Different from the world’s way – 8 May 2015

Your way of acting should be different from the world’s way; the love of Christ must come before all else.  You are not to act in anger or nurse a grudge.  Rid your heart of all deceit.  Never give a hollow greeting of peace or turn away when someone needs your love.  Bind yourself to no oath lest it prove false, but speak the truth with heart and tongue.  [The Rule of St Benedict, ch 4, The Tools for Good Works]

Different from the world’s way…  Well, there are substantial forces around us urging us not to be different.  St Benedict is pointing out that sincere allegiance to Christ will always be different from the world’s ways.  And indeed, what he teaches here is neither more nor less than Jesus taught.  One of the best modern commentators on the Rule of St Benedict is Sister Joan Chittister, and this is what she has to say:  Dissimulation, half-answers, vindictive attitudes, a false presentation of self are all barbs in the soul…   She points out that Benedict is addressing now our culture which has made crafty packaging a high art.  Life with Christ and in his community, she says, has something to do with being who we say we are, claiming our truths, opening our hearts, giving ourselves to the other pure and unglossed.

Always in our decisions and choices there is the question of priority and what is not negotiable.  The love of Christ must come before all else, says Benedict.  This love is expressed by our living as he taught.  It may be erratic, of course; we may not have a high opinion of ourselves at times – indeed, it’s preferable if we don’t.  But even our sense of coming short evidences that in our hearts is the will to prefer Christ, as Benedict puts it in another place.  It is the heart that God sees.

You are not to act in anger or nurse a grudge.  Notice that he is not saying anger is wrong.  He is talking about how we act towards others.  In the contemplative life nursing grudges is going to bring everything to a halt.

Then there is deceit…  Rid your heart of all deceit.  Never give a hollow greeting of peace or turn away when someone needs your love.  Bind yourself to no oath lest it prove false, but speak the truth with heart and tongue.  As we know, the hollow greeting of peace is quite common.  Turning away from someone in need…  Speaking the truth must be with heart as well as tongue, says Benedict.  It doesn’t mean beating someone over the head with what we perceive to be the truth or the facts – it means first encountering the truth in our own hearts and understanding as well as we can, even if we actually say nothing.  In the contemplative life we learn how it is not necessary always to react in words to everything we see or hear. 

Benedict’s main point here is the difference – different from the world’s way.  It is not that we are superior, it is not elitism.  It is simply a preference for Christ.