CHAPTER 71
The Rule, Chapter 71 131 began to sicken, and our father Shenoute was told about it.
The brothers then asked him to pray for him so that he might recover, for he was truly in great pain. Our father the prophet said to them: "What concern is he of yours? He wants to go to his father!" When the brothers heard this, they withdrew. On Saturday, which was the seventh day after the young boy became ill, he fell asleep at the ninth hour of the day. They wrapped him in a shroud, took him out, and buried him.2
St. Benedict's biographer did not have to record a scene like that one.
St. Benedict practiced moderation and common sense. He understands that tempers will flare and people will have disagreements, but he asks all of us to avoid the extreme anger that leads to physical abuse. "After all, it is written: Never do to another what you do not want done to yourself (Tob 4:16). " He has said that to us before.
CHAPTER 71
Mutual Obedience "Obedience is a blessing to be shown by all, not only to the abbot but also to one another as brothers, since we know that it is by this way of obedience that we go to God."
Although the title of this chapter is "Mutual Obedience,"
St. Benedict is careful to clarify that the supreme authority of the monastery is invested in the abbot and other officials.
"Therefore, although orders of the abbot or of the priors appointed by him take precedence, and no unofficial order may supersede them, in every other instance younger monks should obey their seniors with all love and concern. Anyone found objecting to this should be reproved."
132 The Rule, Chapter 71 What begins as a general statement about the obedience all of the monks owe one to the other evolves into a definition of the specific relationship between the seniors and juniors of the monastery. "If a monk is reproved in any way by his abbot or by one of his seniors, even for some very small matter, or if he gets the impression that one of his seniors is angry or disturbed with him, however slightly, he must, then and there without delay, cast himself on the ground at the other's feet to make satisfaction, and lie there until the disturbance is calmed by a blessing/' St. Benedict presumes that a junior will be inclined to offend a senior, and even if the offense is a slight one, the junior must cry "Uncle!"
At the very beginning of Christian monasticism there were no cenobitical communities like the one for which St. Benedict wrote his Rule. A man simply went to the desert and placed himself under the direction of an abba. This was a relationship between master and disciple. The obedient young monk was formed by his elder. He did what the abba told him to do. One elder said, "If you see a young monk by his own will climbing up into heaven, take him by the foot and throw him to the ground, because what he is doing is not good for him."1
St. Benedict, in his community of cenobites, clings to the old concept that the elder must be right and the junior must be wrong. He pulls the junior to the ground. "He must, then and there without delay, cast himself on the ground at the other's feet to make satisfaction, and lie there until the disturbance is calmed by a blessing."
There is another story from the Desert Fathers, though, that reverses this attitude:
There was an elder who had a well-trained novice living with him, and once, when he was annoyed, he drove the novice out of his cell. But the novice sat down outside and waited for the elder. The elder, opening the door, found him there, and did penance before him, saying: "You are my Father
The Rule, Chapter 71 133 because your patience and humility have overcome the weakness of my soul. Come back in; you can be the elder and the Father, I will be the youth and the novice: for by your good work you have surpassed my old age."2
St. Benedict, in this chapter of the Rule, seems to be dead set against giving the juniors a hearing. In chapter 3, however, he seeks their advice. "The reason why we have said all should be called for counsel is that the Lord often reveals what is better to the younger/ ' In chapter 63, he says that rank in the community should be according to entry and not age: "Absolutely nowhere shall age automatically determine rank.
Remember that Samuel and Daniel were still boys when they judged their elders (1 Sam 3; Dan 13:44-62)/ These statements from other parts of the Rule soften the hard blows the young take in chapter 71.
Mutual obedience is sometimes difficult in a monastery.
Even a command of the abbot's that may seem absurd is easier to obey than a request from an ordinary monk who has a little bit of authority in the monastery. If he has no authority whatsoever, we might become indignant when he asks our obedience. Is it sometimes like that in your families and at the places where you work? The point St. Benedict wants to make is that we should all live and work together with respect for one another. He is asking for cooperation. He says it is by this kind of mutual obedience "that we go to God." Going to God will be easier if we're not fighting among ourselves or resisting one another along the way.