Chapter 5: Monastic obedience (paragraphs 4)
If obedience is given with a bad will and murmuring not only in words but even bitterness of heart then even though the command may be externally fulfilled it will not be accepted by God for he can see the resistance in the heart of the murmurer. (From para. 4 of Ch. 5 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
There is a note in my translation of the Rule which reads: "For individuals [murmuring] becomes increasingly addictive and they develop a corresponding blindness to the harm they are doing to themselves and others." This is a challenge which pulls me up short. At each moment is my heart open to the spirit of love and its consequences for the community, or is my heart closed in a spirit of selfishness, and its consequences for the community?
“But we are transfigured. We burn with a light brighter than ourselves and, however dark the world may be, this light cannot be extinguished.” (John Main,”Monastery Without Walls” Kindle loc 4007). The root of “obedience” is the Latin “audire”, “to hear”. For a few months we are visiting our son and his family in their home here in Texas. Abba, help me to hear you calling, speaking to me through everyone I meet today in our family “village”, including my six year- and my nine month-old sometimes demanding grandsons.
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