The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 4 pt. 1
This chapter entails a long list of what our Father Benedict calls the tools for, or instruments of, good works.
Numbers 10-13 in this chapter:
To deny oneself in order to follow Christ.
To chastise the body.
Not to become attached to pleasures.
To love fasting.
provide a fascinating perspective from which to view number 9:
And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
Our culture generally conceives of the golden rule with regard to simple pleasure or pain: "I don't want to feel pain, so I won't cause it in others," but our Father Benedict prescribes a treatment of oneself that is difficult and unpleasant in the service of transformation.
So perhaps I should ask myself the question, "which me does not want to be treated in such and such a way," when considering my actions towards others. Is it the me that wants to be transformed and is willing to suffer difficulty and unpleasantness in order to change? Or is it the me that simply wants to feel pleasure and not pain?
The gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church is not only comfort and peace, but fire to purify and power to re-form our lives in the image of Christ. There is pain as well as pleasure in any such experience of the Divine. Yet it is God's love for us that subjects us to difficult formational circumstances so that we can become whom we are created to be. When under the guidance of Spirit the golden rule can seem harsh in the service of transformation, but it is always good.
Br. Chad
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