Echoes from the Bell Tower

“You are not to act in anger, or nurse a grudge.”
Rule of Saint Benedict 4.22-23

This quote is taken from the Rule of St. Benedict chapter 4, On the Tools for Good Works. I have written several times about this list of seventy-three “works” – sometimes rendered “tools” - of the spiritual craft. Above are the twenty-second and twenty-third on the list. These are difficult things – it’s easier to just be angry and nurse a grudge.

They are grouped with other “tools” that have to do with acting differently than the world. Human society is a place of violence. I don’t mean to sound cynical or negative, it’s a simple truth. Human history, in a sense, is the history of human conflict. One could say the same about every person born into human society in every generation, each of us can see our own personal history as a series of conflicts and conflict resolution … well, hopefully we see the need and benefit of resolution, at any rate.

It doesn’t take long for a young person to come up against someone, or something, that thwarts him or her, the “push-back” that engages the brain’s fight-or-flight mechanism. Even an infant experiences frustration when he/she doesn’t get his/her way!

Recently, a small child was with us in our Abbey Church, her family was visiting. She was constantly trying to squirm out of her mother’s grasp to wander off and explore. Normal stuff for a toddler – healthy, even - but in Church adults get frustrated by the noise a child makes testing out all the kneelers, trying to express herself vocally at toddler volume, and at full volume expressing her displeasure when mom tries to corral her again.

Adults are not toddlers. Benedict is keenly aware, nonetheless, that sometimes full-grown human beings act as if they are still children. They express displeasure with angry outbursts, or deal with frustration using mean and judgmental criticism without once considering the other person’s perspective or point-of-view; as if one’s own “narrative” is the only possible basis for truth. We’ve all been there; we’ve all done it!

St. Benedict wants us to wake up and realize with constant attention that we are meant to grow into the “freedom of the children of God” – which is not a childish attitude but one that accounts for personal behavior; this is what it means to be a mature and responsible human being.

It’s OK to feel upset about something. Seeing the way our world is today, one should feel upset. But rather than express “upset” feelings through rage or violent outbursts, strive to consent to God’s grace aiding one to channel that anger, that “upset”, to good effect. We must offset sin by doing good (1 Pet 3:11), this is what we are made by God to do. Good actions atone for the sins of the world. We members of Christ’s Body, the Church, are sent by Christ to do good by displacing the social effects of human sin, ours and others’, by bringing good to bear - especially the kind that leads to reconciliation and healthy resolution of conflicts.