Preferring Nothing to Christ

Luke 16:1-13

When we listen to the parables of Jesus it can be easy to forget the urgency in his preaching. A new age is dawning and Jesus himself is the embodiment of the Kingdom he preaches. This Kingdom offers both promise and challenge.

These past weeks we have listened to Luke outlining his theology of the kingdom and the cost of discipleship. This week Jesus addresses his own disciples. The mood shifts and what unfolds is a parable that seems to raise more questions than it answers. When a steward is accused of being wasteful with his master’s property, he hatches a plan to save his own skin and preserve his master’s honour too. He calls his master’s debtors together and reduces the amount of oil and grain that are owed. The debtors are relieved, the steward keeps his job and even the master is pleased with the way things were handled. The master praises his dishonest steward for his astuteness.

Some scholars suggest that this difficult parable is best understood in the light of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. There is one clear linguistic parallel and some structural parallels too. The prodigal son ‘squanders’ his inheritance, the steward is accused of being ‘wasteful’ with his master’s property. It is the same word in Greek. Both talk to themselves and work out a plan. The prodigal son plans to return home and hopes to be treated as one of his father’s hired men. The steward hopes his plan will ensure that there will be people to welcome him into their homes. For the prodigal son his modest hope is met with an outpouring of compassion and a lavish homecoming. For the steward it’s his own ‘forgiving’ of debts which earns him his master’s praise.

Both parables challenge me to draw closer to a God whose ways I can’t fully understand. Both parables contain a promise of mercy in what might seem to be the most complicated of circumstances. If I can remain open to both the challenge and the promise, then the parables have done their work. I am living in the light of the kingdom.

Where is Christ calling you to live in the light of the Kingdom?

Therefore we intend to establish a school of the Lord’s service. In drawing up its regulations, we hope to set down nothing harsh, nothing burdensome.
Rule of St Benedict, Prologue

All aspects of monastery life are focused on seeking and serving God. I often speak of monastic life as an ‘intentional life’. Monastic life is an intentional training in love. Very little is left to chance. Three areas of the life are of particular importance.

PRAYER

The primary focus of a monastic’s day is the praying of the Liturgy of Hours. This strong emphasis on communal prayer is the hallmark Benedictine life.  St Benedict urges monastics to pray in such a way that the bonds of community are made stronger:

‘let us stand to sing the Psalms in such a way that our minds are in harmony with our voices.’ Ch. 19, The Discipline of Psalmody

The monastic liturgy is so arranged that everyone has their part to play. Some community members will have very specific roles in the liturgy and others will play their part by coming prepared and ready to sing. The contribution of each individual is valued. Monastic liturgy is never a musical performance, it is always an act of humble communal service.

WORK

St Benedict arranges the monastery timetable so that at least 5 hours are spent doing manual work. Many imagine monastic life as fairly sedate with not much activity: in fact, each day is timetabled and full. St Benedict wanted his monks to ‘live by the work of their hands’ and so have a sense of shared responsibility for the life of the monastery. The Rule gives very wise advice on how a monastic is to understand their work and warns the monastic against becoming proud:

‘If there are artisans in the monastery, they are to practice their craft with all humility, but only with the abbot’s permission. If one of them becomes puffed up with his skillfulness in his craft, and feels that he is conferring something on the monastery.’
Ch. 57, The Artisans of the Monastery

There is a strong ethos in Benedictine communities of valuing each type of work. We try to do all of our work as best as we can, whether that is emptying the bins or writing a talk. We would also show respect for the work of another.

RELATIONSHIPS

Throughout the Rule there is one central truth: Christ is really present in each member of the community. The love, respect and honour which we show to each other, we show to Christ. This love underpins all that happens in the monastery. Living with the same group of people day in day out isn’t always easy. St Benedict knows that irritations can build up and he has several safeguards against this:

‘Assuredly, the celebration of Lauds and Vespers must never pass without the superior reciting the entire Lord’s Prayer at the end for all to hear, because the thorns of contention are likely to spring up. This warned by the pledge they make to one another in the very words of this prayer: Forgive us as we forgive (Matt 6:12), they may cleanse themselves of this vice.’
Ch. 13, The Celebration of Lauds on Ordinary Days

St Benedict puts great store by the virtues of patience and forbearance. Daily life in the monastery presents many opportunities to work towards these virtues. I have used used Ch 72 several times in these reflections. It is the touchstone of mutual love and respect. St Benedict’s words are simple and hugely challenging:

This, then, is the good zeal which monks must foster with fervent love: They should each try to be the first to show respect to the other (Rom 12:10), supporting with the greatest patience one another’s weaknesses of body or behaviour, and earnestly competing in obedience to one another.

