In this crowning chapter, chapter seventy-two, Benedict speaks of the good zeal of monks. He liked that word zeal. It is a powerful word that is used in the scriptures [3]. There is something about Benedict that is zealous. There is a certain energy to him, a certain vibrancy and vitality. He uses hasten (curritur, festinat) in his Rule several times [4]. There is an eagerness. There was a fire burning in him—the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Having good zeal are Benedict’s last words to his monks. He begins by talking about a wicked zeal which “separates from God and leads to hell” and a good zeal “which separates from vice and leads to God and everlasting life.” This is the same pattern at the beginning of the Psalter. The first psalm speaks about the way of the wicked and the way of the good [5]. Matthew sums up the teaching of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus speaks about about the good way and the evil way—the narrow way that leads to life and the broad way that leads to death [6].
So Benedict is saying that there is this good zeal “separates from vice.” We are born viscious. That is part of our heritage. And we have all added our own vices. Our life is seeking freedom. Freedom from our vices, and freedom to be completely who we are as men formed in the image and likeness of God—as men called to be totally with God in Christ. It is this good zeal which separates us from the bonds, habits, and slavery of the vice and leads us to God and eternal life.
Abbot M. Basil Pennington, OCSO
The Good Zeal of Monks
A talk given on the Rule of Saint Benedict
Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery
Thursday, April 4, 2002
