Holy Wit

"Let him (the Abbot) make no distinction of persons in the monastery. Let him not love one more than another, unless it be one whom he findeth more exemplary in good works and obedience...

"For he is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery, when he is called by his name, according to the saying of the Apostle: “You have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry Abba (Father).”"

"...and going forth from the rank of their brethren well trained for single combat in the desert, [the Hermits] are able, with the help of God, to cope single-handed without the help of others, against the vices of the flesh and evil thought."

"But as we advance in the religious life and faith, we shall run the way of God’s commandments with expanded hearts and unspeakable sweetness of love; so that never departing from His guidance and persevering in the monastery in His doctrine till death, we may by patience share in the sufferings of Christ, and be found worthy to be coheirs with Him of His kingdom."

"Our hearts and our bodies must, therefore, be ready to do battle under the biddings of holy obedience; and let us ask the Lord that He supply by the help of His grace what is impossible to us by nature."

“Knowest thou not that the patience of God leadeth thee to penance?” For the good Lord saith: “I will not the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live.”

St. Benedict now asks us where are we to go?

If hearing this thou answerest, “I am he,” God saith to thee: “If thou wilt have true and everlasting life, keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile; turn away from evil and do good; seek after peace and pursue it.”

“Run whilst you have the light of life, that the darkness of death overtake you not.”Citing St. Paul yet again, our Holy Father Benedict reminds the audience that we are sleep walking through life's treacheries.  Both sin and death-- brothers of oblivion-- have taken their share of humanity in their second fall.  As we wake, we must stir ourselves from the torpor of the Void to the call of the Sun.

"Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart, and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions of thy loving Father, that by the toil of obedience thou mayest return to Him from whom by the sloth of disobedience thou hast gone away.""Sloth of disobedience" is a phrase so unique to St. Benedict that anyone using it invariably has the old abbot in mind. Few historical figures have coined such an exact phrase to transact a perrenial concept—one that binds our civilization's continuity by naming obedience as the very possibility of tradition itself!

In the Extraordinary Rite, today would comprise "Good Samaritan Sunday" [In the Ordinary Rite, this reading is reserved for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time (usually, mid-July)]:

A continuation of Hexameron (Homily I, cont. 2):