XII. Bonum obedientiae

Summary. — Obedience is the practical expression of humility in the monk. — I. Christ brings humanity back to the Father by His obedience ; every Christian must be united to this obedience in order to attain to God. — II. For the monk, too, obedience is the path that leads to God. — III. The high concept that St. Benedict has of this virtue. — IV. Why he calls it a " good " : Bonum obedientiae. — V. How this virtue constitutes for the monk an ineffable means of acquiring perfection. — VI. Principal qualities that St. Benedict requires in the exercise of this virtue : faith. — VII. Alieno judicio ambalare. Fruitfulness and greatness of obedience guided by faith. — VIII. Obedience should be sustained by hope. — IX. St. Benedict desires that above all it proceed from love. — X. Different deviations from this virtue ; why St. Benedict is so strongly opposed to murmuring. — XI. The vigilance we must have in order to live perfectly according to this virtue.

The foundation of spiritual life is, as we have seen accor¬ ding to St. Benedict and St. Thomas, constituted in some way by humility, this virtue being the preliminary and necessary disposition for the state of perfect charity to be established in the soul : mox ad caritatem Dei perveniet illam quae perfecta [est\ 2.

But, as our Holy Father has shown, the practical expression of humility, with the monk, is obedience. Indeed, when the soul is full of reverence towards God, it submits itself to God and to those who represent Him, in order to do His will in all things : Humilitas proprie respicit reverentiam qua homo Deo subjicitur... propter quern etiam aliis humiliando se subjicit. Now this is obedience. This virtue is the fruit and crown of humility. Obedience, said the Eternal Father to St. Catherine of Siena, in one of the dialogues He vouchsaf¬ ed to have with her “ has a nurse who feeds her, that is true i. Rule, ch. lxxi. — 2. Ibid. ch. vii. — 3. S. Thom. 11-11, q. clxi, a. 3 ; a. 1 ad 5. — 4. “ The consideration of God’s perfections is inseparable from that of His rights. Now is it not just that if God exercises His rights by enacting laws, man should respond to them by an active submission ? Obedience will be born of humility as its eldest daughter, inclining us to submit ourselves not only to God, but to superiors and events, because in them we shall see reflected the perfections and absolute rights of the Creator. " D. Lottin, L'dme du Culte, la vertu de religion, p. 44. humility. Therefore a soul is obedient in proportion to her humility, and humble in proportion to her obedience... Without this nurse (which is humility) obedience would perish of hunger, for obedience soon dies in a soul deprived of this little virtue of humility .”

This obedience completes the work of abolishing any obstacles yet opposed to divine union. Poverty has removed the danger accruing from exterior belongings ; the “ con¬ version of manners ” represses the tendencies of concupiscence and is careful to eliminate, in a general manner, all that, properly speaking, is imperfection ; humility, going still further to the root of the matter, refrains all inordinate self-esteem. What yet remains to be overcome ? Self-will. That is the citadel of the “ego.” But once this will is surrendered, and it surrenders by obedience, all is given. The soul has nothing more belonging to it, nothing that it any longer possesses as its own ; God can henceforward exercise His action over it in all plenitude : there are no more obstacles opposed to His Divine action.

3y perfect obedience, man lives in the truth of his being and of his condition : that is why this virtue is so fundamental and so pleasing to God. God, Who is the plenitude of Being, Who has no need of anyone or anything, created man freely and by a movement of love. From this primordial fact, the essential relations between ourselves and God are derived ; a creature is something essentially dependent upon God :

“ In Him we live, and move, and are ” : In ipso vivimus, et movemur et sumus. Hence it would be going against the eternal law not to recognise this condition by our entire dependence in regard to God. What is the cry that should burst forth from the very depths of our being as creatures ? Venite, adoremus: Come, let us adore the Lord ! ” And why ?

“ For He is the Lord our God ” : and He has made us : Est Dominus Deus noster 3. As reasonable creatures we ought to express our dependence by adoration and the submission of obedience. We see God requiring this obedience throughout the history of the human race, at each page of the Bible. The great saints of the Old Testament shine in obedience ; we hear them ever renewing the cry repeated by Abraham, the father of believers : Ad sum 4. “ Here I am ! " Christ’s coming upon earth renders us the children of God ; hence¬ forward our obedience has taken a new shade of meaning, a new character : it is an obedience full of love ; but this special seal placed upon our obedience, while giving it a special splendour, takes away nothing of its fundamental character which links it to humility and imbues it with re¬ verence and religion.¹

If obedience is infinitely pleasing to God it is no less beneficial to the soul. God reigns as Master and Sovereign in the obedient soul, but as a Sovereign Who is infinitely good and lavishes His gifts and graces upon it.

Obedience is named in the last place in the formula of our monastic profession ; in our Vows it occupies supreme rank. Let us then study its source — its nature — the qualities it ought to have — and from what deviations it must be preserved.

I

The principle that makes obedience so necessary for us as monks is that this virtue resumes in itself the means of finding God. Why have we come to the monastery ? What is our object in living here ? There is but one : to seek God, to tend towards Him with all the energies of our being. But as we have often remarked, it is by following Christ Jesus that we find God, for it is He alone who brings humanity back to God : Ego sum via ; nemo venit ad Pattern nisi per Me. And how does Christ achieve this gigantic work ? By His obedience.

He declares that He has not come to do His own will but that of His Father Who sent Him 2 ; obedience is as it were His daily bread : Mens cibus est ul faciam voluntatem eius qui misit me 3. During thirty years He obeys two crea¬ tures, Mary and Joseph: Et erat subditus illis 4. Despite the transcendency of His Divinity, although He is the supreme Lawgiver and could have dispensed from His own laws. He will fulfil them even to the least detail : Iota unum aut unus apex non praeteribit a lege, donee omnia fiant. We see Him seeking above all things to do always, under every circumstance, what pleases His Father : Quae placita sunt ei facio semper B He accepts the Passion because it expresses His Father’s will : Sicut mandatum dedit mihi Pater sic facio 7.

And see how this obedience especially shines out in His sufferings. During that terrible three hours' agony, all the sensitive part of His being shrinks from the bitter chalice :²

“ Father if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from Me ” : Pater, si vis, transfer calicem istum a me; but His reasonable will remains submissive to the Divine decree : “ Yet not My will, but Thine be done ” : V erumtamen non mea voluntas, — sed tua fiat. He is presently arrested as a malefactor; he could deliver Himself from His enemies who at a single word from Him are thrown to the ground ; He could, if He so willed, ask His Father Who would have given Him “ more than twelve legions of Angels, " but He desires only that His Father’s will, as manifested by the Scriptures, shall be fulfilled to the letter: Sed ut adimpleantur Scripturae 2, and therefore He gives Himself up to His mortal foes. He obeys Pilate because, although a pagan, the Roman gover¬ nor represents the authority from above. He obeys His executioners ; at the moment of expiring, in order to fulfil a prophecy. He cries out : “ I thirst : ” Postea, sciens Jesus quia omnia consummata sunt, ut consummaretur Scriptura dixit : Sitio 4. He does not die until all has been consummat¬ ed by a perfect obedience : Dixit : consummatum est, et inclinato capite, tradidit spiritum 5. The Consummatum est is the most true and adequate expression of His whole life of obedience. It echoes the Ecce venio of the moment of His Incarnation.

Now, says the Apostle, as it was through Adam’s disobe¬ dience that we became sinners and the enemies of God, so it was through this obedience of Christ that we are justified and saved. A great disobedience and a great obedience are the two factors of the loss and salvation of the human race. This is the explicit teaching of St. Paul: sicut per inobedientiam unius hominis peccatores constituti sunt multi, ITA et per unius obeditionem, justi constituentur multi*.

This obedience of Christ is the means preordained by God for saving the world and restoring to it the heavenly inhe¬ ritance ; it was an expiation for the disobedience of Adam, our first father ; and we go to God by uniting our obedience to that of Christ Jesus, become the Head of our race. All Adam’s miseries have fallen upon us because we had soli¬ darity in his sin ; we have a share in all the blessings that overflow from the holy soul of Christ Jesus when we share in His obedience. All the economy of God’s designs for our sanctification converge for us in a state of obedience. When the Father sent His Son upon earth, what did He say to the Jews ? “ This is My beloved Son. Hear ye Him. ”³

Ipsum audite. As much as to say to them : Do what My Son bids you ; obey Him : that is all I ask in order to give you My friendship.

Now that Christ has left us and ascended into Heaven, He has given His powers to the Church : Data est mihi omnis -potestas in caelo et in terra ; euntes ergo docete omncs gentes servare omnia quaecumque mandavi vobis 2. " All power has been given Me by My Father ; go then in virtue of this power that I delegate to you, teach all nations to keep My commandments. He who hears you, hears Me ; he who despises you despises Me. "

The Church is invested with the authority of Jesus Christ ; she speaks and commands in Our Lord’s name ; and the essence of Catholicism consists in the submission of the intellect to Christ’s teaching transmitted by the Church, and in the submission of the will to Christ’s authority exercis¬ ed by the Church.

It is in this that the difference lies between Protestants and Catholics. This difference indeed is not measured by the greater or lesser sum of revealed truths admitted by one or the other ; certain Protestants accept materially nearly all our dogmas, and yet they remain Protestants to the marrow of their bones. The difference is much deeper and more radical. It practically lies in the attitude of depen¬ dence, of obedience of the intellect and of the will in regard to the living authority of the Church which teaches and governs in the name of Christ the Son of God. The Catholic accepts the Church’s dogma and regulates his conduct ac¬ cording to this dogma because he sees in the Church, and her head the Sovereign Pontiff, another Christ. The Pro¬ testant admits such or such a truth because he discovers it — or imagines himself to do so — by his personal lights. Claiming the right of private interpretation and reading the Bible according to his reason alone, he takes or leaves what he will : each one then, keeping his faculty of choosing, is his own sovereign pontiff. The Protestant admits, the Ca¬ tholic believes. As soon as the Church speaks, the Catholic submits in all obedience as to Christ Himself.

Recall the scene in the Gospel described by St. John in his 6th chapter. Jesus speaks to the multitude of people whom He had miraculously fed on the previous day. He announces to them the Eucharistic Bread : Ego sum panis vivus : “ I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live f/jr ever. ” At these words. His listeners are divided into two groups. The one begins to reason : these are the Pro¬ testants : quomodo ? “ How can this man give us His flesh to eat ? ” Now how does Jesus act in the face of this reason¬ ing ? Does He give any explanation ? No, He contents Himself with affirming what He has just said with more insistency. Amen, amen, dico vobis. "Amen, Amen, Isay unto you : Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, you shall have not life in you. " Then no longer finding this “ reasonable, ” Durus est hie sermo et quis potest eum audire, they leave Christ : Jam non cum illo ambulabant. But there is another group formed of the Apostles. In these same circumstances what is their atti¬ tude ? Do these disciples understand any better ? No, but having faith in Christ's word, they remain with Him to follow in His steps throughout all : Domine, ad quern ibimus? verba vitae aeternae habes.⁴

Such is the attitude that procures salvation : to listen to Christ, to listen to the Church, to accept her doctrine and submit oneself to what she directs : who despises her, despises Christ. This is why Protestants do not belong to Christ’s flock 2 ; these sheep obey themselves, they follow their own personal caprices, and do not hear the Shepherd's voice.

Thus Christ does not> recognise them : Non estis ex ovibus meis 3.

