No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else. RB 72.7
Today’s Gospel is situated in the midst of Jesus’ final discourse to his disciples at the Last Supper. By this point in the meal, Jesus has alluded to his coming Passion, saying to them at the opening, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer…” (Lk 22:15), he has instituted the Eucharist in the offering of bread and wine, and he has just revealed that he is to be betrayed by one them at table with him. With this news, the disciples begin to question one another, “asking which of them it was that would do this.”
Jesus had warned them of his coming passion, saying in his second passion prediction back in chapter nine, “Let these words sink into your ears, for the Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men” but, as the narrator tells us, “…they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.” (Lk 9:44-45).
Now it appears that the inconceivable, that God’s anointed should suffer at the hands of men, is not only a possibility but an imminent reality that is now pressing down upon them. Moreover, this evil will be initiated not from some obvious and external enemy but as a deliberate act of betrayal from within their own company.
They look about the room at one another, as people whose personal and communal sense of identity has been thrown into confusion. The common reference points around which they have been accustomed to ordering their understanding of God, world, neighbor and God’s chosen people Israel have been upended, yet they have not yet grasped what is to be set up in its place. So they grasp about for something to hold on to.
At this point, our Gospel begins, “Then an argument broke out among them about which of them should be regarded as the greatest.”
With all these relationships in disarray from their point of view, they turn to one another, but now not like a community in process of formation by Jesus, but more like a group of individuals striving against one another in a futile attempt to reestablish order among themselves but from no other source than themselves. The Greek word, translated here as “argument” is “philoneikia” and appears only here in the NT. It means first of all “love of strife, contention” but it can also mean “love of victory”, “desire for glory”.
Succumbing to the “love of strife and contention”, they have separated themselves from the way of Jesus, which in its own right, is a love of victory and a desire for glory, but his victory is the victory of the Cross and his desire for glory is the glorification of the Father. His way is not that of strife and contention but of peace.
Jesus intervenes in order to steers the disciples back to his way, by placing it in contrast to worldly social models built on power and domination.
“Benefactor” was a common term in the surrounding Greek culture of the time that in the words of biblical scholar James Edwards, “identifies a widespread class of individuals of power, position and means who celebrated themselves and were celebrated by others in public places.” The apostles would have recognized this title immediately and as members of an oppressed class who suffered under these individuals would have been quick to disassociate themselves from this term and its implications.
In Jesus’ model, the greatest are to be as though they were the youngest, like a child in antiquity, one who has no status of his own. Or like a servant who places himself lower than those whom he serves, as though they were greater, like one who serves those who sit at table. This is the way of Jesus himself. He is among them as the one who serves.
The question for us this morning is how does St. Benedict help us in a practical way to be a community that faces its trials and difficulties, including the small ones of daily life, without succumbing to the human tendency to fall back on the way of strife and contention but walk the way of transformation with Jesus, the path to true victory and glory through humble service in the patience of the Cross?
I suppose we could say that the whole of his Rule that strives to bring this about. It’s basically its purpose. Be that as it may, I propose that a good entry point is the great chapter 72 of the Rule, The Good Zeal of Monks, and its presentation of the classical “two ways”.
The way of “philoneikia”, “argument”, would correspond to “the evil zeal of bitterness” that leads to hell, whereas the way of Jesus, humble service, would correspond to the good zeal, “which separates from evil and leads to God and everlasting life.”
We can get a better grasp of the content of this “good zeal” in all its fullness if we read this chapter backward from v. 11, that is, “Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ”. For he is “good zeal”, it’s source, embodiment and full realization of all of the prescriptions in this chapter, which serves a kind of summation of the whole Rule.
“Zeal” indicates intense striving. Good zeal, St. Benedicts says, must be practiced with “ferventissimo amore”, the most ardent love. It is the soul that has been overtaken by this most ardent love that is able to drive out the promptings of evil zeal from the heart. The love of contention and strive that the apostles experienced we can arouse easily enough on our own, but this most ardent love for the good zeal that is Christ is a gift, always only the fruit of grace.
St. Benedict grounds the practice of this good zeal in chapter 12 of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans: They should each try to be the first to show respect to the other (Rm 12:10). This striving after mutual respect is a competition for a new kind of greatness in which everyone is raised up and that builds community. A greatness that is that is rooted in the dignity of the human person and his true status as being “in Christ.”
Many things could be said about each of the verses of this rich chapter, but I will conclude with v. 7, as a practical example of good zeal, which St. Benedict places at the center of Chapter and which Aquinata Bockmann claims is the goal toward which the whole of the Rule wishes to train us: “No one is to follow what he judges useful to himself, but what seems more useful to the other.”
To follow what I judge more useful to myself is to allow myself to be guided by ego-centric choices that may seem good to me and to my fulfillment and happiness, but do not actually have their origin in Christ and are thus exercised outside of him and place us at the margins of the community as his body.
It is matter of being habitually turned to the other in a self-forgetfulness that truly sees the other in the light of Christ and is ready to serve him in this light. It means seeing my brother not first of all as someone that needs to be changed according to some personal ideal but being open to seeing him in his uniqueness, in his mystery in Christ, as someone whose qualities, abilities, history and so on are different than mine. In him there is a ray of the divine glory that is to be discovered as well as the reality of what St. Benedict says in the next verse, weaknesses of body and character that are to be borne with the utmost patience.
This task is easier to the degree that each of us recognizes in himself his own weaknesses and need to be borne with with the utmost patience. For in some respect each of us is weak and each of us is strong. It is from this self-knowledge that we can genuinely see ourselves as lower than the others and look up to them. Here, it is helpful to recall the seventh step of humility: if we see ourselves as the least and believe it in our hearts it is quite natural to give honor to others.
Lastly, St. Benedict concludes this chapter with the words, “and may he bring us altogether to everlasting life.” The Lord leads us “all together”. When I love my brother with good zeal, I walk along with him at his side, at his pace, speeding up where I need to or slowing down where it is called for, always attentive to what is useful to him, and always mindful that it is “all together” and not simply as individuals that Christ is leading us to everlasting life.
St. Benedict shows us the path in service of the true king, Christ the Lord, victor over sin and death, who leads on to everlasting glory.
Let us pray that the Lord may bring about this mystery among us.