Reflect on your own experience of prayer, work and relationships.
Is there anything in St Benedict’s teaching which can help you?

Luke 14:1,7-14

‘When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take your seat in the place of honour. A more distinguished person than you may have been invited, and the person who invited you both may come and say, “Give up your place to this man.” And then, to your embarrassment, you would have to go and take the lowest place. 

The scene painted in today’s Gospel is very familiar to us in terms of the biblical imagery of banquets, dinners and feasting. The banquet serves an an over-arching metaphor for the Kingdom, with texts in both the Old and New Testament. I relate easily to this metaphor.

Yet, in my own life, this Gospel scene is not a familiar one. My formal dining experiences would all have involved a seating plan; there would be no possibility of sitting in the wrong place. I have always had a certain relief in finding my name on the name card. And bigger relief if I knew the people sitting either side of me. Where I sat has always mattered to me, but not for the reasons implicit in the Gospel. I’d be very unlikely to feel comfortable on a ‘top table.’ So what does this Gospel scene say to me? I think the underlying meaning for me is about graciousness and the value in joining a gathering in a way that is humble and true to myself. When writer and speaker Brene Brown speaks about authenticity she shares a mantra: ‘Don’t shrink, don’t puff up, stay on your sacred ground.’

I hear today’s Gospel is an invitation to know my sacred ground.
How do you hear this Gospel?

TOGETHER

‘Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and may he bring us all together to everlasting life.’ (Ch. 72, On Good Zeal)

St Benedict began his life of faith in the small town of Norcia, just outside of Rome. As a young boy he was sent to Rome to study; he found himself unhappy there and so left for Affile, a small town roughly thirty miles east of Rome. It was here that he felt a strong call to solitude. He went to Subiaco and made his home in a small cave. It wasn’t long before word spread that there was a ‘holy man’ living at Subiaco. One day an entire community of monks from a neighbouring monastery came to see him and begged him to become their Abbot.

What had begun as Benedict’s solitary search for God, soon became a communal way of life. This search for God was now lived out with a group of brothers. The whole structure of the monastery is built on a life that is held in common. Benedict’s Rule is a guide for the communal search for God and much of it is his teaching on prayer, work and relationships. These are solid, practical guidelines that are designed to ‘safeguard love’.

‘The good of all concerned, however, may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love.’ (Rule of St Benedict, Prologue)

St Benedict knows that the path can be difficult and so he has in mind two sources of strength for the community: his written Rule and the teaching of the Abbess. The Rule gives explicit and implicit guidelines for living together. It is the Abbess’ job to steer a steady course between following the Rule and adapting to the particular circumstances of the monastery.

Reflect on your own experiences of living and working as part of a group or family. What have you learnt about yourself?
What is your experience of following rules or a code of conduct?
Have you ever been in a leadership position where you have had to adapt some rules?
Have you had the experience of being able to safeguard love?

LOVE
The seventy three chapters of the Rule of St Benedict are a framework for living in community. Every aspect of monastery life is covered, sometimes in detail that is a little surprising. Some parts of the text are very demanding and others are tender and considerate. This strictness is seen by St Benedict as means of ‘safeguarding love’. I hadn’t given this much thought until I entered the monastery. Over the years I have learnt that faithfulness in the small things prepares you for the big things. All of the attitudes, values and ways of organising life within the monastery walls are there to provide a framework that will support you. This is especially important when things aren’t going so well. Having a clear idea of the next right thing you need to do ensures that love is safeguarded.

St Benedict devotes several chapters of his Rule to the situations where love is at risk.

Therefore, he ought to use every skill of a wise physician and send in senpectae, that is, mature and wise brothers who, under the cloak of secrecy, may support the wavering brother, urge him to be humble as a way of making satisfaction, and console him lest he be overcome with sorrow (2 Cor 2:8).
(Ch 27, Rule of St Benedict)

St Benedict makes use of ‘elder wisdom’ for the brother who is struggling. He is careful to protect the privacy of the brother. These two things stand out for me. Everyone of us will have known a time when we have needed some mentoring. Often its by chance that the right person is there to help you find a way through your difficulties.

