Chapter 5
FIFTH CHAPTER
Obedience The first degree of humility is obedience without delay.1
This is becoming to those who hold nothing dearer to them than Christ. Because of the holy servitude which they have professed, whether from the fear of hell or for the glory of everlasting life, as soon as something has been commanded by a superior, they know no hesitation in carrying it out, just as if it were a divine command. Of these the Lord says: "At the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me" (Ps. xvii, 45). Likewise he says to the teachers (the Apostles): "He that heareth you, heareth me"
(Luke x, 16).
Such as these, therefore, immediately abandoning their own interests and forsaking their own wills—their hands soon un occupied—and leaving unfinished what they were doing, with the swift step of obedience, follow by their conduct the voice of him who commands. And in one moment, as it were, with the swiftness of the fear of God, the said order of the master and the finished task of the disciple are rapidly joined together by those who are animated by love to go forward on the way of everlasting life. They thereby enter the narrow way of which the Lord says: "Strait is the way that leadeth to life" (Matt, vii, 14). In doing this they live not in accordance with their own personal judgments nor obey the dictates of their own de sires and pleasures but walk in accordance with another's judg ment and direction. Consequently, they abide in monasteries and wish to have an abbot placed over them. Without doubt such individuals find their motive in the words of the Lord in which he says: "I came not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me" (John vi, 38).
But this obedience will only then be acceptable to God and pleasing to men if what has been enjoyed will be done, not haltingly nor indifferently, not coldly nor with murmuring, nor 1 Obedience is closely related to humility. It is a concrete outward manifesta tion of that virtue. Like humility it originates in the fear of the Lord. As in old-monastic teaching, the fear of the Lord is three-fold in character, so also is ooedience (cf. HR., chap, vii. Excursus I).
even with a negative response; for the obedience that is render ed to a superior is rendered to God, since he himself has said:
"He that heareth you, heareth me" (Luke x, 16). It should also be rendered cheerfully by the disciple, because "God loveth a cheerful giver" (2 Cor. ix, 7). For when the monk obeys with an ill will, and when he murmurs not only with his lips but also in his heart, even if he executes the task enjoined, it will still no longer be pleasing to God, who regards the murmuring heart; and for such a task he receives no reward; on the contrary, he receives rather the penalty of the murmurer unless he atones and mends his ways.1
Excursus.
Obedience.—The Holy Rule allows no doubt to arise in our minds that obedience is predominantly the virtue of the cenobite. The old monachism was not long in recognizing its decisive significance. It was a saying of St. Antony:
"He who wants to arrive quickly at perfection dare not be his own teacher and dare not follow his own will, even when that will is the right one; much
1 In the conception of the Holy Rule, the service of obedience is placed on a par with the prudent order of the abbot and the action of the obeying monk. The Rule takes it for granted that the commands of the abbot will be in conformity with prudence and discretion. It is one of the undeniable facts of experience that a soldier will gladly obey an able leader even when he sends him on a mission that may mean his death. The same holds good of the disciple who will willingly listen to a good teacher also when he is given a difficult assignment. In like manner, a sick man will place implicit confidence in a good physician and consent without objection to painful surgery should the latter think it necessary. Even the slave serves a good and just master without murmuring. Sheep follow a good shepherd also if he must lead them at times over arid areas to greener pastures. For this reason the Holy Rule makes the abbot answerable for the obedience of the disciple
(cf. chap. ii). An able abbot will not only take the obedience of a monk for grant ed but also draw it out by trying to develop the capacity for obedience that re sides in every living creature. —In the writings of Lerins, there are some addresses recommending the obedience of the monk, which reveal a remarkable under standing of the human heart and its impulses (PL. 1, 833-839). "The more humble and obedient we are, the lighter and sweeter will be the yoke of the Lord. The more obedient we are to our fathers and superiors, the more readily will God listen to our prayers ... He who wants assurance that his actions will be recorded and also found good in the eyes of God must prefer nothing to obedience, indeed, prefer nothing to obedience be he young or old . . . Let no ancient appear so learn ed that obedience does not become him, since it was not unbecoming to God himself. For, whereas humility and obedience are a necessity for the young, they are an ornament to the dignity of age. The monk makes good progress and brings his life to a good end who works daily as if he were just starting out. But the disobedient monk boasts of his lack of obedience. 'How tenaciously,' he says,
'did I not oppose him (the superior)? How firmly did 1 not refuse to give in to him? How bravely did I not talk back to him? He thought that 1 would always kow-tow to him' " (Address #3).
Ill rather is he to follow, as everone must, the precept of the Lord to deny him self and renounce his own will. For it was so that the Savior spoke: 'I came
. . . not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me' (John vi, 38). The will of Christ was not opposed to the will of his Father, ft was befitting rather that he who came to teach obedience should not be found disobedient by wanting to have his own way. And how much more shall we be judged as disobedient if we carry out our own will?" It is immaterial whether or not these words as recorded by Rufinus in his Hhtoria Monachorum were actually the words of the great patriarch (chap. xxxi). They embody, however, a selfevident bit of monastic wisdom. St. Pachomius "admonished all monks to be ready to obey, so that they might by this short road easily reach the heights of perfection . . . For they thus live more for God than for themselves" (Vitae
Pat rum V, i, 25).
Abbot Cassian heaped lavish praise upon the monks of Pachomius be cause of their exemplary obedience, which impressed him as "possible only at times with us, whether rendered by a monk to his superiors or received by a superior from his monks" (Institutes iv, 1). Obedience transforms, a monk
"daily into a man crucified to the world and into a life-long martyr" (Con ferences xviii, 7). Four monks came to the great Pambo one day and called his attention in passing to their virtues: one to his fasting, a second to his poverty, and a third to his charity. "Of the fourth one the three others reported that after 22 years he still remained under obedience to one abbot. Whereupon
Pambo told them: 'the virtue of this fourth one is the greatest. You others have acquired your virtues by following your own way, but this one parted with his own will and did the will of another. Such men are "confessors" (in the sense of martyrs) if they persevere unto the end.' "
Indeed, it is on account of obedience that the cenobite ranks above the hermit. Abbot Rufus had this to say on the subject: "He who remains sub ordinate to a spiritual father has greater reward than the anchorite ... I saw in heaven four degrees of rank: a sick man who was thankful to God; a man who practiced the virtue of hospitality; one who lived in solitude and saw no man; and one who lived under obedience to a 'father' and was obedient for the Lord's sake. But the obedient man wore a golden chain (a symbol of obedience) and a shield and was enveloped in greater splendor than the others.
I asked: 'Why does this minor one (the cenobite) shine with greater glory than the rest?' And the answer was: 'The others followed their own will, the obedient one disregarded the promptings of his will, relying only on God and his abbot. For this reason he shines with a greater brightness than the others.'
Wherefore there is something glorious about obedience when it is taken upon oneself out of love for God. You have, therefore, only a meager inkling of the goodness in an act of obedience. O obedience, thou salvation of all believers:
O obedience, source of all the virtues; O obedience, that permits the king dom to be found; that opens the gates of heaven and draws man away from earth, that nourishes the saints, that is the companion of the angels!"