Chapter 65: The prior or prioress of the monastery (paragraph 1)
There have been instances when some of these officials have conceived out of an evil spirit of self-importance that they also are superiors and for that reasons have assumed the powers of a tyrant, so that they encourage scandalous divisions in the community. (From para. 1 of Ch. 65 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
St. Benedict teaches me that self-importance is a tyrant that ruins both inner and outer harmony. Self-importance, it seems to me, is the opposite of true self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is experiencing my relation to my divine source, and so discovering my true purpose. This is what I must bring to a community to do it no harm.
Benedict talks here about tough love. Staying on the “same page” takes hard work, often extremely tough love, as partners in any successful marriage or authorities in any peaceful monastic community well know.
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