The rule of St. Benedict for daily life, learning to listen to God with a discerning heart.

I'm Chris McGregor.

The Third Degree of Humility, Episode 18.

With the third degree of humility, St. Benedict brings humility into daily life under authority.

This degree tests whether humility has become concrete.

The Benedictine Way understands humility through a relationship.

It's revealed in how a person responds when another's direction stands between personal preference and faithful action.

From Chapter 7 of the Rule of St. Benedict,

the third degree of humility is that a person submit himself in obedience to a superior,

for the love of God, imitating the Lord of whom the Apostle says, he became obedient unto death.

St. Benedict is precise here.

Obedience is no longer only about relinquishing self-will.

It includes entrusting oneself to legitimate authority

for the love of God. Humility becomes relational in a very concrete way. Obedience is offered for the

love of God, and it's carried out within an ordered life. In a monastery, that order is clear. The rule, the superior, the common

schedule, the shared work, the stability of community life. In other states of life,

the order is also real, even if it looks different. A spouse has duties, a parent has duties,

a priest has duties, a worker has duties, a priest has duties, a worker has duties, a friend

has duties.

Obedience takes shape inside those concrete responsibilities where love is proved by faithfulness.

What makes an instruction legitimate is that it belongs to the right order of things.

It comes from someone who truly has responsibility

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