Obedience of intellect and will is then the way of life for every Christian, for every soul: Qui vos audit, me audit*, qui sequitur me, non ambulat in tenebris, sed habebit lumen vitae*. We are the children of the Heavenly Father only on condition of hearing His Son Jesus ; and, here on earth, we obey Christ in the person of the Church ; this is the supernatural economy instituted by God Himself ; apart from this way of obedience in the faith, there is no salvation possible. "No one, " said the Father to St. Catherine of Siena, " can enter into eternal life unless he be obedient ; for obedience was the key with which was unlocked the door which had been fastened by the disobedience of Adam 6. "

II

What is true of the Christian is, a fortiori, true of the monk. Christ Jesus brings humanity back to His Father by His obedience ; every one must unite himself to Christ in His obedience in order to find God. Neither in this, as in anything else, does Christ separate Himself from His Mystical Body ; the Christian must take his share in obedience and accept it in union with his Divine Head.⁵

Our holy Legislator teaches no other doctrine than that of Christ and St. Paul. His words on this point are but the direct echo of the Gospel and the teaching of the great Apostle. At the very beginning of the Prologue he points out to us what is to be our end : “ To return to God. ” Immediately afterwards he indicates the means : we must return to God by obedience since it was by the sloth of dis¬ obedience that we turned away from Him. “To thee therefore, ” he adds, “ my words are now addressed that renouncing thine own will in order to fight for the Lord Christ, our true King, dost take in hand the strong and bright weapon of obedience. ” St. Benedict knows but one way of leading us to God : this is by union with Jesus Christ in His obedience : “ Let the brethren know that it is by the path of obedience they shall come to God ” : Scientes per hanc obedientiae viam se ituros ad Deum x.

This obedience certainly, first of all, has for its object the natural law and the strictly Christian law. We are only monks if we are first honest men and perfect Christians. The monk submits himself to Christ in the person of the Church as does the simple Christian. But he goes further. The obedience of the Christian while imposing certain sacri¬ fices upon human nature, and certain duties to be fulfilled, leaves intact the free disposition that the individual has over his fortune, business, time and activity. Simply Christian obedience is limited to the precepts contained in the Decalogue, and the commandments of the Church, which are themselves completed by each one’s duties of state. God asks nothing more in order to give His heaven : Si vis ad vitam ingredi, serva mandata 2.

But there are souls whom love constrains to follow Christ more closely, Qui nihil sibi a Christo carius aliquid exislimant 3, that they may share His life of obedience more intimately. These souls hear the counsel of Jesus. “ If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast; ...and come follow Me ” : Veni, sequere Me*. These souls have been more enlightened from above upon the Divine attributes, upon the greatness of a life of perfection, upon the sublimity of a complete imitation of Christ Jesus. “ For love of God, " -pro Dei amore l, to give God greater glory, they seek a more exacting obedience than is imposed upon the simple faithful. An infallible supernatural intuition has revealed to them that it is more just, and they thereby give more adoration and more love to God.⁶

By his profession, the monk strives to submit all that is in him to Christ ; he does not wish anything to subsist that can be an obstacle to union between him and Christ ; he wants to surrender to Him his whole being and every detail of his life, because his adoration and his love aim at being perfect. As long as we hold the citadel of self-wall we have not surrendered everything to God ; we cannot say to our Lord in all truth : “ Behold we have left all things and have follow¬ ed Thee 2. ” When we give ourselves by obedience we ac¬ complish a supreme act of adoration and love towards God. Indeed there is one thing that is sacred to us even in God’s sight. God touches our goods, the beings dear to us, our health, our existence ; He is the absolute Master of life and death ; but there is one thing that He respects, namely, our liberty. He desires, with infinite desire, to communicate Himself to us, and yet the action of His grace is, if I may thus express myself, subordinate to our acquiescence : that is, in a very real sense, our liberty is sovereign. Now, in religious profession, we come before the altar, we take precisely what is most precious to us and out of love for God, in order the better to confess His omnipotence, we im¬ molate to Him, in union with Christ, this “ Isaac " this darling of our heart which is our liberty, and we give God full domain over our whole being and activity. Failing martyrdom which is not at our disposal, we immolate our¬ selves as far as it depends upon us, by the vow of obedience.

The sacrifice is immense ; it is besides extremely pleasing to God. “ To leave the world and give up exterior posses¬ sions, ” says that great monk, St. Gregory, “ is perhaps some¬ thing still easy ; but for a man to give up himself, to immolate what is most precious to him by surrendering his entire liberty is a much more arduous work : to forsake what one has is a small thing ; to forsake what one is, that is the supreme gift. ” 8 Without this gift, the sacrifice is not entire. “ He

1. Rule, ch. vii. — 2. Matth. xix, 27. — 3. Et forlasse laboriosum non est hornini relinquere sua, sel valde laboriosum est relinquere semetipsum. Minus quippe est abnegate quod habet; valde autem multum est abnegate quod est. Homil. 32 in Evang. P. L. 76, 12,3. Cf. St Mechtilde, The Book of Special Grace, 4th part, ch. xviii. How our Lord clasps in His arms those who vow obedience.

CSirlft, Um Ue&l of the Monk. is not detached from all, ” said another holy monk, w who still retains himself ; moreover, it serves for nothing to relin¬ quish every thing unless he relinquish himself ” : Non enim relinquit omnia qni retinuit vel seipsum; imo vero nihil prodest sine seipso caetera reliquisse.

III

It is to be remarked that the gift we thus make of ourselves on the day of our profession subjects us to a definite obe¬ dience ; we vow obedience “ according to the Rule of St. Be¬ nedict " : Promitto... obedientiam secundum Regulam S. P. N. Benedicti 2. Consequently, we must well understand the holy Patriarch’s concept of reiigious obedience. For there is obe¬ dience and obedience ; and as this virtue is one of the prin¬ ciples of our life, if the idea we form of it is erroneous, all our monastic existence will be falsified. There is an erro¬ neous conception of obedience which no religious soul could accept. This conception makes of the superior a sage, an expert whom one has promised to consult, and to whom one goes out of prudence to learn what has to be done, and in order to avoid errors and mistakes. What the superior says is worth just what he knows, neither more nor less ; his personal knowledge gives all the weight to his replies. This manner of seeing things, essentially rationalistic, would suit the spirit of Protestantism ; the idea of submission, of homage paid to God in the person of a man is totally absent. The mere fact of mentioning this conception is sufficient to condemn it.

Neither could the Catholic sense of what is right be satisfied with a merely outward obedience, such as is sufficient in the army. Although in each particular case, the immediate object of obedience is exterior and the intention is not seen by the superior, yet perfection demands that the monk should animate the exercise of his obedience by interior submission 3.

In religious obedience itself, such as it is conceived by Holy Church, there are different modes to be distinguished. Of cause it is not here a question of criticising any one or anything whatsoever : all the religious orders approved by the Church procure God’s glory and are pleasing to Him ; our intention is only to lay stress, by way of comparison, on what is special in Benedictine obedience. In some in¬ stitutes, obedience is strongly marked with an economic character. Without ceasing to be the object of a vow and of a virtue, it is a means for arriving at a particular, special end, fixed by the constitutions of the said institutes. Thus such an Order or Congregation has for its special end the evangelising of the heathen, another teaching, a third preach¬ ing. Obedience concurs in carrying out the particular work to which these iastitutes are dedicated. Those who belong to these Orders and submit themselves generously to this obedience for love of our Lord surely attain holiness, because*, for them, it is the vocation to which Christ has called them.⁷

With St. Benedict, obedience has not this “ economic ” character. It is to be desired in itself as the soul’s homage to God, independently of the nature of the material work which is its object. Let us suppose that the postulant in presenting himself at the monastery puts this question to the Abbot : “ What do you do here ? ” He will be told : “ We go to God by following Christ in obedience. ” That is the sole end pursued. Such is certainly the teaching of our Holy Father, from the first lines of the Prologue which we have recalled. To seek after God, Si revera Deum quaeril, that is the characteristic of the Benedictine vocation. St. Benedict only writes his Rule for those who seek obedience that they may find God : Ad te ergo nunc tnihi sermo dirigitur quisquis abrcnuntians propriis voluntatibus... obedientiae... arma sumis 2.

. In instituting monasticism, the great Patriarch did not intend to create an Order exclusively destined to attain such or such a particular end, or to accomplish such or such a special work. He wished only to make perfect Christians of his monks and envisaged for them the plenitude of Christia¬ nity. Doubtless, as we have seen, it has befallen that in the course of ages, monasteries have become centres of civilisa¬ tion, by preaching, the clearing and cultivation of land, teaching, art, literary work, but this was but the outward blossoming, the natural and normal outcome of the fulness of Christianity with which these monasteries were inwardly animated. Being vowed to God, the monks spent them¬ selves in the service of the Church, and under every form that this service demanded. But what they sought before all, was to give to God, for love of Him, the homage of all their being in obedience to an Abbot, as Christ, in coming into this world, only sought His Father’s will, leaving to His Father the determination of this will : Ecce venio : ut faciam Deus voluntatem tuam 3.⁸

How is this will determined for the monk ? By the Rule and the Abbot. It is for the Abbot, inspired by the Rule and respecting its traditions, to fix the direction of the acti¬ vity of the monastery. Having, moreover, according to our Holy Father's saying, to govern the monastery “ wisely, " he will undoubtedly be watchful to see how he may utilise, for God’s glory and the benefit of the Church and society, the talents placed by God in each of his monks. But as for the monk himself, he has nothing to arrange or determine in all this : he does not come to the Abbey to give himself to one occupation rather than another, to discharge such or such a function that he finds suitable ; he comes to seek God in obedience. In this lies all his perfection.

IV

You may perhaps say : Is not this inconceivable nonsense ? Is it not folly to submit oneself entirely in this way ? Yes, from the merely human point of view it is folly, as monastic life taken as a whole is folly : Vitivm illorum aestimabamus insaniam 2.

But, replies St. Paul in his energetic language “ the sen¬ sual man, ” that is to say one who lets himself be guided by nothing but natural reason, “ perceive th not these things that are of the Spirit of God 3. " What is foolishness in the eyes of men is wisdom in the sight of God, and what is wisdom in the world’s sight is foolishness before the Lord. And it has pleased God to confound the wisdom of the world with works of divine folly. For the wise of this world, was it not a folly and a scandal — the Greek philosophers of St. Paul’s time already judged it to be so — for a God to have been made man in order to redeem mankind and for thirty years to have lived a life of obedience in an obscure workshop, and have then consecrated three years to the labour of preaching before dying upon a cross ? This was, however, the means chosen out of all others, by God, Eternal Wisdom, for the salvation of the human race. And this loving obe¬ dience which was the mainspring of this life — a life which closed as it had opened wdth a cry of obedience — had as its object an existence full of toil, of deep humiliation, and a death surrounded with indescribable sufferings. But it wras by this that the world was redeemed ; it is still thanks to this that the world continues to be saved, that souls i. Cf. D. G. Morin, The Ideal of the Monastic Life. Ch. n, Obedience. — return to God and are sanctified. God derives His glory from our submission to the Crucified ; and it is by means of this submission that He gives us His grace : Scientes per hanc obedienliae viam se ituros ad Deum.⁹

We can therefore understand why our holy Lawgiver calls obedience ‘a good Bonam obedientiae. What a remark¬ able expression ! Does this mean we naturally like to obey ? No, quite the contrary ! Then why is obedience " a good, " a thing that we ought to seek and hunger after ? Because it is the path by which a God has passed, a path which leads us to beatitude. Obedience gives us God. When we do God’s will, we are united to God ; by obedience we embrace the Divine will ; this will is God manifesting Himself to us as Sovereign Master, received by us with adoration and love. And as we come to the monastery to seek God and obedience gives Him to us, it becomes for us a precious good, for it gains us the sole Good 2.

