not been totally corrupted” (#405). It also says that even after Original Sin humanity “still desired the good” but is “inclined to evil and subject to error” (#1707). Humanity still wants God; still desires what is good but is so weak and disordered interiorly that evil and error are often mistaken for the good. Ernesto Cardenal expressed well this mystery in the human person of desiring the good but often choosing the evil in his book To Live Is to Love . He says that every human being has a desire that cannot be satisfied in this world. This desire is seen
in the eyes of people of all races, in the looks of children and of old men, of mothers and of women in love, of policemen, or wage earners, adventurers, assassins, revolutionaries, dictators and saints there is the same spark of insatiable desire, infinite longing for happiness and joy and a never-ending possession of the ultimate end and aim of all striving (p. 24).
The end of all our striving is God’s love.
It is because of that love that all crimes are committed, that all wars are fought, that all men love and hate one another. Because of this love people climb mountains and descend to the ocean floor. And because of this love people lord it over one another, conspire against one another, instruct and edify one another, write, sing, weep and love. Every human act, even sin, is a search for God. However, we often seek Him where he cannot be found. This is why St. Augustine wrote: ‘Go on seeking what you are after, but seek it elsewhere’. For what one seeks in revelry, in festivities, in travels, in movies and bars, is nothing less than that God who can be found only in our interiority (p. 25).
This is the Catholic understanding of the human person. We want the highest good, but too often fall for the lowest evil because it seems good. We are seduced by many things and sometimes end up choosing the most awful of evils. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World by Vatican II says there is a dichotomy in the human person. The Council states that the “world is at once powerful and weak, capable of doing what is noble and what is base, disposed to freedom and slavery, progress and decline, brotherhood and hatred” (#9). This dichotomy affecting the world is a symptom of a dichotomy in the human person. The Council goes on to say that a person “is the meeting point of many conflicting forces. In his [the human person’s] condition as a created being he is subject to a thousand shortcomings, but feels untrammeled in his inclinations and destined for a higher form of life” (#10). Humanity finds itself still desiring the good but is “wounded by sin. We find by experience that our body is in revolt. Our very dignity therefore requires that we should glorify God in our body (1 Cor 6:13-20), and not allow it to serve the evil inclinations of our heart” (#14). Jesus says that “from within people, from their hearts come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, murder, arrogance, folly” (Mk 8:21-22).
What is clear is that the person is caught between good and evil. St. Paul says: “For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want” (Romans 7:19). We want the good but often find it is difficult to discern the good in many situations. We need rules. God has given us commandments that are guides to keep us on the road of love. The words from the book of Genesis that the heart of each person is evil should give us pause. It should keep us from the simplistic notion that we should do whatever we want. It should remind us that our desires need to be questioned and tested. The commandments do not save us, but they keep us from fooling ourselves as to what faith and the obedience of faith really are. Based on a mature distrust of their own motives and judgments, monks place themselves under a rule and an abbot. It is these two realities that monks choose to help them uncover the obstacles in their heart as they travel the road of faith and love leading to union with God.
In Scripture we have seemingly two opposites: On the one hand there is:
· “The desires of man’s heart are evil from the start” Genesis 8:21
But on the other hand there are the following:
· “Whoever listens to you listens to me” (Luke 10:16)
· “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14)
· “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13)
· “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15)
· We are the adopted children of God, part of God’s household, the church, which is the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Timothy 3:15)
The journey from “the desires of man’s heart are evil from the start” to being God’s spokesperson – “whoever listens to you listens to me” – is quite a journey. The monk travels that road by placing himself under the dual disciplines of a rule and an abbot.
For all who commit themselves to monastic discipline can say with the words of St. Benedict: “As we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love” (RB Prog 49).