I shall not worry. Long we have devoted some time to that. Pray something cleaner. I will encourage this. I am the healer of the heart. In the complete, in the willingness to have that room, that riser, where the word of God may be received and then heard to develop its full power. Now let us go to the next sentence. That you may return to him who has strayed by the sloth of disobedience. To thee are my words now addressed, whosoever you may speak. renouncing their own will to fight for the true king's voice, must take up the strong and glorious weapons of obedience.

[01:05]

So it's the address, the definition of who is the addressee of this admonition that Saint Benedict has composed. He directs it to those who want to take up the strong weapons of obedience. That means those who renounce their own will. That means, of course, those who are willing and eager to take upon themselves the converse humor. It means those who have experience and see in their own life, feel, that's hurt, to give themselves completely. That's the renouncing of one's own will, is that completely giving of oneself to Christ the King, in order to become a soldier. We know that from the civic, I mean, the political usage.

[02:13]

A soldier is one who takes off his civilian clothes, and his civilian clothes are the sign, the outside manifestation, let's say, of his life. what we call the homo privatus, you know, idiotes is such a good word, you know, the homo privatus, that means the man who is, say, essentially remains, is aware, an individual under his own responsibility and with his own aims, he is, first of all, concerned in building up his own livelihood, in creating, building up a family. And in that way is, first of all, intent upon his own business, the realization of his own individual aspirations, the homo privatus, or the idiotus, the man who essentially serves self.

[03:29]

But then, of course, the soldier, that is something different. That's because in our days still, the soldier takes off that civilian clothes and he puts on the uniform, and the uniform marks him, makes him a servant of the whole, of the nation which it belongs, as in the antiquity much more the king, the imperator, to whom he joins, at whose disposal he puts himself. And, naturally, the soldier, in that way, exchanges, as it were, puts on a new man, a new personality. He is not anymore himself as an individual, but now he is...

[04:30]

belongs to the emperor, the possession, the instrument of the emperor. Hence, therefore, he would be in the antiquity, Roman antiquity, somebody who becomes a soldier, receives then the stamp of the mark of the emperor on his forehead, so that everybody may see, the forehead is that which everybody sees first, that here is somebody who belongs to the emperor, is the emperor, and not himself. And that is, of course, that is therefore a total giving of oneself to the public cause under the leadership that we complete at the command of the emperor. And, as you know, the Roman idea of the Essence of a soldier was the saying the whole antiquity be the strictest one.

[05:35]

As we can see from the gospel, I am also one and I have people under me. And if I tell to somebody do this, he does it. To another one do that, he goes, he does it. So the soldier has lost his own will. And he lives in and through the will of the emperor. And that is meant here. See, therefore, Saint Benedict evidently singles out, you know, addresses himself to those who want to become soldiers in the kingdom of Christ. And that, of course, means the total surrender of one's will to Christ as the emperor. That is of course already initiated in every Christian life through the Sacrament of Confirmation. And I would say that the monastic vocation

[06:39]

Hence that desire for total giving of oneself is really founded in the second of confirmation because there we receive that fullness of the Holy Spirit, there we receive the sign, the mark of Christ on our forehead Hence the sign of complete loyalty and absolutely military obedience, we call it today the striking the cheek, which closes that ceremony. By that we are sacramentally soldiers of Christ. And the monk, of course, lives that to the full. sacrament of confirmation so in the truly extent as it is indicated here we say in the status of the soldier as a picture of that obedience the soldier therefore as you know also gives an oath

[07:59]

Roman soldier have the oath which, as we maybe see later on, has, according to some authors, a great affinity to the monastic profession. We don't enter into that now. But that is the, that's one thing that we have to have that in mind and i told you before that of course here saint benedict hits at the very center of our whole scriptural situation before god because Adam was created in the image and likeness of God to be a lieutenant, as that word Adam, according to some interpretations, means. Adam is the lieutenant. It's therefore in itself also a military term already. and the lieutenant who takes the place of God as the officer in the army takes the place of the emperor and over the over the created world this created world and as you know the whole idea of creation is just this God creates this universe

[09:30]

with man as his lieutenant, but the whole of the universe, all created being, constitute Sabaoth. And Sabaoth means exercitus, an army. It's an army. God reveals himself as the God Sabaoth, dominus exercitur, as we say. That is the words under which especially Isaiah says. Dominus exercitur. And of that, therefore, Adam was the head, you know, of that army. And then he refused that obedience, you know, and by that, destroyed the entire order of this created army, of the army of creation. Therefore, there is the tremendous mission of the monk, you see, that in the monk, the function of Adam is again taken on.

