Listen My Son. Dwight Longenecker
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smaller parts. The first part helps us deal with anger towards others and the second part directs our attention to the fruit of unexpressed anger in our lives.
Once again Benedict does not forbid anger. But he advises how to control it. We mustn't give in to anger or nurture an opportunity to ‘tell someone off’. We mustn't harbour a lie in our hearts or pretend to like someone when we don't. Instead we are to speak honestly and openly with everyone, never return evil for evil (1 Thess. 5.15), or curse for curse. We must bear injuries patiently (1 Pet. 3.9; Matt. 5.10) and love our enemies (Luke 6.27).
But too often anger remains unexpressed. When it festers in our minds the rot soon sets in. Our souls become infected and if we are not careful our whole lives can be destroyed. So the second set of commands considers the effects of unexpressed anger. How is unresolved anger manifested in our lives? – the list is here. We become arrogant, we seek escape and solace in too much food, drink and sleep. Then we grumble, backbite and snipe at others.
Instead of harbouring anger like this, Benedict advises us to look at ourselves clearly. We need to acknowledge that any good in us is God's doing, while any evil is our own responsibility. These are hard words, and nothing goes against the grain more than to give up nursing anger and acknowledge that the problem is probably with us.
It is vital within our marriage and family to sort out the problem of anger as soon as possible. Many relationships are founded on a brooding anger which grows from false expectations. The only way to cure the demon of anger is to confront it head on, to bring it out into the open and get things right, and the only one who can put it right is God.
Psychologists tell us fear lies at the root of anger. At the very foundation of our personalities we are angry because we are frightened. This is the inchoate fear of the child being left alone in the dark, cut off from love. The only remedy for this underlying fear is that deep unconditional perfect love (1 John 4.18) which can only be found in God himself. So Benedict ends this section on inner problems by advising us to ‘rest one's hope in God’, for in him alone will we find the healing love which drives out anger and fear.
January 20
May 21
September 20
CHAPTER IV
THE TOOLS OF GOOD
WORKS (C)
To fear the Day of Judgement
To dread hell
To yearn for eternal life with all possible spiritual desire
To keep death daily before one's eyes
At every moment to keep watch over the actions of one's life
In every place to know that God most surely beholds one
To dash the evil thoughts that invade one's heart immediately upon Christ, as upon a rock, and to reveal them to one's spiritual father
To guard one's mouth against evil and vicious speech
Not to love much talking
Not to utter words that are foolish and provoke laughter
Not to love much or unrestrained laughter
To listen willingly to devout reading
To fall often to prayer
In our daily prayer to God to confess with tears and groans the wrong-doing in our past life
To amend these wrong ways in the future
To reject carnal desires
To hate one's own will
To obey the Abbot's commands in everything, even though he himself (which God forbid) acts otherwise, remembering always that command of the Lord's, ‘Do what they tell you, but do not do the things that they do’
To be unwilling to be called holy before one is so, but to be holy first so that it may be truly said of one
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