Needless to say, my knowledge of bible verses is slim, and unless Laura Ingalls practiced writing the bible verse on her slate in her little house on the prairie, I'm probably not familiar with it. I really liked the way that this was organized. The is the topic I want to discuss and this is how I'm going to explain it. I guess Augustine was set up similarly, and I know I bashed it, but I felt here that the explanations were vital to understanding the topics and subjects presented and that it was written in a pretty clear and easy manner that kept it interesting and not as dry.
There are so many thoughts both positive and negative brewing in my head, but I guess I'll just focus on the things that stood out. I suppose the biggest point to be aware of is that those in a monastery are to live their life for God. This, of course, seems obvious, but I've never realized how demanding that statement is. You live your life for God. Not for you, at all. You should never do anything to make yourself feel better or happier, and you should never be upset with yourself or angry at yourself. In fact you should feel nothing yourself, and you can't even pity yourself if you feel any of these things. You were born merely to serve God and that is all you will do. If you are happy, it is because you have done things to make God happy. Nothing can be for personal gain. Everything comes back to God.
And while we're on the subject of what life is meant to be lived for, it's also key to note that everyone should be fearful of God and Hell. Everyone must accept that God is awesome and almighty and there should be fear in their hearts and minds in order to serve God. You may love God, but you may not think yourself a comrade or equal to God. You must always serve God and respect God. You also must live in constant fear of Hell. You can't just be aware that hell is a bad place, you must constantly fear it every day and it should be your biggest worry. Your life goal should be eternal bliss in Heaven. Everything you do is to earn that eternal glory, but you must also remember that it is easy to fall into the pits of hell. It is so simple to think a bad thought that turns to sin and drives you to hell. There is even a portion of the text that says to never follow your intuition. It basically states that it might seem like a good idea at the time, but that ultimately whatever trial you attempt will end with you in Hell, because any personal idea or plan is apparently unholy and can only result in hellish turmoil.
The other points that seem to get drilled into your head during the reading are obedience and general rule following. Rules of any kind are law. You should follow these rules and respect them above all else. You must also be obedient. You must do everything you are told to no matter what you think of it. This goes for the rulers at your institution or from God himself. It doesn't matter what the command is, you must follow it for God. It is considered insane to follow your heart and instinct. Why should you need to come up with ideas and plans of your own if you have rules and obedient orders to follow?
I could go on and on with the bad and the good, but my notes and the text itself are endless. (The discussion should be filled with content and length too!) But overall, I found the rules fascinating because they were all backed by bible verses that seemed to be the perfect mottos and slogans for installing the rule. Everything also circled back to serving God. So while a rule might not make sense to us in a modern sense, they did all serve a purpose to serving God. A monastery resident would know everything to do, think, say and act without having to ask [which is good because we shouldn't really be talking unless absolutely necessary...I mean a question could provoke an answer which is scandalous] It's perplexing to read something in a Utopia class that is all about living for one thing: God and not for creating a perfect world for ourselves. In this sense, we must serve God and think nothing of ourselves in order to gain that Utopian eternal life, but while you live, you may only serve God, you must respect all others, but you can think nothing and do nothing for yourself. You can live, but you can't live for you.
I love the idea that you raise about the demands of living for God. I found it interesting, that you brought in both the bad and the good. I originally found myself thinking of the extremity of many of his statements and rules, but after reflection and breaking down what we read in class, I think I am able to see many of the statements that you call on in this post in a new light. It really is all about perspective, and it is very difficult to put ourselves in the same frame of mind as St. Benedict when he was writing these, but I think that it is very important for understanding of what he is saying.
ReplyDeleteWhile St. Benedict did say that everything you do is for God and did make demands that seem unreasonable to us today, I think that if we look further into the demands, we can see a point to them. I do not think that he said all of this to say that our life on Earth is unimportant, but I do think the goal, like the goal of St. Augustine, is to achieve the eternal glory of Heaven. He really did believe that in order to get to this ultimate Utopia, he had to live for God, and as such was called to give all of himself to the cause. It may seem extreme to us because as a society I think that we hold views that find his suggestions to be very strict. Coming from the background that I do, however, I do not think that as a Christian, he is asking any more than God is asking in the majority of the Bible. I have not fully formed my opinion on all of his statements, but I am inclined to think about them in a much less negative way than I did originally.
I really never thought about how prevalent Christian Allegory is in literature (being raised Christian myself) until you just brought it up, so thank you for bringing that up! In regards to the rest of your writing, I also see how everything goes back to serving God, as that is what monastic life is all about. I think all of Benedict's rules and restrictions and lack of living for yourself comes from the idea that every human born is innately sinful because of original sin, so we cannot be trusted really to be able to live completely good lives. So for us, who mostly believe in our own personhood and even if we are religious, tend to still think we have power over ourselves to make the right decision, this seems stupid. To these monks though, they think they need all the help they can get to live a good life. Isn't there something great about that though? To have a good and fulfilling life, there is already a game plan. None of this planning for the future and the stress of paying for stuff and finding a job. It's almost comforting.
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