On Obedience and Humility

And he sat down and called the twelve; and he said to them, If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. And he took a child, and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them […] (Mark 9: 35-36)
“The first step of humility is unhesitating obedience […]” 4 writes Benedict at the beginning of chapter five. In Mark’s gospel, quoted above, Jesus asks for that “unhesitating” obedience to serve the others. Benedict requests the monks to do the same kind of obedience through silence, listening, and humility.

Interestingly, chapter six on silence appears in The Rule between chapter five on obedience and chapter seven on humility. It suggests that Benedict might have viewed silence as a path from obedience to humility. This sequence likely serves a purpose within The Rule. Perhaps Benedict aimed to provide monks with a guiding principle for obedience. As the text indicates, obedience and humility are closely linked, with silence acting as the connecting element.

The suitable silence used to listen to God, listen to the abbot, listen to the brothers or even the guests.

The Rule requests to the monks what Jesus asked His disciples in John’s gospel quoted above: serve and not be served. Service to the brothers within the monastery and guests is fundamentally part of the monastic life.

It is also central to The Rule caring for the sick brothers, the service to the kitchen, the reading during meals, the attention to the weaker brothers or even, as stated in chapter 53, the reception to guests.

According to Benedict, this kind of service reflects obedience and loving humility towards others.

Although the challenge of humility Benedict sees central to monastic life is murmuring. A sinful human behaviour, he says.4 The repeated reference to murmur in chapter six and again in chapters 34, 35, 40, 41 and 53, represents the importance of the matter to Benedict. Why is Benedict classifying murmuring a sin, one may ask? I think Benedict sees murmuring as a dark moment of the soul in the spirit of The Rule. Contrary to being humble and accepting what he requests, the brother’s murmur exercises disobedience.
On the other hand, there is the question of the rule guiding the brothers’ lives. The strong connection between obedience and humility expressed in The Rule suggests that murmuring would be corrosive and challenging for the authority that is crucial for a group of people.
In this case, monks live together within the walls of a monastery.

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4 Benedict, The Rule of St. Benedict, ed. by Carolinne White, Pengiun Books (Penguin Group, 2008)..