Benedict asks us to look beyond talent, position, accomplishment, and efficiency and to ask a deeper question: What kind of person is this? When choosing an abbot or prioress, the community is to seek goodness of life and wisdom of heart. Everything else is secondary.
Outside the monastery, the same question confronts us every day. We are constantly choosing whom we will trust, whom we will follow, what voices we will listen to, and what values will govern our decisions. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, these choices shape the persons we become.
The Rule reminds us that faith is not simply something we believe; it is something we practice through countless small decisions. We choose patience rather than irritation, generosity rather than possession, truth rather than convenience, compassion rather than judgment. And because we live in community, even when we imagine ourselves alone, our choices touch others. We are always teaching something by the way we live.
Perhaps this is why Benedict places such importance on goodness and wisdom. A good life quietly invites another good life. A wise heart awakens wisdom in another.
Choose, at every turn, whatever leads toward goodness, wisdom, and the fullest life God is offering. Live so that your presence quietly helps others become their best and truest selves.
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