Love thy neighbor, Hate thyself

While everyone is feeling guilty that they should be brushing up on their Bible readings or going to church more, I am in a whole new world of wonder. Some of the phrases match the ones I hear in the Torah on Yom Kipur (Our day of judgment), but my religious knowledge is more attuned to how to prepare a mean bagel with Lox and Cream Cheese or knowing how to deal with curly hair. Growing up Jewish meant not really understanding communions and confirmations, and just trying to make comparisons with the holidays and traditions I grew up with instead. As I mentioned to Dr. MB, I attempted to learn the basics of the bible for fear of not knowing allusions used on my AP Lit test in high school. I believe I used the Precious Moments children's bible.

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.

Rules of St. Been-a-dick

Rule 9 of chapter 4 notes that we are "not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself." After that, at least like 80% of the other rules could be collapsed into a subsection of that rule. Do we really need to be told not to murder after that one? I'm not likely to murder myself, and so I'm not likely to murder you if I think that the consequence. I've also already been told to love my neighbor, who I am unlikely to murder if I've properly followed that step.

Don't forget to be afraid of God's wrath, and remember that Hell is right there for you if you're bad.

Also, don't forget to be a poor eater, love fasting, and think constantly and infinitely about the horrors of Hell that await you if you don't listen. God loves you, but you need to fear the day he returns to judge you, and know that you'll suffer in an eternal purgatory if you've done something to piss him off. When you love someone, you need to be constantly afraid of their disappointment and their subsequent wrath that will condemn you to an eternity of spiritual and physical torture that will follow you beyond the grave and never let you know peace, wishing to have never been born. At least, that's how I've always understood love, and so these rules make total sense to me.

You haven't forgotten that you're probably going to Hell, have you? Don't forget that, please.

Also, please realize that you need to hate your own will. What you think and want don't matter unless you're thinking about and wanting God's love. Try not to talk too much or to like talking at all, because most of what you say is useless bullshit and you're wasting oxygen that could be better purposed to praise God who loves you enough to have made these rules for you. And when you talk, try not to say anything funny. Funny stuff makes people laugh and laughing is a disrespectful waste of time. If you laugh, God will come to your house and tear your wife in half, because he loves you.

Hey, for a second there it looked like you forgot to be afraid of Hell. Don't do that. Cry for me.

Just do whatever people from a church tell you to do. Don't question them, because that's disrespectful, and like I said, it doesn't matter what you want. If they're older than you, they're smarter than you.

Fear Him. Do not forget to fear him. FEAR HIM BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU.

There are plenty of decent ideas in this text, because obviously it makes sense to be generous to the poor and the sick and not to murder people, but I feel like nothing from a religious text has ever told me anything I haven't figured out of my own human decency and tendencies toward civility. I'm aware that killing and hurting and stealing are wrong, because I have empathy. It makes me sad and scared that there are people out there who only want to be good because they're afraid they won't get to live forever if they're not. Be good because it, like, totally sucks to be bad, man. I don't think it's fair to say th

The author of this blog post has been prematurely condemned to Hell because he forgot to fear being condemned to Hell.

Rules, Rules, Rules. Oh and more Rules

My initial reaction to this reading was that there's no way I'm gonna understand any of this, but now that I've actually taken my time to read it. It was sort of boring, but I liked it. There are so many rules. Rules to Rules to Rules.

But I think the just of the whole text was that you must submit yourself to God. Your whole self. You own nothing. It is all God's. Everything you must do you must do it for God with God in mind. You must also ask the Abbot/Abbess. Even they must use counsel sometimes. I am assuming from this text that the best kind of person is a God fearing man. The text even states that the Abbot himself should do all things in the fear of God... he will have to render an account of all his decisions to God, the most just Judge.

Another thought was that this text is like a day by day rules and regulations list of how to live by God. St. Benedict thought of EVERYTHING and how to do it. Like I said before: lots and lots of rules, even for the sick, which to me is crazy.

