Here, St. Benedict continues his list from yesterday:
22. Not to give way to anger.
23. Not to foster a desire for revenge.
24. Not to entertain deceit in the heart.
25. Not to make a false peace.
26. Not to forsake charity.
27. Not to swear, lest perchance one swear falsely.
28. To speak the truth with heart and tongue.
29. Not to return evil for evil.
30. To do no injury, yea, even patiently to bear the injury done us.
31. To love one’s enemies.
32. Not to curse them that curse us, but rather to bless them.
33. To bear persecution for justice sake.
34. Not to be proud.
35. Not to be given to wine.
36. Not to be a great eater.
37. Not to be drowsy.
38. Not to be slothful.
39. Not to be a murmurer.
40. Not to be a detractor.
41. To put one’s trust in God.
42. To refer what good one sees in himself, not to self, but to God.
43. But as to any evil in himself, let him be convinced that it is his own and charge it to himself.
A MAJOR EMPHASIS TODAY IS ON KEEPING ONE’S PEACE BOTH WITHIN AND WITHOUT.
SOME WAYS TO KEEP THAT PEACE ARE MORE DIFFICULT TO MONITOR THAN OTHERS. NOT BEING GIVEN TO DRINK OR SLEEP ARE MUCH MORE EXTERNAL AND EASIER TO TRACK THAN, SAY, FORSAKING CHARITY.
THESE LATTER COMMITMENTS ARE MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO PINPOINT. THE "Easy Stuff" (that is, not being a lout or a lazybones) exist to build up our reserves of charity, of fortitude in the face of persecution, or what have you, so that we do not become wastrels in the ways of God. Similar to resistance training, we do not "warm up" with heavy weights, do we?
Why all of this need for discipline to be godly?
Here the answer is not all that mysterious: We cannot hear the "quiet voice" of the Lord, as revealed by the prophet Elijah, if our lives are loud.
And as it normally goes, the raucous of modern life is increasing by the decibles.
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