Thus our Holy Father strives, by his precepts or exhor¬ tations, to procure this good for us as abundantly as possible. He wishes us to go so far as “ to obey one another, ” that s of course, if the orders of superiors are not in question. He asks that the monk should obey even in undertaking what is “ hard and impossible 4. ” He reminds us that we are not authorised to do anything without the command of the Abbot or of those delegated by him 5 ; even good works and mortifications are of no worth for one who performs them unknown to the Abbot 6.

Why so much insistence ? Because the great Legislator is convinced that it is by the path of obedience we shall arrive at holiness. When the monk obeys in all things, for love of God and in union with Christ Jesus, Pro Dei amore, imitans Dominion 7, he reaches the summit of perfection ; for, as we have shown, there are no longer any obstacles opposed to the Divine action for a soul unreservedly given up to obedience ; this soul is entirely open to the influence of grace. God, Who is the Fountainhead of all holiness, can act within it according to the plenitude of His power. Christ reigns in it undisputedly. He is the Sovereign Master of all the life and activity of the soul. Then perfect union results, filled with divine communications : Dominus re git me et nihil mihi deerit.¹⁰

And where a spiritual good is concerned, of what consequence is it whether it is found in doing one action rather than another ? In the eyes of our holy Legislator, whether it be a question of a mission of confidence which places us in full view, or an obscure action known to God alone, what does it signify ? It is the matter upon which obedience is exteriorly exercised ; the essential is the virtue, the homage we pay to God by our submission. For — although there are evidently manifold degrees of intrinsic value among various actions, resulting from their very nature and their more or less direct relation with God’s glory, — as regards our personal perfection and our own advancement in the way of holiness, the merit of an action is measured, at the last analysis, by the degree of love wherein our obedience is enveloped. Look at our Divine Saviour. Were those thirty hidden years He spent at Nazareth less pleasing to His Father and less fruitful for the world’s salvation than the three years of His public life consecrated by preaching ? We should not dare to uphold such an opinion. It was in obedience to His Father that Our Lord willed to remain thus hidden so many years, and this obedience was the obedience of a God.

Proportionately it is the same for us, since Christ is our Model. True wisdom, that which is the gift of the Spirit, is to obey, to render to God the homage of our obedience, whatever be the material work which is the object of this obedience and whereby it is manifested. For this reason our Holy Father says that true monks, those illumined with divine light, are only ambitious for eternal things, the things which alone are real : Quibus ad vilam aeternam gradiendi amor incumbit. They “desire” — remark the word ; St. Benedict does not say : “ support, ” — obedience, as one seeks after a precious good that one may take pos¬ session of it. Abbatem sibi praeesse desiderant; they are upon the watch for occasions of obeying, and are thus enabled to give to God the most effectual pledge of their love.

V

Such is the lofty concept that St. Benedict forms of obe-

1. Rule, ch. v. — 2. Ibid. — 3. We at once see how obedience, as understood by St Benedict, is permeated with religion, and is, like humility, an eminently religious virtue. Cf. above p. 223. “ One who is truly obedient, " said the

Eternal Father to S* Catherine, “ ever retains the desire of submission ; continually and unremittingly, this desire is like an inward refrain ot music. ” Dialogue. dience. Now we have promised to follow his Rule that we may live according to his spirit. It is this view of the matter we must admit and put into practice in as far as we are able, because it is for us the path of perfection. In order to bring us to holiness, our Blessed Father does not require of us constantly repeated exercises whereby all our defects are attacked one by one, or great corporal macerations, or rigo¬ rous and continual mortifications ; no, in this respect he is very discreet and full of moderation : Nihil asfierum, nihil grave 1. St. Gregory remarks that his Rule is of “ admirable discretion.” But the holy Legislator has especially in view — and in this he goes as far as possible to the root of the matter — to despoil a man of all that is an obstacle within him to grace and the Divine action ; for this reason absolute detachment is required of him, by means of poverty and humility, the latter being chiefly manifested by perfect obedience. These virtues despoil the soul of all attachment to self and creatures, so that all liberty and plenitude may be left to the action of God. This is one of the salient charac¬ teristics of St. Benedict’s asceticism. Without underrating, as we have seen, the value of personal practices of mortifi¬ cation in setting us free from vices that we may go to God, he insists above all upon poverty, humility and chiefly upon obedience. Full submission to the Superior and to the Rule is for the monk the way that leads most surely to God, because a like humble and constant submission in all things, such as our Holy Father requires, closes every outlet to bad habits and opposes them till in the end they are destroyed. Perfect obedience is the most authentic means for the monk of purifying himself to the innermost depths of his being. A monk who obeys perfectly, in the spirit indicated by the

1. Prologue of the Rule. — 2. Dialog, lib. 11, c. xxxvi. — 3. " Although carefulness never to go to extremes and to take account of circumstances characterises the Holy Rule, nevertheless when S* Benedict dictates to monks their duty of obedience, he shows himself categorical and it would be in vain to seek for any compromise from him on this point. How far the regulations are to be tempered in special cases, S* Benedict leaves to the discernment of the Superior alone ; it is for the monk to obey and not to murmur... This categorical manner of conceiving obedience... brings us into touch with the cenobitical sense of S‘ Benedict’s asceticism. " D. I. Ryelandt, Essay on the character or the moral physiognomy of S‘ Benedict according to his Rule. See Revue liturgique et monastique, 1921, p. 203. “ Monastic obedience, such as is prescribed by the Rule of S‘ Benedict, penetrates to the deepest fibres of the soul and sets itself to destroy the very root of self-love and self-judgment : this appears to be indeed the maximum of psychological penetration. " D. M. Festugtere. See Revue Benedictine, 1912, p. 491. Thus it may be said that the concept of religious obedience has made no further progress as to the substance of the matter since S1 Benedict’s time. It is enough, in order to be convinced of this, to read the chapters v, vn (3rd and 4th degrees of humility), xxxm, lviii, lxviii, lxxi, etc. of the Rule.

Rule, will quickly arrive at complete freedom from every trammel which holds him back from God. At the same time, he advances in virtue which, becoming stronger, renders him more pliant under the Holy Spirit's action. Now was it not this we came to seek in the monastery ? In this way all the other virtues hence increase, and progress towards Divine union is assured.

Obedience is then for the monk the surest way to holiness. St. Teresa calls it “ the road that leads most rapidly to the summit of perfection ; ” “ the most prompt and also the most effectual means of arriving at perfection. ” When a man achieves the work of giving himself entirely by obedience, he receives the Infinite Good in an incomparable measure. This is what Christ Jesus said to that perfect nun who was so dear to Him — St. Gertrude. On the evening of Palm Sunday she was meditating on the reception given to Jesus by His friends at Bethany, whither He had withdrawn in the evening, and the desire burnt within her to offer hospita¬ lity to Him in her heart. Immediately Christ appeared to her : “ I am here, ” He said to the saint, " and what wilt thou give Me ? ” “ Welcome, Salvation of my soul, my one and only treasure, ” replied Gertrude ; “ alas ! I have pre¬ pared nothing that can befit Thy magnificence, but I offer Thee all my being, desiring that Thou wilt Thyself prepare in me what shall best please Thy Heart. ” " Since thou givest Me the liberty, ” Christ said, " I will take it ; but I need the key that My hand may find and may dispose of all that I wish. ” “ What is this key of which Thou hast need and that must be given to Thee ? ” the saint asked. “ It is thy self-will, ” replied our Lord 3. ” Hence the Saint understood that Christ finds His delight in a soul wholly yielded up to Him, and keeping nothing back : it is by perfect obedience that one gives to Christ the key that He demands. He then knows Himself to be the Master of this soul because He holds the citadel which is its liberty. He can do all

1. S* Mech tilde " one day saw a train of virtues personified by virgins standing before God. One among them, more beautiful than her sisters, held a golden cup into which the other virgins poured a fragrant wine which the first virgin offered, kneeling, to the Lord. Astonished at this sight, Sl Mechtilde was desirous of knowing its meaning when our Lord said to her : ‘ This virgin is obedience ; she alone gives Me to drink, for obedience contains within herself the riches of the other virtues : one who is truly obe¬ dient must necessarily possess the whole of these virtues ’ ”. Our Lord then enumerated the different virtues, showing how they are necessarily to be found in the perfectly obedient soul. The Book of Special Grace, Ist Part., ch. 35. — 2. Foundations, ch. 5. — 3. The Herald of Divine Love, Book IV, ch. xxiii. 4. God spoke in similar terms to S* Catherine of Siena : " I have made obedience the key of the whole edifice in very deed. " Life by Raymund of Capua. that He wills ; and as He desires nothing so much as our holiness, a soul thus given and who never takes back anything from this gift, is upon the most sure path of perfection.

You see how right our Holy Father is to insist so much upon this virtue : let us try to understand thoroughly the character he wishes to give to it. Obedience is a homage of perfect submission of all our being to God ; it is a good which we must unceasingly strive to obtain, for in it we shall find what we came to seek in the monastery, namely, God. If we never lose sight of this capital point, our obedience will become easy, whatever be the command given ; and, through it, we shall obtain, with God, peace of soul and joy and freedom of heart.

VI

However, in order that obedience may thus become for the monk the channel of Divine grace, it must be invested with certain qualities. Our Holy Father evinces a real complacency in detailing them, so much predilection has he for this virtue. What then are these qualities ? There are three principal ones from whence all the others flow : the obedience of the monk must be supernatural, trustful, and it must spring from love. It will then be a putting into practice of the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. As you see, we are especially speaking of inward qualities ; for obedience, like humility from which it is derived, resides essentially in the soul. When we have analysed the conditions of the inward exercise of this virtue, we shall pass on naturally to its outward practice and note the qualities that accompany the material execution of the work commanded.

The first quality of our obedience is to be supernatural, that is to say accomplished in a spirit of faith : a man obeys the Superior as if obeying God Himself.

Our holy Legislator dwells much on this point, and with reason, for it is of capital importance. He tells us that the Abbot represents Christ : [A bbas] Christi enim agere vices in monasterio credihir. Note this last word: creditur, which specifies that faith is the root of submission. The prompti¬ tude of obedience should, in the eyes of St. Benedict, be deriv¬ ed from this spirit of faith. We must obey, he says, " without delay ’’ : sine mora'2- ; and “ as if the order came from God¹¹

Himself ” : Ac si divinitus imperetur, moram pati nesciunt in faciendo x. The order does, indeed, come from God, as the words of Eternal Truth, which the great Patriarch immediately recalls, bear witness .* He that heareth you, heareth Me. ” He would have us never forget that “ the obedience which is given to Superiors is given to God ” : Obedientia quae majoribus praebetur, deo exhibetur : ipse enim dixit : qui vos audit me audit 2.

