Deaf, Mute and Blind in the Community

So that you may be able to reach all this, and remain always subject to this spiritual rule, you must keep these three things in the community. The psalmist says, “I was like a deaf man and did not hear, and like one who is mute and does not open his mouth; and I became like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth there are no rebukes.” So you too should go about as one who is deaf and mute and blind. Apart from looking to the one you have rightly chosen as your model of perfection, you should be like a blind man and not see any of the things you find unedifying. Do not be swayed by the authority or the fashion of those who do them, and so give yourself up to what is worse and what you once condemned. If you hear anyone being disobedient or insubordinate, or running another down, or doing anything different from what you were taught, do not go wrong and be led astray by his example into imitating him. Rather, “like a deaf man,” as if you had never heard it, pass it all by. If insults are offered to you or to anyone else, or wrongs are done, stand unmoved; and as far as an answer in retaliation is concerned, be silent “like one who is mute,” always singing in your heart this verse of the psalmist: “I said, I will watch my ways, so that I do not offend with my tongue. I set a guard on my mouth when the sinner stood before me. I was mute and was humbled, and kept silent from good things.” [a]

But above everything cultivate this fourth thing, which adorns and graces the three we have spoken of: as the apostle directs, make yourself a fool in this world so that you may become wise. Use no discernment or judgment of your own on any of the matters commanded you, but always show obedience with all simplicity and faith, judging that alone to be holy, useful and wise which God’s law or your superior’s decision declares to you to be so. Built up on such a system of instruction, you may continue forever under this discipline, and not fall away from the monastery through any temptations or schemes of the enemy.