[10:42]

Because only in and through Christ, because Christ is the second Adam, he came into this world, he came into this world as soldier. Because he said in entering this world, as we hear it in the epistle to the Hebrews, he said, here I am, O Lord, ready to do your will. That's the motto under which Christ entered into this world, therefore as a soldier. Because he then restores as the second Adam the whole of this creation as an exercitus, as an ordered army. And that is the reason why, then, in Christ, instaurare omnia in Christus. All things should be restored under Christ the head.

[11:44]

And that is what the monk does. He completely responds to that situation. He renounces his own will to enter into the will of Christ, who is his king. And in that way he first in himself enters into that whole process of restoraro, instoraro omnia in Christo, but by doing it himself, because doing it as man, he also does it with a power of representation. I mean, he is not alone. The entering of any human being freely into the absolute service of Christ is a fact which has its repercussions all over the cosmos, the created cosmos.

[12:45]

It's a tremendous contribution to a new world. Again, you know, restoring this created world as God's own. but we can see here that that is many other remarks one could make just in this connection and thought so wanted just to call your attention to it you know that in that way in this meaning the picture the idea of christ in the holy rule is that of king christ as king as the leader of the heavenly army as the second Adam who is God's lieutenant as the one who restores the order of this creation so our idea of Christ therefore is as Saint Benedict also says is a glorious one the soldier is branded with the mark of the emperor

[13:58]

But that is of course this, what you say, disfiguration is at the same time a glorification. He is lifted up into a different status. For a soldier to wear the uniform of the emperor is glory. He takes part in the glory of the emperor. And that is the way in which St. Benedict also sees the obedience, not only as a negative, renouncing one's own will, but as a participation in and entering into the ruling power of Christ the King. Of course, we are aware of the fact that this ruling power of Christ the King is not simply, say, violence or force, but that this ruling power of Christ the King is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, that Spirit which cries in our hearts, Abba, Father.

[15:05]

And that is the Spirit into which the lung enters, but that is the Spirit which emanates from the gloriously risen Christ, from Christ on the throne, from the one who is the Basileus, the all-ruler, the curious, the Lord. From him we receive as our new will the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. And therefore, the weapons of obedience are glorious weapons. Strong weapons. Glorious because they are participation in that glory in which Christ rules at the right hand of the Father. Strong weapons because they are divine. A new divine power, supernatural, strictly supernatural power is given to us, the Holy Spirit. So that the one who completely surrenders to Christ by that very fact is then taken into a completely new realm into the life of the Holy Trinity.

[16:19]

He receives the Holy Spirit as the spirit, the weapon of his obedience. He is by that associated to Christ the King, sits at the right hand of the Father and worships and gives glory to the Father. And that is then the glorious life of the monk. And the entrance door to it is the renunciation of one's own will. But then it's also absolutely logical that in the next paragraph St. Benedict says, admonishes now if you want to do this the first thing instantissimo with most urgent prayer you know ask for the completion of that house because here we enter into This field, strictly supernatural field of that perfect life, which is really a participation in the life of the Holy Trinity, therefore cannot be reached by any human effort, any human decision, but only can be a fruit and a gift of God's grace.

[17:34]

the prologue of St. William, always with this point of view in mind that the monastic life is that inner progressive identification with the entrance of God, with His plan of salvation as it is developed in Holy Scripture. Now if you look at the beginning of the prologue, you have these two paragraphs, the first in which St. Benedict addresses himself to Adam, that means to every one of us who realizes that in a sloth of disobedience he has left God and that therefore his duty is to return to God in. obedience and the first paragraph first of this introduction is the addressing himself to the one who wants to renounce his own will

[18:52]

and wants to take up then the glorious weapons of obedience in the service of the second Adam who became obedient unto death and who is now reigning as king at the right hand of God and sending his spirit moving the house that we may, through conversion, renouncing our own will, take up the glorious weapons of obedience. Then in the second paragraph of this introduction, St. Benedict then turns to the renouncement of self-will, which is given with the decision to take up the weapons of obedience, to return in obedience to the one whom God has left.

[19:57]

The second part then is and explains the service itself. the one who renounces his self-will does so for a positive reason. For the positive reason that now he wants to serve God with the goods that God has given him. And for this service, then, two things are necessary. One is that accompany with constant prayer what I have begun. Some commentators here, especially in our modern times, behind there an allusion to examine the sentence and first of all whatever good work thou undertakest ask him with most instant prayer to perfect it an allusion to that famous controversy of because semi-helaginism and a which the doctrine at the first step

[21:15]

towards salvation man has to do what he's able to do it with his own free will and that only then the help of grace sets in now and some want to find an illusion here said redneck may be influenced by lewin or so on i just I can't bring myself to give that too much weight. I think that the whole doctrine of St. Benedict is so. When one sees the first paragraph of Sculptor Ophelia, Procepto Magistris, that he right away puts this all into the realm of the supernatural, the realm of grace, in cleaner or in coldest, Lying in the ear of your heart, all those things are of course a tomb and are a work also of the grace of that Heavenly Father, the very fact that the Father addresses himself.

