Perfect love

In all humility, toward the end of his Rule for monks, St. Benedict defers to Scripture, the Church Fathers, and to his predecessors in the monastic way of life as even more excellent "tools of virtue." Mastery of his own Rule, he maintains, is only the beginning of perfection.

That is a humbling notion, because few, if any, monks can claim even that. Still, we must all--monks and non-monks alike--set our sights on the Perfection that is God alone and strive to "be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect," as Jesus himself tells us (Matthew 5:48). If this seems impossible, it is heartening to recall that "all things are possible for God" (Matthew 19:26).

The key, as always, is love, for "perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18). This, too, St. Benedict emphasizes in his chapter of the Rule on humility (7): "Through this love, all that [the monk, or Christian] once performed with dread, he will now begin to observe without effort, as though naturally, from habit, no longer out of fear of hell, but out of love for Christ, good habit, and delight in virtue."

This ability, and the desire that precedes it, is innate to us. Since we are made in the image of God, it is implanted in our souls at the moment we come into existence. Sin, of course, can obscure and distort all this, but even then, we each have a stronger, unnamed desire deep within ourselves to love and be loved perfectly. This is from God, for God is Love.

But what is sin? To answer this, I heed the advice of St. Benedict and turn to a passage from St. Basil the Great and his Detailed Rules for Monks (which Benedict implicitly refers to in his Rule):

"As soon as we come to be, a power of reason is implanted in us like a seed, containing within it the ability and the need to love. We have already received from God the ability to fulfill all his commands. We have then no reason to resent them, as if something beyond our capacity were being asked of us. We have no reason either to be angry, as if we had to pay back more than we had received. When we use this ability in a right and fitting way, we lead a life of virtue and holiness. But if we misuse it, we fall into sin.

"This is the definition of sin: the misue of powers given us by God for doing good, a use contrary to God's commandments. On the other hand, the virtue that God asks of us is the use of the same powers based on a good conscience in accordance with God's command.

"Since this is so, we can say the same about love. Since we received a command to love God, we possess from the first moment of our existence an innate power and ability to love. The proof of this is not to be sought outside ourselves, but each one can learn this from himself and in himself."

May your love be upon us, O Lord,
as we place all our hope in you.

Psalm 33:22