Holy Rule for January 29
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St. Mary's Monastery
Jan 28, 2026, 4:52:08 PMJan 28
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 29, May 30, September 29
Chapter 7: On Humility (24-30)
We must be on our guard, therefore, against evil desires, for death lies close by the gate of pleasure. Hence the Scripture gives this command: "Go not after your concupiscences" (Eccles.18:30). So therefore, since the eyes of the Lord observe the good and the evil (Prov.15:3) and the Lord is always looking down from heaven on the children of earth "to see if there be anyone who understands and seeks God" (Ps. 13:2), and since our deeds are daily, day and night, reported to the Lord by the Angels assigned to us, we must constantly beware, brethren, as the Prophet says in the Psalm, lest at any time God see us falling into evil ways and becoming unprofitable (Ps. 13:3); and lest, having spared us for the present because in His kindness He awaits our reformation, He say to us in the future, "These things you did, and I held My peace" (Ps. 49:21).
REFLECTION
Notice how this portion of the chapter harks back to the Prologue: God watches us, and His angels do, too. God waits for our reformation. All that beautiful prose of progress and hope in the Prologue is intimately linked to humility. Without humility, we aren't going anywhere!
Something else is going on here, since we ourselves must watch and be on our guard. We can often forget the fact that God and the Angels are watching, but we can never miss our own vigilance. We always know when we are being careful and the message here is to live carefully all the time, to be watchful, to be on the lookout for deceptions and traps.
"Go not after your concupiscences." Some older translations render this "lusts", while the New English Bible has "passions." I do not think that the issue here is as narrow as sexual desire. I am not at all sure that a monk of St. Benedict's time would have limited it that strongly.
Read the Desert Fathers and the Eastern Orthodox monastics of today and you will find that the "passions" have, in their works, a far more expanded sense, encompassing any desire that can go to extremes and let us face it, just about all desires, short of the desire to love God, can go to extremes!
There is something reminiscent of a Buddhist principle here: all suffering is rooted in desire. The Buddhists certainly did not mean just sexuality. They meant, as I think St. Benedict did, detachment from everything, a holy indifference to one's condition. That's tough to pull off and impossible without God's grace. Many folks will never go the whole way, but every step in the direction of such serenity leaves us freer, freer for God, freer to be what He created us to be.
We live in a secular age that goes far beyond merely baptizing our desires: it GLORIFIES them! The late 20th century was unmistakably the zenith of the self in human thought. We were actually challenged to "follow your bliss." Gee, that sounded nice the first time I heard it.
On the other hand, what a trap. Let me be the first to assure you that my blisses have repeatedly gotten me into one heck of a lot of trouble. We cannot become like Rousseau and assume a noble savage image here. We aren't that noble, though we can usually count on the savage part...
Some of our "blisses" may be very wrong for us. Beyond that, some of them, even though neutral, are bound to make us crazy if we make them too important. "Go not after thy lusts" means a lot more than just sex, it means any inordinate desire. Balance, beloveds, always balance!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 29, May 30, September 29
Chapter 7: On Humility (24-30)
We must be on our guard, therefore, against evil desires, for death lies close by the gate of pleasure. Hence the Scripture gives this command: "Go not after your concupiscences" (Eccles.18:30). So therefore, since the eyes of the Lord observe the good and the evil (Prov.15:3) and the Lord is always looking down from heaven on the children of earth "to see if there be anyone who understands and seeks God" (Ps. 13:2), and since our deeds are daily, day and night, reported to the Lord by the Angels assigned to us, we must constantly beware, brethren, as the Prophet says in the Psalm, lest at any time God see us falling into evil ways and becoming unprofitable (Ps. 13:3); and lest, having spared us for the present because in His kindness He awaits our reformation, He say to us in the future, "These things you did, and I held My peace" (Ps. 49:21).
REFLECTION
Notice how this portion of the chapter harks back to the Prologue: God watches us, and His angels do, too. God waits for our reformation. All that beautiful prose of progress and hope in the Prologue is intimately linked to humility. Without humility, we aren't going anywhere!
Something else is going on here, since we ourselves must watch and be on our guard. We can often forget the fact that God and the Angels are watching, but we can never miss our own vigilance. We always know when we are being careful and the message here is to live carefully all the time, to be watchful, to be on the lookout for deceptions and traps.
"Go not after your concupiscences." Some older translations render this "lusts", while the New English Bible has "passions." I do not think that the issue here is as narrow as sexual desire. I am not at all sure that a monk of St. Benedict's time would have limited it that strongly.
Read the Desert Fathers and the Eastern Orthodox monastics of today and you will find that the "passions" have, in their works, a far more expanded sense, encompassing any desire that can go to extremes and let us face it, just about all desires, short of the desire to love God, can go to extremes!
There is something reminiscent of a Buddhist principle here: all suffering is rooted in desire. The Buddhists certainly did not mean just sexuality. They meant, as I think St. Benedict did, detachment from everything, a holy indifference to one's condition. That's tough to pull off and impossible without God's grace. Many folks will never go the whole way, but every step in the direction of such serenity leaves us freer, freer for God, freer to be what He created us to be.
We live in a secular age that goes far beyond merely baptizing our desires: it GLORIFIES them! The late 20th century was unmistakably the zenith of the self in human thought. We were actually challenged to "follow your bliss." Gee, that sounded nice the first time I heard it.
On the other hand, what a trap. Let me be the first to assure you that my blisses have repeatedly gotten me into one heck of a lot of trouble. We cannot become like Rousseau and assume a noble savage image here. We aren't that noble, though we can usually count on the savage part...
Some of our "blisses" may be very wrong for us. Beyond that, some of them, even though neutral, are bound to make us crazy if we make them too important. "Go not after thy lusts" means a lot more than just sex, it means any inordinate desire. Balance, beloveds, always balance!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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