Today, July 11, as our Church celebrates the Memorial of Benedict, abbot, our Church first invites us to read and reflect on a passage from the first letter of the apostle Paul to the Philippians (3:7---4:1, 4-9) entitled "Rejoice in the Lord always". Our treasure, which follows, is from the Rule of Benedict, abbot.
Saint Benedict was born in Nursia in Umbria about the year 480. Educated at Rome, he began the eremite life at Subiaco, where he gathered disciples, and then departed for Monte Casino. There he established the famous monastery and composed the Benedict Rule. Because this rule was subsequently adopted throughout Europe, he received the title of patriarch of Western monasticism. He died on March 21, 547, but since the end of the eighth century, his memory has been observed on this day.
The monastic movement that began in Egypt and Syria in the third century and soon spread to the Western Mediterranean used and produced all sorts of texts: lives of saints, monastic travelogues, descriptions of monastic institutions, and homilies or talks on spiritual topics. In the fourth century a new type of text emerged: monastic rules. They laid down the basic organization of a monastic community, provided guidelines for the abbot and other office holders, and explained spiritual principles for the monks.
The most successful of these rules is the "Rule of Monasteries." It was written by Benedict of Nursia after 529 and is commonly referred to as the Rule of St Benedict. It reflects Benedict's own long experience as a monk and abbot, and his study of the older monastic tradition which he uses extensively, especially an older text called the Rule of the Master by an anonymous author.
The Rule of St Benedict consists of a Prologue and seventy-three chapters, ranging from a few lines to several pages. They provide teaching about the basic monastic virtues of humility, silence, and obedience as well as directives for daily living. The Rule prescribes times for common prayer, meditative reading, and manual work; it legislates for the details of common living such as clothing, sleeping arrangements, food and drink, care of the sick, reception of guests, recruitment of new members, journeys away from the monastery, etc. While the Rule does not shun minute instructions, it allows the abbot to determine the particulars of common living according to his wise discretion.
Saint Paul, according to Acts, established at Philippi the first Christian community in Europe. Paul's letter to the Christians at Philippi was written while he was in a prison somewhere, indeed in danger of death. Although under guard for preaching Christ, Paul rejoices at the continuing progress of the gospel and expresses gratitude for the Philippians' renewed concern and help in an expression of thanks most clearly found at Phillipi. Much of the letter is devoted to instruction about unity and humility within the Christian community at Philippi and exhortations to growth, joy, and peace in their life together. The letter seems to be drawing to a close at the end of what we number as Philippi II, as Paul reports the plans of his helper Timothy and of Epaphroditus to come to Philippi, and even Paul's own expectation that he will go free and come to Philippi. Yet quite abruptly, Paul erupts into warnings against false teachers who threaten to impose on the Philippians the burdens of the Mosaic law, including circumcision. The section that follows, is a vigorous attack on these Judaizers or Jewish Christian teachers, giving us insights into Paul's own life story and into the doctrine of justification, the Christian life, and ultimate hope.
