1. First of all, to love the Lord God with all one's heart, all one's soul and all one's strength.

2. Then, one's neighbor as oneself.

3. Next, not to kill.
4. Not to commit adultery.
5. Not to steal.
6. Not to covet.
7. Not to bear false witness.
8. To honor every human being.
9. Not to do to another what one would not want done to oneself.

Comment

From Columba Cary-Elwes' A_____:

Of all the chapters of the Rule, this one could be the most profitable . . . The list of good works includes: "not to kill", "'not to commit adultery", and one may be alarmed to find such instructions addressed to monks; but monks are fallen men, like the rest of humankind, for all their longing for God.

At the root of all holiness are the two commandments of the New Law: Love God with all your heart, with all your mind, all your strength, your whole soul; the second is like the first, love your neighbour as yourself (Matt. 22:34-40). The tools of good works are all given to us by God for doing just that: the twofold love. Most of them are straight from scripture; the rest, if not exact quotations, are derived from scripture.

From Norvene Vest's Preferring Christ:

Perhaps we wonder how the emphasis of Benedictine spirituality can be characterized as distinct from other Christian forms. This first, central tool gives us an important clue. Benedict here offers his summary of what he learns in his prayer about how to live life. We might ask of him: what is the basic reality which you meet/encounter at the deepest point of your prayer life? We might expect an answer something like this: "I am a worm. And how astonishing, God, that you should redeem me." Yet pondering Benedict's spirit in the Rule, we sense that his answer moves in quite a different way, rushing forth like this: "Oh, God, what a wonder you are! My heart cannot encompass the Glory you give forth, and yet I rejoice to join in your praises with all the angels and saints!"

Obviously, both responses are essential to the Christian life, but they involve very different emphases. It is enormously revealing of Benedict's spirituality that this crucial list of instruments begins with these four words: LOVE THE LORD GOD!

From Esther de Waal's A Life-Giving Way:

This is not a list of virtues to be nourished and vices to be eradicated, a simple ethical code to be followed, but rather a challenge to the process of discernment as the prerequisite of the life that he is encouraging me to follow. Once again his concern is not with externals, but with interiority. In the preceding two chapters he has been concerned to remind the abbot, and also each one of us, not to forget the day of judgment. He has been helping us to try to discern whether or not we are trying to find and follow God's will in all that we think and do. If not, then we shall have to answer for that on the day of judgment when the secrets of all hearts will be revealed. His concern is with the inner disposition and attitude, with the disposition of the heart, and in this chapter we are being given a practical yardstick that we can apply in our daily lives. He puts this here, at this juncture in the Rule, since he knows that unless we get this right at this point, all that follows, whether on prayer or obedience or humility or day-to-day routine, will lack its essential and necessary foundation.

So I am here being equipped, in the most basic and practical way possible, with the tools essential for my spiritual life. . . . The concept of handling tools is totally down to earth and practical. Since Benedict sees me as a workman in a workshop, 1 must collect a supply of tools ready at hand to use when and how they are needed in my spiritual life. At the end of the chapter, the use of the tools will be explained. They are the thoughts and actions with which to fill my days in God's service. They cannot be imposed by any external authority, for they concern interior understanding. Again there is this insistence that it is by willingness or unwillingness, humility or pride, loving zeal or the spirit of competition, that actions are to be judged.

Only on the day of judgment will the workman's task be over and the tool-box handed back to God.

The opening verse presents me with the essential law of the Gospel. I am forced to ask: Do I love God with my whole heart and my neighbor as myself? If I am going to look on each of these successive verses as an aid to discernment, then Benedict is facing me here with the foundational questions on which the whole of the rest will be built. These two precepts sum up the whole purpose of the Benedictine life, as of any Christian life, and I feel that Benedict is placing them here so that they are the keystone of the chapter. They present me with the yardstick to judge every thought, word, and action: Is what I am thinking or doing contributing to the fulfilment of this commandment? Verses 3-8 give six articles of the Decalogue in the words of the New Testament. Verse 9 is the golden rule; it is a call to love. We are to see the other as Christ, treat the other as Christ.

Response