Hereby homage is paid to God, in the order of supernatural things that God has Himself chosen to establish here below to bring us to Him. God’s ways are not our ways. We have more than once remarked that, especially since the Incarnation, God, in His relations with us, often acts through men. This is to be seen in the Sacraments ; we can only draw from them the graces they contain by having recourse to men appointed by Christ to confer them upon us. Again this is to be seen in the love of our neighbour which is the sign of the reality of our love for God. It is the same with obedience. This Divine economy constitutes as it were a prolongation of the Incarnation. Since God has united Himself to humanity in the Person of His Son, it is through the members of His Son that He ordinarily enters into communication with our souls. Such being the Divine Plan, we shall walk in all security in the way of salvation and per¬ fection if we adapt ourselves to it ; to go aside from it is to withdraw ourselves from grace.

Why does God thus cause men to take His place with us ? In order that our obedience inspired by faith may be a hom¬ age rendered to His Divine Son and may beget our merit. If God were to appear to us in all the glory of His power, where would be our merit in obeying Him ? God wills then that we should adore Him not only in Himself, not only in the Humanity of His Son Jesus, but also in the men whom He has chosen to direct us. Doubtless it would be infinitely more agreeable for us if God were Himself to reveal what He desires of us in everything, or if He were to appoint an angel to do so. But what would be the result of this ? Most often, an extraordinary increase of self-love, — or, in case of our refusal, a more evident culpability. God has not chosen to act thus. The means He has taken to imprint His initiative on our life is that which St. Benedict recalls to us in citing these words of the Psalmist, Imposuisti homines super capita nostra 3, “ Thou hast set men over our heads, ” men like to us, " men who are mortal frail, infirm ” and jeling their powerlessness : Homines mortales, fragiles , infirmi, lutea vasa portantes. This is vexatious and painful to nature, but such is the way of Divine wisdom. Why, once again, has God chosen these means, so humiliating for us ? — for it is a humiliation to our pride and our spirit of independence to be subjected to another man, who is not without imperfections, every man belying his own ideal : Omnis homo mendax 2. Why ? — God has thus decided thereby to exercise our faith, our hope, our love.¹²

Our faith first of all. You know it is befitting that the free creature should not enter into participation of infinite good without first undergoing the trial on which his merit is to rest. As for us, faith forms our trial : to live in the obscurity of a practical and active faith, such is the homage that God requires of us. Obedience gives us the opportunity of showing God our faith in Him : obedience is the practical manifestation of this faith. Indeed great faith, perfect faith, is needed, to maintain constant obedience to a man who, it is true, represents God but does so while still keeping his own imperfections. And this is the source of deep virtue and great merit.

One day when our own St. Gertrude besought Our Lord that He would Himself correct certain faults, alas ! too apparent, in one of her superiors, Christ replied to her : “ Do you not know that not only this person, but all who are in charge of this beloved congregation, have some defects? No one in this life is altogether free from imperfection. This is an effect of My goodness, and I allow it in order that the merit of all may be increased. There is far more virtue in submitting to a person whose faults are evident than to one who appears perfect. ”

When we look upon the Sacred Host, our senses cry out to us : " That is not Christ : only bread is there. ” We see, we touch, we taste bread. But Christ has told us : Hoc est corpus meum 4, “ This is My Body. ” Then, we put aside all the testimonies of the senses and we say to Christ : “ Thou hast said it, and I believe, Credo ; ” and to manifest our faith we fall down upon our knees before Christ, really and substantially present under these appearances ; we adore Him, we give ourselves up to Him to do His will.

In the same way 6, Christ veils Himself in our superiors.¹³

The Abbot, despite his imperfections, represents Christ for us. St. Benedict is formal upon this point. Christ is hidden under the imperfections and weaknesses of the man, as He is hidden under the sacramental appearances. But the Supe¬ rior is placed super candelabrum A By reason of our habitual contact with him, we naturally see his deficiencies and limitations, and then we are tempted to cry : “ This man is not Christ ; his judgment, limited as it is, is not infallible, he can be mistaken, he is mistaken ; he cannot understand my point of view ; he allows himself to be biassed. ” But faith says again : Abbas Christi agere vices creditur ; whether Christ gives us, as His representative, a man with the wisdom of a Solomon, or a man without talent, it is, for faith, always Christ Who is represented. Faith discovers and touches Christ beneath the imperfections of the man. And then, if I have this faith, I say : Credo : “ I believe ; ” and I obey this man whomsoever he be, because in submitting myself to him, I submit myself to Christ and remain united to Him : Qui vos audit me audit.

Always thus to see Christ in the Superior, then, even if this Superior shows himself to us with all his failings, ever to obey him unfalteringly whatever be the circumstances, this requires of us very strong faith : because to be led always by this supernatural obedience without ever wavering is very hard and mortifying for nature.

But it is certain, with a certainty that I do not fear to to call divine, that the Lord cannot fail one who obeys in this spirit of faith and is happy to offer Him the sacrifice of his abnegation. On the day of our monastic profession we make a contract with God. We say to Him : “ My God, I have come here to seek Thee ; for love of Thee, I have left all things ; I come to lay at Thy feet my independence, my liberty ; I promise Thee to submit myself to a superior, to obey him in everything, however contrary to my tastes and ideas his command may appear to me. ” And God says to us on His side : “ I promise you, despite the weaknes¬ ses or even the errors of the one who represents Me towards you, to direct you at each step of your life, and to bring you, through him, to the one thing necessary that you seek : — - perfect love and the most intimate union with Me. ”

If we observe our part of the contract, it is absolutely beyond doubt that God will observe His part : He has engaged Himself to it, and His word is the word of a God : Fidelis Deus 3. To think the contrary would be to deny the Veracity, the Wisdom, the Goodness, and the Power of God, it would be as much as to deny God Himself.¹⁴

VII

Our Holy Father, enlightened with the rays of divine light, is so convinced of the efficacy of this means of bringing us to perfection that, in obedience, he even requires of us “ to follow the judgment and orders of another : " Non suo arbitrio viventes, vel desideriis suis el voluptatibus obedientes sed ambulantes alieno judicio et imperio a. There is need to insist here, for sometimes we come across upright, but simple minds that form an inexact idea of obedience. They believe that the Superior can never be mistaken. This is an error. Every man is fallible ; — and the merit of our obedience consists precisely in placing our initiative in the hands of a man whom we know to be fallible.

It may happen that the Abbot does not think as we do. If he always thought like us, where would be the submission of our judgment ? We should be convinced that the Superior is very sensible,... because he had the same ideas that we have ! To obey, because we find what is ordered us is reason¬ able, is not obeying, but following our own judgment.

Does this mean that we must give up our judgment so far as to make all the judgments of the Abbot our own ? No. We cannot abdicate the light of our reason. Only, the Superior is already, humanly speaking, much better placed than his inferiors for judging because of his knowledge oi the case ; moreover, for taking his decisions he possesses not only the elements that escape us, but also the lights that are wanting to us : the graces of state are not a myth. Let us suppose, however, that our reason evidently shows us things under an altogether different light and point of view from those under which the Superior sees them : we can then humbly expose to him our manner of looking at them ; St. Benedict whose supernatural spirit is tempered by such just good sense does not fail to suggest this to us 3. But if the Superior maintains his order, ought we, in order to realise the perfection of obedience, theoretically to see things as the Abbot sees them ? No, that is not required. What must be done then ? We may continue to see the thing speculatively under a different light from that under which the Abbot sees it ; we may theoretically believe that our view is better and more reasonable than what is commanded us. But we must obey perfectly in action, in the execution of what we are told to do ; we must besides be intimately per¬ suaded that in the present case, in concreto, no spiritual harm will result from our obedience, either for the Divine glory nor for our own soul, but only good will come from it. It is this intimate persuasion that is necessary to obe¬ dience of judgment.¹⁵

Now, this persuasion is born of faith. Again, is it that the Abbot is infallible or possesses infused knowledge ? Assuredly not. The graces of state which he has the right to expect from God do not go so far as to accord him this privilege. He can be mistaken, he is in fact mistaken at times ; but the one who is never mistaken is he who obeys : for him the path is certainly straight that leads to God. And if the spiritual good which results for him and for his personal perfection from his obedience appears to him to be less than it would have been if the Abbot had not been in error, this is only in appearance. Real harm cannot be done to his soul, for he gives an extremely pleasing homage to God. It is as if he said : “ My God, Thou art so wise and so powerful, fortiter et suaviter disponens omnia, and I am so convinced of Thy Divine attributes, that I affirm Thy power of drawing my soul to Thee, in spite of the errors that can creep in at times in the orders of my Superior. " It is incontestable, indeed, that God leads us to His love through the very errors of men. He would intervene in a special way rather than allow His glory or our soul to suffer real spiritual harm in the case we have been considering.

In the course of our spiritual life, God will sometimes permit the Superior to command us things that appear to us unreasonable or not quite prudent, or less good than those we could imagine : He will thus give us the opportunity of rendering Him this very pleasing homage of obedience of judgment, and of hence renewing the tradition which we made to Him of our whole being on the day of our profession. At that blessed hour, in all the gladness of our donation, obedience appeared to us like child’s play, although we had been forewarned of things, “ hard and rugged ”, Dura et aspera 3, whereby we go towards God. At that moment

1. Upon this subject we make our own the sentiments at once most safe and most moderate of one of the best modern ascetieal writers, Mgr.Hedley, Bishop of Newport, in his excellent Retreat. See also the remarkable reflections expressed by Abbot Delatte in his Commentary on the Rule 01 S* Benedict. — we pronounced the vow ; but we were only entering on the path of the virtue.¹⁶

This virtue is only acquired and strengthened by corres¬ ponding acts. Now, in the measure that we advance in maturity of mind or are inclined to take more initiative, we realise the more the truth of these words of the Psalmist recalled by our Holy Father : “ Thou hast placed men over our heads ” : Imposuisti homines super capita nostra. Our holy Legislator gives us moreover to understand that obe¬ dience can become very hard to nature ; in his fourth degree of humility he speaks of “ hard and contrary things, even injuries \ ” which may befall us in the course of obedience : he warns us that “ narrow is the way, ” but he adds — “ which leadeth unto life ” : duett ad vitam 2. If indeed we submit with faith we may be assured, as St. Benedict guaran¬ tees, that each of our acts done under these difficult circum¬ stances will turn to good, and our virtue will go on strengthen¬ ing : Sciat junior ita sibi expedirez. God’s glory triumphs precisely in using men’s frailty and errors for the good of those who trust in Him : Omnia cooper antur in bonum 4.

Our holy Father’s words should then be ever before our eyes : Abbas Christi agere vices creditur. The more we see Christ in the Abbot, the more we enter into this life of faith, the more too will the Abbot become for us a “ cause of eternal salvation ” and of perfection : F actus cst obtemper anti¬ bus sibi causa salutis aeternae 6.

There is yet more. The man who yields himself up by a like obedience into God’s hands can be compared to an arrow of election, shot by the hand of a mighty archer : Sicut sagitta in manu potentis 6. The soul that possesses this supernatural suppleness of obedience is capable of great things, because if it can count upon God, God can count upon and be sure of it ; and very often, God uses these souls for work wherein His glory is particularly at stake. But He uses them through obedience, in order to preserve

1. Rule, ch. vii. — 2. Ibid. ch. v. — 3. Ibid. ch. lxviii. — 4. Rom. vm, 28. " As experience shows so often, compulsion is best for the individual and for the attainment of an object desired. Looking back on the years that have gone by, I can testify from personal observation that some course I was obliged by authority to take, against what in my own judgment at the time I held to have been a better way, has proved in the event to have been right. Even what I regarded as failures have under obedience had results which I afterwards came to acknowledge as distinctly providential.

