Benedict begins the fifth chapter with another challenging maxim, “The first step of humility is unhesitating obedience…”[1] Obedience to leaders may be as controversial as suggesting tools of for good works. However, just as Jesus teaches that favor is discovered through the path of humility, Benedict offers that humility is gained through obedience.[2] Both Jesus and Benedict speak only of the response to authority. They address an attitude of submission to others. Benedict goes on to write that obedience “comes naturally to those who cherish Christ above all.”[3]
We may cautiously approach obedience to others with just suspicion. After all, the flesh is weak and human leaders are as subject to failure as followers. Obedience to God is imperative, but obedience to human leaders seems filled with risks and dangers. Still, we read of Christ giving authority to His apostles saying, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”[4] St. Paul also compelled the Corinthian Church to, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”[5]
Benedict described the servant heart of the leader in Chapter 2, suggesting that all are under authority. Each of us, submitting to the authority of leaders become extensions of their will as they are extensions of Christ. Obedience is willing and ungrudgingly given. It is a matter of calling in the truest meaning of the Greek word καλέω, which implies surrendering my personal desire in order to fulfill the desire of the one who called me. Just as Jesus called His disciples during His earthly ministry, they left everything else unfinished and followed Him. The essence of the motivating force behind such obedience is love. Sr. Joan Chittister quotes from this chapter, “It is love that impels them to pursue everlasting life…”[6] She continues to observe that two ideas are threaded throughout The Rule: love and wisdom. She writes,
Love is the motive; wisdom is the goal and the Way. Two great loves, love of God and lover of the other, impel us to look outside ourselves and learn from those outside ourselves where we really are in life. When we love something besides ourselves and when we listen to someone besides ourselves we have glimmers of growth to guide us.[7]
As a measure of obedience, Benedict concludes this chapter by distinguishing genuine obedience that in-forms the spirit of the follower from mere compliance that hold seeds of begrudging discontent. Cheerful and natural obedience is loved by God. Grumbling finds no reward. May we obediently follow godly leaders who follow godly leaders who follow Christ. AMEN.
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[1] The Rule of St. Benedict in English, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1982. pg. 29.
[2] The Holy Bible, Luke 14:11, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
[3] The Rule of St. Benedict in English, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1982. pg. 29.
[4] The Holy Bible, Matthew 16:19.
[5] _____, 1 Corinthians 11:1.
[6] Chittister, Joan, A Spirituality for the 21st Century, New York, NY: Crossroads, 2016. pg. 69.
[7] _____, pg. 69-70.
