1. In the first place to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength.
2. Then, one’s neighbor as one’s self.
3. Then, not to kill.
4. Not to commit adultery.
5. Not to steal.
6. Not to covet.
7. Not to bear false witness.
8. To honor all men.
9. And what one would not have done to himself, not to do to another.
10. To deny one’s self in order to follow Christ.
11. To chastise the body.
12. Not to seek after pleasures.
13. To love fasting.
14. To relieve the poor.
15. To clothe the naked.
16. To visit the sick.
17. To bury the dead.
18. To help (those) in trouble.
19. To console the sorrowing.
20. To hold one’s self aloof from worldly ways.
21. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
The famous motto of the Benedictines is "ora et labora" (or, "pray and work"). These two actions summarize the blend of active and contemplative life of the Rule.
Why not just prayer? Are not monks considered pure "contemplatives"?
On the first order, human beings are of soul and body; therefore, our actions will tend to the needs of both. On the second, we are individuals and yet a community (or, parts and a whole); thus, our focus will not discriminate between the concerns of one over another. Indeed, care about the harmony of parts and whole.
We also have from St. Benedict a ranking of such good works-- or so, it appears to me:
The tell is the Holy Father's use of "then" as well as his foregrounding of the Great Commandment of Christ as the first and second *preeminently* good work.
These are signs of precedence.
As a consequence, we see the language of the Decalogue closely behind preceding even the Works of Mercy. We also see other items that were never directly from Scripture that also can properly be called "Christian"-- such as, "to honor all men." While easily overlooked in preference for hard yet "easy to spot" guidelines, these are what we would call dispositions of a true Christian disciple.
We also see prescripts that suit the struggles of the religious in his state in life. Our neophyte in the monastery is not merely to fast at appointed times (as are the laity), but he is to *love* fasting. Similarly, he is not merely to live out his vow of stability, rooted in a fixed liturgical setting (again, as are the laity who should br discouraged from "parish shopping"), but indeed to hold himself *aloof* from "worldly ways", etc.
In total (combining today with the next two days' readings), there are 73 partciular "good works" listed out by the Holy Father.
This number is not arbitrary, so it appears, because the number of chapters of the entire Holy Rule of St. Benedict also appears to be 73 in number.
This number finds itself in only one other context: the canon of the Holy Bible according to Catholic Tradition is 73 books (or, 46 of the Old Testament + 27 of the New Testament = 73 Books in Total). This reflects the Holy Rule's commitment to living out the theological truths of the Faith in their fullness (as the "depositum fidei") as revealed to Mother Church.
Above all, the expectations of the monastic life converges on the final point of today-- "to prefer nothing to Christ."
This last precept binds the reading and reflection for the day:
The life of sin in short is to prefer something less than the Source of All, to rank something created over the Creator (a fallacy!), especially under the aspect of His own self-sacrifice in the person of Jesus Christ.
Ingratitude then-- the anti-Eucharist-- as an object of scorn by the Holy Father is likely why the devotion to the Sacred Heart first emerged in the Benedictine monastery centuries before the revelations to St. Margarite Mary. But that is just my own pet theory.
Be well!
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