...The real danger of failure comes when in moments of weakness or cowar¬ dice we try to withdraw ourselves directly or indirectly from the yoke of authority. Spiritual writers are unanimous in condemning as perilous in the extreme, from a spiritual point of view, an attitude even of passive opposition to constituted authority. " Cardinal A. Gasquet, Religio Religiosi, ch. xii. The Yoke of Obedience — « Hebr v 9 — Ps cxxvi r them in humility. However high be the aim, the fully obedient soul reaches it ; however arduous be the work, it accomplishes it to perfection, for the strong God is with this soul which has at its disposition the very power of God.

We are therefore not surprised at the prodigies performed by those who, forgetting themselves and stripped of self, are invested by obedience with power from on high. A very remarkable example of this is given in the well-known episode recounted in the Dialogues of St. Gregory. The young Placid having fallen into the Lake of Subiaco, St. Be¬ nedict orders his disciple Maurus to go and pull the child out of the water, and St. Maurus, in the promptitude of his obedience, walks on the water, and brings back St. Placid safe and sound.

It is this faith alone that can assure the security of our monastic life. As long as we see Christ in the Superior, we shall participate, like St. Peter walking upon the waves x, in the Divine immunity ; as soon as the breath of doubt touches our heart, we shall sink. The soul who obeys in faith in God’s word is not supported solely by natural strength : Hi in curribus et hi in equis ; it has the right of counting upon the very power of God : Nos auicm in nomine Domini 2.

Do not be astonished in that I have insisted so much upon the part that faith holds in religious obedience. It is a most important part. Faith makes our obedience safe and guarantees its fruitfulness ; it also makes its greatness.

Men of the world sometimes reproach us religious for being characterless, servile or small-minded in face of autho¬ rity. The world is always ready to throw stones, and very often just where it might itself be found at fault : we need not know much of the world in order to be aware how often is to be found in its midst that want of character with which it reproaches us. However is it always without reason that we are accused of it ? Let us confess that unhappily the reproach might not be undeserved in regard to those who do not see God in the Superior. There is in fact something debasing for a man to obey another man, when the latter appears merely as a man, and not as representing, in some degree, divine authority. To obey the Abbot because we have the same ideas or the same tastes as he has, because we feel for him a natural sympathy, because he possesses talents that we admire, because we find his orders are reason- able, is unworthy of us and apart from the virtue of obe¬ dience. It is possible, in these cases, always to accomplish materially what is commanded us by the Abbot, and yet never to make a formal act of veritable obedience L¹⁷

None of these natural motives ought ever to affect us. Why so ? Because as soon as we place ourselves on the natural plane, one man is worth as much as another, and the dignity of man commands him not to submit to another creature, considered as such ; to do so would be to lessen and abase himself. Never would I obey a man, were this man a dazzling genius, if he had not received a participation in the Divine authority, in order to command me. But as soon as God says : “ Such or such a man represents Me, ” were this man without talents, had he all the most crying natural defects, did this man belong to an altogether inferior race, I would yield myself to him, — as long as he ordered me nothing evidently contrary to the Divine Law ; in this latter case, he would no longer represent God.

To obey thus is to raise oneself, for it is to acknowledge, in order to bow down before it, but a single authority, that before which all nations ought to lose themselves in adoration — the authority of God. To serve God is to reign : to serve God thus is to rise above all human considerations, above natural contingencies even as far as the Supreme andSovereign Being, even as far as God ; that is truly to be free, to be strong, to be great, for one is not the slave of any creature, however high he may be : Servire Deo regnare est 2. But it is only faith, an intense, ardent faith, that can raise us to this level, and, above all, keep us there.

Does this mean that we must not love the Superior ? Quite the contrary. Among the counsels that our Holy Father gives to the Abbot, is that " he should study to inspire love rather than fear ” : Studeat plus amari quam timsri ; to the monks, he gives the precept to “ love their Abbot with sincere and humble affection”: Abbatem suum sincera et humili

1. " A religious may obey through mere habit, by routine, for the sake of a quiet life, or through mere slavishness of disposition : such a one leads an outwardly obedient life ; but he is not obedient. Much less is that religious obedient who obeys to the eye, but rebels inwardly. ’’ Bishop Hedley. Retreat, ch. xix. Obedience. — 2. Roman Pontifical, ordination of sub-deacons ; this expression is found in a letter attributed to S‘ Leo [ad Dcmetriadem) P. L. 55, 165. We see how the reproach of servility falls to the ground as regards the obedient religious. Far more than this. The spirit of faith that animates this religious is the only moral force that delivers man from all servility in face of any superior whomsoever, — magistrate, military chief, prince — and it contains the secret of true human dignity. The Catholic is at once the most obedient and the least servile of men. — 3. Rule, ch. lxiv.

Christ, the Ideal of tbo Monk. caritate diligant. But this love itself must already be of the supernatural order ; this love should certainly be manifested by obedience, but obedience ought not to have as its motive power an affection that remains purely in the natural order. It is an obedience of faith that our holy Lawgiver requires of us : the commands of the Superior must be carried out “ as if they came from God Himself ” : Ac si divinitus imperetur 2. If this is a living faith, it will render obedience easy; whatever be the order enjoined, it will make us find God : that is the best recompense.

VIII

Bom of faith, religious obedience is sustained by hope. We have indeed already touched on this subject so need not enlarge upon it, since, in a soul where faith is perfect, hope necessarily flourishes. We will therefore only say a little about this. What is the rdle of hope in the exercise of obedience ? To render us full of confidence in God’s help, especially in triumphing over the obstacles and difficulties that may be foreseen and encountered in the execution of the task commanded. God cannot leave to itself a soul that confides wholly in His grace. Look at Moses on Mount Horeb. The Lord appeared to him and entrusted him with delivering the children of Israel held in Egyptian bondage :

Come, and I will send thee to Pharaoh, that thou mayst bring forth My people. ” Moses is alarmed by the greatness of this mission : “ Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt ? ” And God answers : Ego ero tecum : “ I will be with thee. ” Henceforth intrepid, Moses went to the court of the Pharaohs and you know the prodigies that God wrought by his hands to deliver the Hebrews. Ego ero tecum: we often read these words in the lives of the Saints. Our Lord frequently repeated them to St. Catherine of Siena and the Blessed Bonomo, when He gave them commands : “ Have no fear, " said He to the latter, “ I shall be with thee. ” He repeats these words to all of us, when obedience commands us to do hard or impossible things : Noli timere quid ego tecum sum.

He gives us, with confidence, that virtue of patience without which obedience is not perfect. “ The sign that thou hast this virtue of obedience, ” said the Heavenly i. Ibid. ch. lxxii. — 2. Ibid. ch. v. — 3. Exod. in, 12. — 4. Life, by Raymmid of Capua. 5. Jne exlatique au XV 111 0 siecle. La Bicnheureuse

J . M. Bonomo, monxale bdn^didine, by D. du Bourg, p. 81-82 141 _ 6

Gen. xxvi, 24. ’ *

Father to St. Catherine, “ is patience ; impatience makes known that thou hast it not... Disobedience has a sister given to her by self-love and this is impatience... Patience and obedience are inseparable ; whoever is not patient has, by this very fact, the proof that obedience does not dwell in his heart K ”

Obedience quickened by supernatural confidence, infallibly draws down help from on high. St. Benedict is explicit on this point : when the Abbot commands us to do things difficult or impossible, the order must first of all be accepted. Then if we see that the burden altogether exceeds our strength we must make known, patiently and at the seasonable moment, the reasons of our incapacity, showing neither pride, resistance, nor contradiction. If having listened to these representations, the Abbot still persists in his way of thinking and maintains his command, the monk, says our Holy Father, will know that this command is advantageous for him and he will obey for love, confiding in God’s assistance : Ex carilatc confidens de adjutorio Dei obediat 2.

This admirable sentence concludes this chapter so lofty, so firm and at the same time so full of discretion, devoted to obedience in “ impossible " things. The hope that God will be with us ought to sustain us, because it is “ through love of Him ” that we obey.

IX

The expression “ through love ”, which we have just quoted, marks the last of the fundamental qualities, — and this especially in relation to the motive — of our obedience. Although he makes obedience the offspring of humility, and gives it faith as its first inspirer, you will however remark that the holy Patriarch always presents monastic obedience as an act of love : Ut quis pro dei amore omni obedientia sc subdat majori: it is for the love of God that we submit to the Superior in all obedience. Certain lines written by St. Benedict upon obedience (Ch. v, vii, xvm, xxu) reveal a deep-lying tendency in his soul to act for love. Within him burns as it were a restrained enthusiasm for God, for Christ, for love itself. According to his way of thinking, obedience is not only an inmost disposition which inclines the monk to execute every command with prompti¬ tude and devotedness because the moral order requires that the inferior shall submit to the superior ; the obedience of the monk is to be an exercise or a perpetual effort of love... Obedience thus becomes the expression of an habitual dis¬ position of unitive life by the conformity or perpetual communion of the human will with the Divine Will 1 11 ”.¹⁸

For, the Holy Lawgiver repeats to us that this virtue in its perfection is only to be found in those “ who hold nothing dearer to them than Christ ” : Haec convenit iis qui nihil sibi a christo carius aliquid existimant a. St. Benedict wishes the monk’s obedience to be the expression . of love ; and he adds that in this above all we shall imitate Christ : PRO dei amore omni obedientia se subdat majori, imitans dominum de quo dicit Apostolus: f actus obediens usque ad mortem.

The first act of the holy soul of Jesus in the Incarnation was to dart through the infinite space that separates the created from the divine. Resting in the Bosom of the Father, His soul contemplates face to face His adorable perfections. We cannot picture to ourselves that this con¬ templation could be, if I may so express myself, only specu¬ lative. Far from it. As the Word, Christ loves His Father, in very deed, with an infinite love surpassing all compre¬ hension. But the Humanity of Jesus is drawn into this impetuous current of uncreated love and the Heart of Christ burns with the most perfect love that could ever exist. A member of the human race through His Incarnation, Christ falls moreover under the great precept : “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength.” Jesus has perfectly fulfilled this commandment. From His first entering into the world, He yielded Himself up through love : Ecce venio... Dens mens volui et legem tuam in medio cordis mei 5. I have placed, O Father, Thy law. Thy will “ in the midst of My Heart. ” His whole existence is summed up in love for the Father. But what form will this love take ? The form of obedience : Ut faciam Deus voluntatem tuam. And why is this ? Because nothing better translates filial love than absolute submission 7. Christ Jesus has manifested

1. D. I. Ryelandt, l. c. p .209. — 2. Rule, ch.v. — 3. Ibid. ch. vii ; Philip.

11, 8. — 4. Marc, xii, 30. — 5. Ps. xxxix, 8-9. — • 6. Hebr. x, 7. — 7. The Eternal Father said to Sl Catherine, “ I wish thee to see and know this most excellent virtue in that humble and immaculate Lamb, and the source whence it proceeds. What caused the great obedience of the Word ? The love which He had for My honour and your salvation. Whence proceeded this love ? From the clear vision with which Flis soul saw the divine essence and the eternal Trinity, thus always looking on Me, the eternal God, His fidelity obtained this vision most perfectly for Him, which vision you im¬ perfectly enjoy by the light of holy faith. He was faithful to me, His Eternal this perfect love and this full obedience from the moment of the Incarnation “ even to the death of the Cross ” : Usque ad mortem.

