Blessed Schuster’s Daily Thoughts on the Rule: Monday after the Second Sunday of Lent

Tuesday after the 2nd Sunday of Lent
Station at St Balbina

Authentic and False Teachers

1. The station is on the little Aventine, at Saint Balbina, near the baths of Caracalla. The Gospel reading treats of the false didascali [teachers], who compromise and sully the Lord’s doctrine.

The external form under which Christianity first presented itself to the Greco-Roman world was that of an Ecclesia [assembly] and of a didascaleion [school] for the teaching of a divine gnosis [knowledge].*

After the Captivity, opposite the authority of the priests, there had arisen in Israel the School of the Scribes, which easily deviated towards a pure formalism.

Today in the Gospel Jesus reacts against such a deviation, observing that the said teachers do indeed sit on the chair of Moses, but did not inherit his spirit.

Their doctrine is austere, to be sure, without compromise or accommodation of any kind; but the practice of their life is quite different. Dicunt et non faciunt. (Matt 23:3: ‘They speak, but do not do.’)

On the tomb of Saint Gregory at Saint Peter’s was carved, among others, this elogium: Implebat actu quidquid sermone docebat. (‘He fulfilled in his life what he taught by his preaching.’)

Saint Benedict is perfectly in line with the tradition of the Church when he presents himself to the disciple as an authorised master, and defines the cenobium as a Dominici schola servitii [school of the Lord’s service].

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2. Today in the Gospel, to the haughtiness of the Pharisees is contrasted the humility of Jesus Christ. They are two interesting sketches. The scribes are seated majestically on the chair of Moses, spitting out sentences and competing to see who can best succeed in rendering the path of eternal salvation more rugged and almost impossible. In consequence, the little people are discouraged and do not follow them any more; but they themselves are careful not to touch even with a finger the mountain of precepts that they have heaped up for the others.

This is the principal motive for the discretion which, following the example of Christ, one breathes in the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Man already finds in himself and in his passions such and so many difficulties for his salvation, that one ought to add to them as little weight as possible, so as not to render the Christian life and the monastic observance too heavy.

The Holy Patriarch demands very little: ‘The Abbot should order and arrange everything in such a manner that souls may be saved, and that which the brethren must do, they may do without motive for murmuring.’ (Rule, Ch. 41) Less than this…!

ttle: ‘The Abbot should order and arrange everything in such a manner that souls may be saved, and that which the brethren must do, they may do without motive for murmuring.’ (Rule, Ch. 41) Less than this…!

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3. How different from the Rabbis is the school of Christ! ‘Do not arrogate for yourselves the title of masters and of fathers, since the only master and father is Christ. The greatest among you should consider himself as your servant, since he who lifts himself up shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.’ (Matt 23:9-12)

The Cassinese Patriarch [Saint Benedict] was referring precisely to this Gospel text when he wrote about the Abbot:

‘The Abbot, then, since Faith teaches us that he holds in the Community the place of Christ, should be called lord and Abbot, non by his own presumption, but in honour and for love of Christ. Let him however meditate and show himself worthy of such an honour.’ (Rule, Ch. 63)

Two things are to be noted here: Quia vices Christi creditur agere… [For he is believed to act in the place of Christ]. One should, therefore, regard the Abbot in the light of Faith; otherwise, there will appear the mere man, and perhaps a poor man!

Furthermore: he holds the place of Christ. Here are defined the range and the limits of abbatial authority.

If they are changed, it will no longer be Saint Benedict’s concept, and the structure of the monastic institution is altered.

[*This use of the Greek term for knowledge, gnosis, should not be confused with its use in the heresy of Gnosticism, so called because it promised a hidden knowledge to its initiates.—tr.]