[22:26]

to the one who is being called is a communication of grace. The speaking as such, the listening, is not something that is up to us, but is all taken into the whole vital realm of grace, that new order of the supernatural that Christ has instituted. So I think that one shouldn't focus on anything like that. One should see that here what St. Benedict wants to emphasize are these two steps. The first is that decision, I renounce my own will, I follow him. That certainly is a fruit of grace, couldn't be conceived any other way. Else then, the continuation of the service itself, the abode, that is what is described, seems to me, in the second paragraph.

[23:35]

And again, completely in terms of grace. First, that this perseverance in service depends completely, it has to be accompanied by our constant instantissima oratio. And that is so beautiful and so Deeply we think about it because we know from our own experience, I told you so often and everybody knows it, this own experience, you begin something under the impulse of grace and you follow the call. You start working and after a while you attribute it to yourself. It becomes as if you are open. The more you work at it, the more it becomes your own. The more you are tempted by vanity, by self-assurance, and all these things, the sense of accomplishment, all that are ways in which we are tempted to appropriate to ourselves

[24:46]

but is really constantly the work of the grace of God, who not only has created us, but who also preserves us, keeps us in being in any moment we live, and who has not only begotten us in redemption of baptism as his children, but who also constantly feeds us, maintains and keeps our strength So, therefore, perseverance, the going on in the work of service, can be done only in constant prayer. Again and again, at every moment, we realize our complete incapacity, naturally speaking. And therefore, an instantissima oration. We know that perseverance especially is not something which is natural to us.

[25:52]

Perseverance is in itself again a specific special grace and therefore we have in the course of our service in order to receive the grace of perseverance we have constantly to pray. in that way the monastic life a constant process of self-perfection I mean in the way in which we see that today developing for example in the field of the technical field one invention follows the other and it seems to be a constant fruit of one's own efforts and it's a clear line of progress and perfection and one can calculate what next and one can make speculations of where we will get and how we will land on the moon sometime for now or everything, etc.

[27:01]

That is not in the life of waste, it's not That way. But the end of it is in the hands of God as well as the beginning. And therefore, prayer, the absolute necessity of prayer for perseverance. That is one integral and essential part of our service. And then the other part is that we willingly put the goods He has given us constantly actively at God's disposal so that we really live as obedient sons or as slaves those two aspects Saint Benedict then brings out in this beautiful paragraph the two say orders of things the order of

[28:01]

Heavenly Father who adopts us as His children in His Son and gives us the graces that are connected with that, sanctifying grace, the likeness to Christ, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the gift of faith, charity or hope, theological virtues, all these are the supernatural endowment, because we are not only legally adopted by the Heavenly Father, but we are, as it were, physically adopted. This adoption is a real creation, it's a real transformation in us. But man, of course, always is tempted, you know, not to serve God with the gifts which he has received, even after he has made up his mind to take up the weapons of obedience still again.

[29:09]

The decision has to be renewed constantly until then. We may therefore always and live always in that possibility that we may provoke the Father who has given us so much to anger because we really don't use these wonderful gifts which he has bestowed upon us. and therefore the anger of the father may hit us and consist then in the privation that we will be deprived of the glory of the inheritance that he has in store for us as his sons the loss of him or the other aspect still let us say more serious more penetrating and more say convincing also threatening for man also as a natural being that he may as our master who is completely lord over our life over our whole being over every action that he may then as a

[30:32]

master in the wrath over the corrupt slave may then deliver us into a punishment positive punishment not only the loss of race but also the positive punishment of our entire being our natural being So, and therefore in this way leads to this introduction, St. Benedict cuts the whole life of a monk into that universal perspective of the whole design of salvation. There is the invitation of the Father, the loving invitation of the Father, to do what we have to do in this critical historical situation in which we find ourselves after as children of adam after our forefathers fall and in the state of disobedience as children of wrath and

[31:53]

we are faced with this conversion as the first necessary step, renouncing our own will, taking up the weapons of obedience. And then before us extends that perspective towards the other and the judgment. And in between these two, our service, as the Old Testament says, our abodah. and that abodah consisting of two things, constantly praying for perseverance and never yielding to the temptation to ascribe to ourselves what we in this way do, let us say constructively, but always remember that whatever we do, we use only the gifts that God has given us and in justice,

[32:52]

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