Not only has He never for an instant hesitated to obey, but love draws Him, despite the sensible shrinking that He feels, towards the consummation of His obedience : “ I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized : and how am I straitened until it be accomplished ? " It is with intense desire that He desires to eat the Pasch with His disciples, that Pasch which is to inaugurate the Passion. If He deli¬ vers Himself up to death, it is that the world may know that He loves His Father : Ut cognoscat mundus quia diligo Patrem. And this love is unutterable because this perfect obedience is the very food of His soul : Meus cibus est ut faciam voluntatem ejus qui misit me, ut perficiam opus 67 ms.

A similar sense of love ought to inspire the monk “ in all his obedience ” : Ut quis pro Dei amore, omni obedientia se subdat majori. Our Lawgiver is very explicit upon this point. The obedience of the monk, enlightened by faith, is to spring from the love that he bears to Christ, as the Model and mainspring of his submission. There is not after all any motive more essential and fundamental, more effectual also, for making us perfectly obedient than this ambition to imitate Christ Jesus our Ideal. Why have we left all things, renounced all things, even our own will, except to follow Him more closely : Vende quae habes... et veni sequcre me... Reliquimus omnia et secuii sumus teb.

It is not an easy thing to follow Jesus as far as the death of the cross. Only those hearts inspired by an intense faith, hearts humble, steadfast and generous are capable of it. In order to march courageously in the footsteps of Christ Our Lord and King, as St. Benedict wishes, a man must renounce his own will and take up the most strongly tempered arms, the only ones that can lead us to glory : those of obedience : Quisquis abrenuntians propriis voluntatibus, do¬ mino christo vero regi militaturus obedientiac fortissima atque praeclara arma sumis 6. Obedience may sometimes require heroic patience and self-abnegation. Our Holy Father himself forewarns us of this. But did our Divine Master find it agreeable to be delivered up to the Jews, insulted by the Pharisees, spat upon by the soldiery ? No,

Father, and therefore hastened as one enamoured along the road of obedience lit up with the light of glory. ” Dialogue. Oti Obedience, ch. i, translated by Algar Thorold.

1. Luc. xii, 50. — 2. Ibid, xxii 15- — 3- Joan, xiv, 31. 4- Joan, iv, 34. all this filled Him with horror and disgust ; and yet He ac¬ cepted all to prove to His Father the love wherewith His Heart overflowed. His Father had willed that He should be treated as the last of men, the outcast of the people ; that He should undergo the death of one cursed, cum sceleratis x. And so deep was His submission that He allowed Himself to be led to immolation as a Lamb that does “ not open his mouth, ” Et non aperiet os suum 2.¹⁹

Now it is even as far as this that Christ Jesus is the Model of our obedience. None will ever make us suffer such things, nor ask of us such obedience. If God sometimes permits that obedience should crush us, let us, in those difficult mo¬ ments, look at Christ Jesus in His agony or hung upon the Cross, and let us say to Him from the depths of our heart : Dili gam te et tradam meipsum pro te 3 ; “Because I love Thee I accept Thy will. ” Then divine peace — that peace which passes all understanding — will descend into our soul with the sweetness of heavenly grace. This alone will give us the strength and patience to endure all things in silence of heart and lips : Tacita conscicntia patientiam amplectatur 4.

But when a man has not this faith which shows God to be the one Good, when he is not carried on by this generous and ardent love for the Person of Christ Jesus, he seeks himself, he is attached to such or such a work, to such or such a charge, he goes no further than his own ideal. Does the Superior happen to touch this charge, this work, to oppose this ideal, then woe betide !... It cannot be said of these souls what our Holy Father declares of the perfect monk that he “ leaves what is his own ” : Relinquentes quae SUA sunt. When a man “ truly seeks God, ” Si r ever a Deum quaerit 6, and not self, he is content with whatever task obedience imposes upon him, however humble, obscure, painful or difficult this task may be ; he even judges himself to be unworthy of it, as St. Benedict wills, because all obedience, coming from God, leads us to God, and it is always a signal grace to be enabled to draw near to God in order to be united to Him.

It needs great love to arrive at this degree of the virtue. In fact, to obey always without faltering, to submit in

1. Isa. liii, 12. — 2. Ibid. 7. — 3. Cf. Gal. 11, 20. — 4. Rule, ch. vii. — 5. Rule, ch. v. — 6. Ibid. ch. lviii. — 7. Ad omnia quae sibi tnjungunlur velut operarium se malum judicet et indignum. Rule, ch. vii. — 8. We are speaking here of the orders of Superiors, but this can be applied, all proportion guarded, to obedience to the Rule and to the traditions established by the Con¬ stitutions. We touched on this point of faithfulness to the Rule and the common life in the conference on " The Instruments of Good Works ", a: £ “ The Cenobitical Society ". everything, in omni obedientia, to a frail and fallible man, is, I repeat it, very hard to nature : but it gives God a homage that is very pleasing to Him.

A pleasing homage, first of all because to allow oneself to be thus moulded by obedience, is to arrive — and “ in¬ fallibly, ” sine dubioi, St. Benedict says forcibly — at perfectly reproducing in oneself the features of Christ. Factus obediens usque ad mortem. Now this is all that the Heavenly Father wills, namely, that we should be conformed to His beloved Son. Never let us forget that the more we reproduce these features in us, the more will the Father place His delight in us and pour upon us the abundance of His grace : for God’s love is divinely active in the soul.

A pleasing homage, secondly, because it is to surrender to God what is dearest and most sacred to us ; it is to offer Him the most entire and religious sacrifice that we can bring to Him 2. Therefore God draws straight to Him those who never let themselves be turned away from rendering Him this homage, those who aim at imitating the obedience of Christ Jesus, despite the difficulties and repugnances they experience : Scientes per hanc obedientiae want se ituros ad Deum ; others, those who consider the man in the Supe¬ rior, discuss the rightfulness or expediency of his orders, or are held back by difficulties and these come near God without ever fully finding Him : In circuitu ambulant 4.

X

Let us often beseech God to give us that light of faith and strength of love which will render our obedience perfect. Thus supernaturally sustained, this obedience will become easy, generous, simple, prompt and joyous : Non trepide, non tarde, non tepide, aut cum murmurio vel cum responso nolentis 5. It is important that all these qualities should accom¬ pany the exercise of our obedience. Our Holy Father wishes us to obey with a good will, bono animo, and he adds with St. Paul that “ God loveth a cheerful giver. ” Even when we always see Christ in the Superior it may yet happen that the Superior's character is the antithesis of our own, which may for the whole of our life render obedience natu¬ rally difficult for us, but our love for God should overcome these difficulties. If not, it is to be feared that our obedience

1. Rule, ch. v. — 2. Quod obediatur praelato in quantum est Dei minister • pertinet ad religionem qua quis colit et diligit Deum. S. Thom. Quodlibet. vi, a. 11. Cf. ii-ii, q. civ, a. 3, ad 1. — 3. Rule, ch. lxxi, — 4. Ps. xi, 9. — 5. Rule, ch. v. — 6. Rule, ch. v and II Cor. ix, 7,

28o CHRIST, THE IDEAL OF THE MONK will fall short some day, and that to our great detriment.

For there are many ways of allowing the spirit of obedience to be impaired, or even of losing it altogether.

The obedient monk, as St. Benedict wishes, places his needs, desires, aspirations and aptitudes before his Superior with all the simplicity, all the frankness, all the loyalty of a child with his father. To use artifice or address, to show only one side of a situation or affair, to circumvent the Superior so as to extract an authorisation from him, even under the pretext of the good of souls, runs counter to the spirit of submission required by the great Patriarch : in these cases, says St. Bernard, one simply deceives oneself.

For certain souls, one danger is to feel urged to arrange their own little existence apart, so as to be disturbed as little as possible, and practically to live as if the Superior did not exist. This outlook may sometimes be covered under the pretext of safeguarding the soul’s union with God. But this is only a fallacious pretext hiding a singular illusion full of perils 2. And how contrary is this manner of acting to all that our vocation demands, to all that our Holy Rule requires : Abbatem sibi praeesse desiderant! St. Benedict certainly did not employ this last word haphazard ; we may be assured, on the contrary, that he chose it designedly, as when he wrote that the monk ought “ to walk according to the direction of another”: Alieno judicio ambulate 4. This is the spirit in which we ought to live, since this is the Rule we have vowed to observe “ until death ” : Usque ad mortem. We must then in all that concerns our work, our personal occupations, our undertakings, place ourselves under the control of the Superior: Cum voluntate abbatis omnia agenda sunt ; vindictae regulari subjaceat qui praesumpserit... quippiam quamvis parvum sine jussione abbatis facere. Let every thing without exception, in our life, be marked with the seal of obedience : that is our greatness, that is our security. Otherwise it is to be feared that, on the da)? of judgment, we shall come before God with empty hands, because, having fulfilled our desires, realised our will, we shall likewise have “ received our reward ” here below : the vain satisfaction of our self -love : Receperunt mercedem suam, vani vanam l. “ Self-will begets nothing in the spiritual life, except eternal need 2. ”²⁰

We see other souls voluntarily surround themselves with a hedge of thorns through which the Superior can scarcely pass ; it may happen that, for the sake of peace, he dare not command them such or such work, or employ them in such or such charge. Undoubtedly they would not refuse in so many words, but they cannot be counted upon. They are lacking in that spiritual docility which is the very essence of obedience ; and this lack of suppleness often comes from want of faith. These souls are not practically convinced enough that what is important in obedience, is less the ma¬ terial work to be done than the motive that makes us submit all our being to God in order to please Him. They believe that the works in which they ensconce themselves are more important than the rest, while in reality everything, in the sight of God, Eternal WTisdom, is measured by the obedience and love that inspires it.

This state which we have been considering does great harm to souls ; for they practically cease to advance in the way whereby we return to God ; they are not drawn into the current of heavenly peace ; they are not borne along by the impetuosity of the river of God ; they amuse them¬ selves upon the banks, going on indifferently, and they only reach the port with great difficulty, — if indeed they do reach it. For, to render oneself, wilfully, so little ap¬ proachable that the Superior no longer feels free to express his will, constitutes, for one who has promised obedience, a breaking of his word and an act of sloth : it is the in oledientias desidia 3 of which our Holy Father speaks when he says that it “ separates from God. ” “ Set aside your free will ” says the Venerable Blosius, “ and obey for God with humble readiness. Better to pull up nettles and weeds in the simplicity of obedience by our own choice than to employ our time in the contemplation of the most sublime heavenly mysteries, for the most pleasing sacrifice to God is the abnegation of self-will. He who resists his Superiors and will not obey, deprives himself of heavenly grace and can in nowise please the Lord, if he change not.

It is true that to submit unreservedly to obedience may require great sacrifices. But to hesitate in obedience, is not this to hesitate before the one Good that we have come to seek in the monastery and which we shall only meet in the way of obedience ? Is it not saying implicitly to God : “ My God, I do not love Thee enough to make Thee this sacrifice, to render Thee this homage ? ” Were these the sentiments that inspired us on the blessed day of our religious profession ?²¹

Let us then in this matter be of great and vigilant delicacy of soul, for it is not all at once, but little by little, that one arrives at that state of living, practically, outside obedience, — a state that cannot be without real danger for the religious.