Did anyone actually read Chapter 4, What Are the Instruments of Good Works????? Well I did and the list is freaking crazy. Do not murder, do not steal, to bury the dead, visit the ski, love fasting, relieve the poor, clothe the naked, help in trouble, prefer nothing to the love of Christ, don't get mad, don't hold grudges. AHHHHHH. Its so much. How can anyone remember all of these things? Oh, I know. Because women have certain times of the day during certain times of the year to read. We must always read and when reading time is over, we can sit on our beds and be still OR read. We just cannot disturb the others from sitting still. This is absolutely ridiculous. There is nothing wrong to live a life by God. But to live this life described in this text????? Oh, hell no. (Sorry God). That's not gonna happen. Well, I'm sure there were people who did, because those people are described in chapter 1. There are four different types of monks. The first is the best and its the life that is described in the rest of the reading. The second type, Anchorites/Hermits, are okay. The third type, Sarabaites, are described as detestable, so they ain't shit. And the fourth kind, Gyrovagues, ain't shit either. The last sentence of the chapter says: Passing these over, therefore, let us proceed, with God's help, to lay down a rule for the strongest kind of monks, the Cenobites. Is that what the rest of the 42 chapters are? Just A rule???? How about a whole bunch of freaking ruleSSSSSSSSS.

After I read this whole text and thought about this piece of work. I realized who in their right mind would take their time to actually write this??? Who says that these are the right ways to live their life??? Did he get a vision from God? I highly doubt that. Did he get counsel and a whole bunch of abbots get together with their brothers and wrote this work? I don't get it, but would like to know why. Knowing what class is like, I'm not sure if my question is going to be answered. I would hope so though.

Am I in Sunday School?

When I first started reading “Rule of St. Benedict” I could have sworn I had accidentally picked up the Bible. While reading Chapter Four, I felt like I was back in Sunday school reading the Ten Commandments, except instead of ten there is a list of 72 “instruments of good work”. Just to be a little different from everyone else, I thought I’d highlight some of the points St. Benedict made that I actually really like (yes there are many that remind me of the City of God and I am not completely in favor of, but there were quite a lot of points that I thought would make a sufficient society). For starters, how about no meat? Addie? In Chapter 39 he says, “Let all abstain entirely from eating the flesh of four-footed animals.” In addition, he says that people should not over-indulge. Though some may see this as people not eating enough, I see it as a good thing. Perhaps it’s hard to understand because in our culture today people eat quite a lot and obesity is rapidly increasing, but eating just enough would help people stay healthy and make sure everyone gets food.

            Now let’s talk about social structure. Yes, people have certain jobs to obtain to, but there isn’t really much of a power imbalance. The young are to respect their elders, but they are not necessarily less important in the society. Early on in the chapter one he says, “whether slaves or free, we are all one in Christ.” This being said, everyone is on somewhat of an equal playing field, at least more so than in St. Augustine’s version of society. He also says, “let no one in the monastery follow his own heart’s fancy” (Chapter 3). Benedict believes that rather than doing his or her own will, everyone must do the will of God. I suppose this takes away individuality, but at the same time, if the Utopia of the afterlife is something everyone in the society is striving for, wouldn’t it make sense to work together to achieve it? And if everyone does similar things and shares the same beliefs wouldn’t that make it easier too?

            Back to the Utopia real quick…does Benedict ever use the words “Heaven” or “afterlife”? I could be completely mistaken and oblivious, but I did not see these words appear in the text, at least not frequently. Yes, the Abbess “hold[ing] the place of Christ in the monastery” makes us aware that there is some other place where God must be, but Benedict doesn’t really mention Heaven itself (he refers to living for God but never says exactly where God lives). I couldn’t tell if this was just supposed to be common sense (that he is talking about Heaven) or if perhaps it was purposeful. He never really mentions that there is a place that they are hoping to get to, rather that they are just living for God. Is Utopia Heaven? Can there be a Heaven without a Hell?