Today’s Chapter: Listening to the Holy Spirit
Chapter 3: Of calling the Brethren to Council
As often as any important matters have to be transacted in the monastery, let the Abbot call together the whole community, and himself declare what is the question to be settled. And, having heard the counsel of the brethren, let him consider within himself, and then do what he shall judge most expedient. We have said that all should be called to council, because it is often to the younger that the Lord revealeth what is best. But let the brethren give their advice with all subjection and humility, and not presume stubbornly to defend their own opinion; but rather let the matter rest with the Abbot’s discretion, that all may submit to whatever he shall judge to be best. Yet, even as it becometh disciples to obey their master, so doth it behove him to order all things prudently and with justice.
Having described the Abbot, who holds the place of Christ the head, St Benedict turns in this chapter to the relationship between the head and the body. The example of our heavenly Abbess continues to be an important key for understanding, as Madre Cànopi explains:
As the flock follows the shepherd, so the monks should follow the abbot. Alongside this image of following, there emerges in the holy Rule another image which sees the monks drawn up in a circle around their abbot, like the Apostles around Mary in the Cenacle, in expectation of the Holy Spirit. Evidence of this is seen in a particular way in the third chapter: The convocation of the brethren to counsel. Short as regards the number of verses, but very dense in content, it is very revelatory of Benedictine monastic spirituality: here we see how, at the foundation of life, there must be the humility to ask counsel, the faith which does not make distinctions of persons, the simplicity to set forth one’s own thought, even accepting not being ‘taken into consideration’, the desire to seek above all the common good.
In what sense does this chapter, too, have a Marian soul? Under different aspects, but it is above all rereading it in light of the event of the Annuntiation that we discover its suggestive beauty.
There was in Heaven a very important matter to decide. The Lord, sending His angel (the abbot), ‘convokes’ Mary (the monks), and she ‘listens’ to what is proposed to her in the name of the Lord by the divine messenger. When he has finished speaking, she, with all the submission which humility inspires in her, expresses her own thought: ‘How is it possible? I know not man….’ (cf Lk 1:34) And God, still by means of His angel, offers her an explanation, as if saying to her: ‘Yes, your hesitation is right; do not forget, however, that for the Lord nothing is impossible.’ Mary then decides freely in her heart and pronounces her ‘yes’: ‘Fiat, may there become of me what you have said’ (cf Lk 1:38). (Anna Maria Cànopi, Nel ‘Si’ di Maria, translation by a Benedictine monk, pp. 24-25)
The parallel, of course, is not exact. God the Father did not stand in need of asking Mary’s counsel before deciding on the plan of salvation He had predestined from all eternity. Yet the respect that He shows for her freedom is an essential part of how He desires that plan to unfold. If God shows such respect for the intelligence and freedom of His creatures, how much more should the Abbot desire to seek the honest opinions and the free consent of the brethren before implementing his plans.
Madre Cànopi continues:
As we know, the Annunciation was Mary’s ‘Pentecost’. Thus, it is in the light of Pentecost that this short—but very important—chapter of the Rule should also be read. Like the Apostles in the Cenacle with Mary, the monastic community too forms a true and proper living organism, a body, an ecclesia founded on Christ and animated by His Spirit: a family of God. For this reason, every time that there is something important to decide, it gathers together and considers together what is best to do.
In this convocation the abbot is not a simple moderator, nor a group leader, nor a manager. He is a father who enters into an affectionate dialogue with the other members of the family, whom he esteems, from whom he asks for collaboration, considering them mature and capable of assuming their share of responsibility in the choices of the common life. The abbot, in listening to the brethren, is listening to the Holy Spirit Who speaks to the Church, to ‘this concrete Church’ which is the monastic family. He has, in a special way, the gift of discernment precisely in order, like Mary, to gather in his heart and examine the various opinions, and then—always in the light of the Holy Spirit—to take the decision that will be for the common good.
The abbot’s decision is thus the fruit of a wisdom which comes from on high, even if sometimes it must seem, humanly, to be folly.
The abbot should always remain—more than everyone—at the school of Wisdom in order to be able to fulfill his ministry with fidelity; he should know how to discern authentic inspirations from simple human reasonings, perhaps inclined towards choices of conveniences.
For spiritual decision, then, what counts is not human intelligence and science, nor ability and facility in speaking. In Chapter importance is given to the thought of the younger as to that of the old—without prejudices—because we know that the Lord often reveals to the younger the best solution (cf v. 3).
What respect for the person! There is attentive listening towards all because there is attention to the Spirit Who blows where He wills. To the simplest, to the humblest, even at times to the most naïve, the Lord reveals more clearly and profoundly His designs and His will. We know that Jesus Himself prayed to the Father saying: ‘I render praise to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and the learned and hast revealed them to the little ones’ (Mt 11:25). For the little ones do not put up a screen against the light and the voice of the Spirit. (Cànopi, pp. 25-26)
Having celebrated three great feasts of Our Lady in the past week, the upcoming Ember Days will begin with the Station at her great church in the heart of Rome. May these days of grace find us united around her like the Apostles in the Cenacle, listening attentively and with open hearts to the voice of the Holy Spirit calling us to conversion.