It is also of extreme importance to watch over the avenues of our heart and never to permit murmuring to creep in. Murmuring is regarded by our Holy Lawgiver as one of the greatest perils in the life of a monk ; he combats it forcibly and in every circumstance. We might ask why our Holy Father so strongly condemns all murmuring and all disobe¬ dience while he shows himself so unusually indulgent for faults of weakness. Jt is because his soul, bathed in divine light, saw that this diversity of attitude was according to God’s own ways.

Let us open the Holy Scriptures ; we shall therein find an astonishing revelation of the way God judges of sins. There is David. Elected king by the Lord, heaped with heaven’s gifts, David forgets all these benefits from on high and allows himself to be drawn into murder and adultery. The Lord sends the prophet Nathan to the king to denounce the enormity of his crime. And David, immediately filled with repentance, utters these simple words : “ I have sinned against the Lord ” : Peccavi Domino. Then the prophet replies : “ The Lord also hath taken away thy sin : thou shalt not die ; nevertheless... the child that is born to thee, shall surely die L ” The expiation was great, but God’s forgiveness remained assured to David in spite of the extent of his sin.

Let us now look at another scene which had come to pass a few years previously. There is .Saul. Established as king of Israel by God Himself, he is good, chaste, simple ; but he is attached to his own judgment. The Lord had commanded him to make war against the Amalecites and to exterminate these enemies of his people without sparing them. You know what Saul did : he spared the life the king of the Amalecites and reserved what was best in the booty. And remark that Saul’s intention was, in itself, excellent : it was not for himself that he thus kept a part of the booty, it was in order to offer it in sacrifice to the Lord. Now how did God act in this circumstance ? He rejected Saul for ever, despite the king’s repentance. “ Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, ” said the prophet Samuel to Saul, “ and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed ? For obedience is better than sacrifices : and to hearken than to offer the fat of rams. Because it is like the sin of witchcraft, to rebel : and like the crime of idolatry, to refuse to obey. Forasmuch therefore as thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath also rejected thee from being king... ” Saul then breathes forth his repentance, as David was to do later : “ I have sinned... pardon my sin... ” But it is in vain that he reiterates the expression of his repentance, that he beseeches Samuel : he is rejected, — and rejected for ever. — So great is the horror with which disobedience inspires God, even when it seems to be justified by good reasons : Melior est obedientia quam victimae 1.²²

We hence understand why our Holy Father is so strongly opposed to all disobedience, and why he so severely condemns murmuring which, like a canker, eats into the root of the spirit of obedience and makes all true submission impossible^ Let us listen to his words, for they are grave. “ If the monk,” he says, “ obey with ill-will, if he murmur not with his lips, but even in his heart, although he fulfil the order he has received, it wall not be accepted by God Who seeth the heart of the murnmrer; and. far from obtaining any grace for such an action, he will rather incur the punishment of murmurers, unless he amend and make reparation. Such is St. Benedict’s explicit teaching. And this doctrine is perfectly just. Murmuring is, in fact, like the indemnity that one takes for having obeyed when practically one cannot do otherwise than obey. The order is materially executed ; but the essence of obedience, which is the loving submission of the whole being, is absent from the soul. Murmuring is the resistance of the soul which is most often manifested by words, by criticising the order given, its legitimacy or its expediency.

Our holy Father calls murmuring “ an evil ” : Murmurationis malum, quite the contrary of bonum obedientiae 3. Why is it an evil ? Because it turns the soul away if not always from the outward observance, at least from the inward submission of the heart, essential to the perfection of obedience ; hence it turns away the soul from “ the way that leads to God ” : Scientes per hanc obedientiae viam se iluros ad Deum ; it turns the soul away from God, its supreme Good, in turning it away from the authority that represents God. It is a stratagem of the devil to make a soul doubt the legitimacy of the orders of authority ; when this doubt has arisen, the devil has won his part : this is the his¬ tory of the first fall and of all those that have followed it. Even when a man murmurs without any bitterness, when he pretends only to state objectively the errors, the weaknesses or the faults of authority, he can do considerable harm to souls ; serving as an agent to the devil to do his business, he repeats to others what the serpent breathes in his ears. With poisonous breath he tarnishes the freshness of the “ humble and sincere love ” towards authority that St. Be¬ nedict requires of the monk.²³

The evil of murmuring is so much the more to be dreaded in that it has the power of infecting others : it is like a microbe capable of ravaging all the members of a community one after the other. However, in order to live and be pro¬ pagated it needs a propitious soil. The Superior can do nothing directly against murmuring ; it is in a sense beyond his grasp ; it is for the organism to defend itself. If the murmurer finds no complaisant ear to listen to him, he loses his time and pains and has to keep his murmuring to himself ; but it is a terrible evil because it is a sheer dissolvant of inward perfection.

Whence comes the evil of murmuring ? Almost always from lack of faith. One sees the man in the Superior, and no longer Christ ; faith no longer covering the weaknesses or imperfections of the man, his commands are judged because the man himself is judged. And by force of habit, the murmurer spares nothing, neither men, nor institutions, nor customs, nor works. Nothing escapes his criticism. If he was governed by an archangel, he would still find means of criticising his orders. Look at the Jews in the time of the Gospel. Our Blessed Saviour was assuredly perfection itself ; and yet the Jews often murmured at what He said or what He did. If Christ heals on the Sabbath day, these men,

1. “ The disobedient man " said the Eternal Father to S* Catherine, “ is deluded by his self-love, because the eye of his intellect is fixed with a dead faith, on pleasing his self-will, and on things of the world... because obedience seems weariness to him, he wishes to avoid weariness, whereby he arrives at the greatest weariness of all, for he is obliged to obey either by force or by love, and it would have been better and less wearisome to have obeyed by love than without it. " Dialogue, ch.vm. Translated by Algar Thorold. full of bitter zeal and thinking themselves the guardians of the Law, murmur. Does He eat with the Publicans ? they murmur. Does He enter the house of Zacheus ? they murmur. If He forgives sins, they are scandalised. If He reveals the secret of His love for men, in announcing the gift of the Eucharist, they cavil. Therefore Christ Jesus Himself says that nothing finds favour in their eyes : “ Whereunto shall I esteem this generation to be like ?... For John came neither eating nor drinking ; and they say : He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say : Behold a man that is a glutton and a wine drinker, a friend of publicans and sinners 6. ”

Let us then carefully and before all things keep ourselves from all murmuring, as our Holy Father warns us to do so insistently and earnestly ; for nothing is more contrary to the letter and spirit of the Rule than murmuring : ante omnia, ne murmur ationis malum fro qualicumque causa in aliquo qualicumque verbo vel significatione appareat 7.

However, we must distinguish the difference between complaining and murmuring. Complaining is in nowise an imperfection, it may even be a prayer. Look at our Lord Jesus, the Model of all holiness. Upon the Cross, did He not complain to His Father of being forsaken ? But what is it that makes the difference between these two attitudes ? Murmuring evidently implies opposition, malevolence (at least transitory) in the will ; however, it proceeds more formally from the mind ; it is a sin of the mind derived from the spirit of resistance. It is a contentious manifestation. Complaint on the contrary, if we suppose it to be pure, comes only from the heart ; it is the cry of a heart that is crushed, that feels suffering, but however accepts it entirely, and lovingly. We can feel the difficulties of obedience, experience even movements of repugnance : that may happen to the most perfect soul ; there is no imperfection in this as long as the will does not adhere to these movements of revolt which sometimes get the better of the sensitive nature. Did not our Lord Himself feel such inward trouble ? Coepit taedere et pavere ci maestus esse. And what did He Who is our Ideal say in these terrible moments ? Fater, si possibile est, transeat a me calix iste L “ My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me. ” What a plaint wrung from God’s innermost Heart in the face of the most terrible obedience ever proposed here below ! But likewise how this cry from the depths of crushed sensitive nature, is covered by the cry, far deeper still, of entire abandonment to the Divine Will : V erumtamen fiat voluntas tua, non meal²⁴

From murmuring, on the contrary, love is absent : therefore murmuring separates from God ; it destroys precisely what our holy Patriarch wishes to establish in us : that “ amen ” of every instant, that loving “ fiat ” coming more from the heart than the lips : in a word, that perpetual and incessant submission of our whole being to the divine will for love of Christ.

XI

Let us watch over ourselves. Obedience is too precious a good for us not to safeguard it with care. Let us love this good, this “ bonum, " as our Holy Father is pleased to call it, for it contains and gives God. Let us seek it with love and guard it jealously. Let us think of the example given us by those who seek for gold. They are told that in some El Dorado, in some region unknown to them, gold is to be found. They set off with gladness, upheld by the hope of riches ; they leave country, friends, family ; they embark, cross the seas, force their way through a thousand dangers, to the interior of unknown lands. Behold them at last, after many toils, perils and explorations, arrived at the place where lies the precious metal. Let us now suppose that after having extracted it from the ground, at the cost of many pains and labours, they prepare to return without taking back with them all the ingots they can, but content themselves with a few nuggets held in the hollow of their hands. What should we say of these men who have under¬ gone so many sufferings, endured so many labours, overcome so many obstacles to content themselves finally with such meagre gain ? That they are fools. And we should be right.

Now that is the portrait of a monk who, after some time spent in the monastery, suffers the loyalty of his obedience to be impaired. There is none amongst us that has not made great sacrifices before crossing the threshold of the cloister. We read one day in Holy Scripture, or we heard i. Matth. xxvi, 39.

EONUM OBEDIENTIA E

Christ give us in prayer, the counsel to leave all things and follow Him. “ Come, follow Me and I will give thee life, I will be thy beatitude. " This Divine Voice, full of sweetness, touched our soul to its depths ; we understood the call of Jesus ; and then, like <the merchant in the Gospel, who, having found a treasure in a field, sold all that he had to gain this field and make himself master of the treasure, we left all things. We said farewell to all that was dear to us, we renounced the legitimate joys of hearth and home, the visible affection of our own dear ones. Why did we consent to all these acts of renunciation ? To gain the trea¬ sure which is none other than God Himself. And where do we find this treasure ? In eternity we shall find it in the ineffable and supreme bliss of God ; here below in the obe¬ dience of faith. This is the treasure we seek and that obedience gives us. And after such great sacrifices, so often renewed, instead of appropriating this precious good in the greatest possible measure, shall we content ourselves with taking some small particles ? Is it sufficient for us to obey from time to time, just "enough not to fail in our vow ? God grant it is not so, that we are not so foolish as thus to squander eternal treasures in advance !

Neither let us forget that our vow of obedience is a solemn promise made to God on the day of our profession. Each time that we deliberately exempt ourselves from obedience, in whatever way it may be, we " like cowards ” (it is St. Be¬ nedict’s expression) take back something from what we have given. On the day of judgment, God Who is not mocked, Deus non irridetur \ will require of us, with a rigorous judgment, the account of the fidelity we swore to Hima. We shall not be able to say to God : ” I wished to attain perfection, but' my Superior was an imperfect, annoying person with exaggerated ideas, who let himself be guided by paltry and partial motives, and opposed my plans. ” God will answer us : “ The faults of your Superior only concern Me ; it is before Me that he is responsible for them, as for all

1 Gal. vi, 7. — 2. S‘ Bernard compares obedience to a coin which we have to render to God and that He will not accept unless it be entire and exempt from falsification. " If we argue, if we obey one precept and not another, the coin of our obedience is broken, Christ will not accept it, lor we have all premised obedience simply and without any restriction whatsoever. If then we make a feint of obeying under the master’s eve, while murmuring secretly, our coin is debased, there is lead in it, all is not silver, and we pay in leaden talents ; there lies our iniquity. We defraud, but it is under God’s eye • now, God is not mocked. ’’ 2nd Sermon / or the feast of S‘ Andrew, § I. P. L., 183, 509. See also Rule, ch. lviii : Si aliquando aliter feceril, ab eo se damnandum sciat quern irridet. the orders that he has given ; as to you, I was, by My wisdom and goodness, bound to make up for the imperfections and human errors of the one who represented Me towards you ; and T would have done so abundantly it, having had faith in My word, you had placed your hope in My fidelity. ”

Let us rather live in obedience, let us make it “ our food ” as Christ Himself did: Mens cibus est ut faciam voluntatem ei-us. Let us ask our Lord for this virtue of obedience in all its perfection, this virtue which surrenders the judgment, will, heart, the whole being to God and to His representative. If we are faithful in asking for this grace, Christ Jesus will certainly grant it to us. Each morning, let us join ourselves to Jesus in His obedience, in the entire submission that He made of Himself at the moment of the Incarnation : “ Behold me, O my God, I give myself to Thee, to Thy good pleasure. Because I love Thee, I will give Thee the homage that consists in submitting my whole being to Thy will whatever it may be. I wish to say in union with Thy Son Jesus : Quia diligo Patrem, et sicut mandatum dedit mihi Pater, sic facio 2. This Will may perhaps be painful to my nature, to my tastes, it may be opposed to my personal ideal, hard to my spirit of independence, but I want to offer Thee this sacrifice as t.estimon}' of my faith in Thy word, of my confidence in Thy power, and of the love I bear to Thee and to Thy Son Jesus. ” We ought to renew this offering every day, even — and especially — if it happen that a work imposed or approved by the Superior responds to our personal tastes. Otherwise, it is greatly to be feared that the natural satis¬ faction we may find in it will carry us away and make us forget that spirit of obedience with which our works ought to be done in order to be pleasing to God.

If we act in this way, our obedience will be sanctified by contact with that of Jesus. He, who infinitely desires that we be “ one with Him 4, ” will grant us to reach little by little the perfection not only of the vow, but of the virtue. And through this virtue, He will finish the work of detaching us from ourselves to unite us entirely to Himself, since we shall no longer have any will but His own, — and, through Him, we shall be united to His Father.

Then all will become more and more pleasant and easy for us because we shall draw our strength from Jesus, Who, in order to communicate it to us, draws it Himself from the Bosom of the Father. Love upholding us, all will be indifferent to us ; we shall have no preference for such or such a work, but we shall accomplish with equal perfection the little things as the great : all coming to us from God, all will likewise lead us to God.²⁵

We shall unceasingly increase that eternal inheritance which we came here to seek and that nothing, if we so wish, can take away from us, because we find it in God Himself. “ O Lord, full of goodness, teach me, for the sake of this goodness, to keep Thy precepts, for the law that falls from Thy lips is infinitely more precious to me than heaps of gold and silver ” : Bonus es tu, [Domine], et in bonitate tua doce me justificationes tuas ; bonum mihi lex oris tui, super millia auri et ar genii 3.

1. Ps. cxviii, 68, 72.

NOTE (See pp. 261 and 280),

Sl Teresa has upon the subject of obedience some words too significant not to be quoted here, and her testimony can sum up all the others : “ It would be a strange thing, " she writes, " if, when God clearly told us to betake ourselves to some work that concerns Him, we were to do nothing but stand still and gaze upon Him because that gives us a greater joy. A pleasant progress this in the love of God ! — to tie His hands through an opinion that He can do us good only in one way.

" I know of some, and have lived among them — I put on one side my own experience, as I said before — who taught me the truth of this ; when I was myself in great distress because of the little time I had, and accordingly was sorry to see them always employed and having much to do, because they were under obedience, and was thinking within myself, and even said as much to them, that spiritual growth was not possible amidst so much hurry and confusion, for they had then not grown much. O Lord, how different are Thy ways from what we imagined them to be ! and how Thou, if a soul be determin¬ ed to love Thee, and resigned in Thy hands, askest nothing of it but obedience ; the sure knowledge of what is for Thy greater honour, and the desire to do it. That soul need not seek out means, nor make a choice of any, for its will is al¬ ready Thine. Thou, O Lord, hast taken upon Thyself to guide it in the way most profitable to it. And even if the superior be not mindful of that soul’s profit, but only of the duties to be discharged in the Community, Thou, O my God, art mindful of it ; Thou preparest its ways, and orderest those things we have to do, so that we find ourselves, without our knowing how, by faith¬ fully observing, for the love of God, the commands that are laid upon us, spiritually growing and making gfeat progress, which afterwards fills us with wonder... " .

And after having brought forward several examples illustrating her teaching, the great Saint stimulates us with one if those exclamations so characteristic of her : " Well, then my children, be not discouraged, for if obedience employs you in outward things, know that even if you are in the kitchen our^ Lord moves amidst the pots and pans, helping us both within and without.

Then becoming grave again, she concludes with this conviction which can only be born in the light from on high : " I believe myself that when Satan sees there is no road that leads more quickly to the highest perfection than this of obedience, he suggests many difficulties under the colour of some good, and makes it distasteful ; let people look well into it, and they will see plainly

Christ the Ideal of the Monk. that I am telling the truth... What I aim at showing is the reason, in my opinion, why obedience furnishes the readiest or the best way for arriving at so blessed a state. That reason is this : as we are never absolute masters of our own will, so as to employ it purely and simply for God, till we subject it wholly to reason, obedience is the true means of bringing aboift that subjec¬ tion ; which can never be brought about by much reasoning, because our nature and self-love can furnish so much on their side that we shall never come to an end, and very often will make that which is most reasonable, if we have no liking for it, to seem folly because we have no inclination to do it. " The Foundations, ch. V. Translated from the Spanish by David Lewis. All this chapter should be read.

Footnotes

1. 1. Dialogue translated by Algar Tborold, pp. 283-284, 302. The Dialogue ' contains an excellent treatise on Obedience . The Saint relates, in magnificent terms, the praise of obedience as she heard it from the Eternal Father. — 2. Act. xvn, 28. — 3. Ps. cxiv, 6-7. — 4- Gen. xxii, 1, 11.
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2. 1. Joan, xiv, 6. — 2. Ibid, vi, 38. — 3. Ibid, iv, 34. — 4. Luc. n, 51. — 5. Matth. v, 18. — 6. Joan, iv, 34.' — 7. Joan, xiv, 31.
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3. x. Luc. xxii, 42. — 2. Marc, xiv, 49. — 3. Cf. Joan, xix, 11. — 4. Ibid, xix, 28. — 5. Ibid, xix, 39. — 6. Rom. v, 19. ↩

4. 1. Matth. xvii, 5. — 2. Ibid, xxvm, 18-20.
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5. 1. Joan, vi, 41-69.. — 2. Reservation of course made in regard to those who, being in good faith, belong to the soul of the Church. — 3* Joan, x, 26. — 4. Luc. x, 16. — 5. Joan, vm, 12. — 6. Dialogue; 0/ Obedience, ch. 1.
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6. 1. Rule, ch. lxxi. — 2. Matth. xix, 17. — 3. Rule, ch. v. — 4. Matth. xix, 21.
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7. 1. S. Petr. Damian. In natale S. Benedicti, P. L. 144. 549. — 2. Ceremonical of Monastic Profession. — 3. See further on § viii and ix.
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8. x. Rule, ch. lviii. — 2. Prologue of the Rule. — 3. Hebr. x, 7. ↩

9. 2. Sap. v, 4. — 3. I Cor. n, 14. — 4. Cf. Ibid. 1, 20-21.
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10. 1. Rule, ch. lxxi. — 2. See in the Dialogue of Sl Catherine of Siena, (Obediance, ch. x) in what an infinite measure obedience is a " good ”. — 3. Rule, ch. lxxi. — 4. Ibid. ch. lxviii. — 3. Ibid. ch. lxxi. — 6. Ibid. ch. xlix. — 7. Ibid. cb. vn. — 8. See an extract from the writings of S* Teresa at the end of this conference. — 9. Ps. xxii, i.
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11. 1. Rule, ch. 11. — 2. Ibid. ch. v.
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12. 1. Rule, ch. v. — 2. Ibid. — 3. Ibid. ch. vii ; Ps. lxv, 12.
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13. x. S. Augustin. Sermo lxix, c. i. P. L. 38, 440. — 2. Ps. cxv, xi. — 3. D. G. Dolan. S4 Gertrude the Great, ch. v. — 4. Matth. xxvi, 26. — 5. This “ in the same way " evidently implies only a simple analogy. ↩

14. 1. Matth. v, 15. — 2. Luc. x, 16. — 3. I Cor. 1, 9,
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15. 1. See text of S* Teresa at the end of this conference. — 2. Rule, ch. v, — 3. Ibid. ch. L.xvm.
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16. 2. Cf. Sap. viii, 1. — 3. Rule, ch. lviii.
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17. 1. Matth. xiv, 29. — 2. Ps. xix, 8. Sl Catherine of Siena frequently comes back upon this point in treating of obedience.
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18. 1. Dialogue, On Obedience. Ch. 1 and H. — 2. Rule, ch. lxviii. 3- Ibid, ch. vii.
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19. 5. Matth. xix, 21, 2 7. — 6. Prologue of the Rule,
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20. 1. Quisquis vel apeiie vel occulta satagit, ut quod, habct in voluntate, hoc ei spiritualis Pater injungat; ipse se seduc.it, si forte sibi quasi de obedientia blandiatur ; neque enim in ea re ipse praelato sed tnagis ei praelatus obedit. S. Bernard. Sermo de tribus ordinibus Ecclesiae. P. L. t. 183, 636. — 2. See note at the end of this Conference. — 3. Rule, ch. v. — 4. Ibid. — 5. Ibid. ch. xlix, lxviii.
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21. X. Cf Matth. VI, 5. — 2. S‘ Mechtilde, The Book oj Special Grace, 4 th Part, ch. xix, How useful it is to break our self-will. — 3- Prologue of the Rule. — 4, Sanciuaire de Vdtne fidele, § 1. (Euvres spirituelles. ↩

22. 1. II Reg. xn, .is-14.
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23. 1. I Reg. XV. — 2. Rule, ch. v. — 3. Ibid. ch. xxxiv. — 2. Ibid. ch. lxxi .
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24. 1. Joan. v, 16. — 2. Matth. ix, 11. — 3- Luc. xix, 7. — 4. Ibid, v, 21. — 5. Joan, vi, 53. — 6. Matth. xi, 1.6-19, — 7. Rule, ch. xxxiv. “ In S‘ Be¬ nedict’s eyes, monastic peace is a benefit which surpasses all others, as mur¬ muring seems to him the worst of evils. ” Abbot Delatte, Commentary on the Rule of Sx Benedict, translated by D. Justin Me Cann, p. 253. The whole passage should be read.
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25. 1. Joan, iv, 34. — 2. Ibid, xiv, 31. — 3. This is the counsel that Sl Gregorv gives us : Obedient me sibi virtutem evacuat qui ad prospera etiam et proprio desiierio anhelat. Moralia, lib. xxxv, c. 14. P. L., 76, 706. — 4. Joan xvu, 21.
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