Who have been the senpectae in your own life?
Have you ever found yourself in a mentoring role? What did you learn about yourself?

LOVE

It has often been said that the one of the reasons why the Rule of St Benedict has continued to inspire people is because of the simple humanity that we find in its pages. St Benedict lays out a way of life that he wants to be within the reach of anyone who deeply desires to follow the monastic path. He speaks of a ‘school of the Lord’s service’ where nothing is ‘too harsh or burdensome’.

Of course, this does not mean that the monastic path is easy or can be undertaken in a half-hearted manner. Our model for all that we do is the person of Christ. Everything that we undertake, whether it be large or small, easy or difficult, has Christ as its focus. The monastic path is counter cultural: it is only LOVE that makes sense of it all.

In a chapter which is considered to be the spiritual heart of the Rule, St Benedict articulates ideas which form something of a manifesto on love:

‘Just as there is an evil and bitter zeal that separates one from God and leads to hell, so too there is a good zeal that separates one from evil and leads to God and eternal life. This, then, is the good zeal which monks must foster with fervent love: They should try to be the first to show respect to the other (Rom 10:12) , supporting with the greatest patience one another’s weaknesses of body or behaviour, and earnestly competing in obedience to one another. No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else. To their fellow monks they show the pure love of brothers, to God, loving fear; to their abbot, unfeigned and humble love. Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and may he bring us all together to everlasting life.’

Ch 72, On Good Zeal

We are to image Christ by putting others first, by considering their good and not our own. The community becomes for us a place where we can learn and practice this art of following Christ. We take up the challenge to live rooted in Christ, with a listening ear, a discerning heart, able to hear and respond to the call of the Spirit.

As the monastic path unfolds we will need to grow in ‘fervent love’, ‘pure love’, ‘loving fear’ and ‘unfeigned and humble love’. Each of these asks something a little different.

Can you see these different forms of love in your own life?
How have you been able to grow in love?
Where do you most need to grow in love?

CHRIST

Much of the Rule of St Benedict is concerned with the practicalities of living in community. St Benedict values good order and urges that things be so arranged that ‘the strong have something to yearn for and the weak have nothing to run from’ (Ch 64). Christ is implicitly honoured in every aspect of monastery life. But two areas of daily life are singled out as special opportunities for honouring Christ: care of the sick and the welcoming of guests.

Care of the sick must rank above and before all else, so that they may be truly served as Christ, for he said: I was sick and you visited me (Matt 25:36) and what you did for one of these least brothers you did for me (Matt 25:40).
(Rule of St Benedict, Ch 31)

Commenting on this chapter of the Rule Sr Aquinata Bockmann says:

‘Benedict emphatically refers to Christ. He is present in the sick whether the sick person shows himself worthy or not, whether he is virtuous or not. In order to serve Christ one is not required to examine whether the person really represents Christ by his virtue. By the fact that he is the ‘least’ and so is in need of help, Christ is present.‘

It is not just the physically sick who require particular attention. Benedict also makes provision for the wayward:

The abbot must exercise the utmost care and concern for wayward brothers, because it is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick (Matt 9:12)
(Rule of St Benedict, Ch 27)

The actions of the compassionate and merciful Christ are implicit in all of St Benedict’s directives. The compassion and mercy that is to be fostered in the enclosure of the monastery is not an end in itself. Each member of the monastic community is tasked with making this concrete when guests arrive:

All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me. (Matt 25:35)
(Rule of St Benedict, Ch 53)

In the ordinary running of a monastery certain sisters will carry the work of being a ‘Guest sister’. They will be the guest’s first contact. There is, however, an understanding that everyone in the monastery contributes to this work. Christ is implicitly welcomed in all that we do in the monastery.

Look back over your week. How have you welcomed Christ?

Revelation 11:19,12:1-6,10 
1 Corinthians 15:20-26 
Luke 1:39-56 

The older I get the more time I seem to need to spend on paying attention to my body and making sensible choices. This is anything but self indulgent. When you live in community your own well-being is linked to the whole. There’s something of an implicit understanding that what you do or don’t do will affect the whole. While the monastic path might be an overtly spiritual choice, there’s no escaping the fact that this choice is worked out in a very physical way each day. Bodies matter.

When I come to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption I bring to the liturgy my own questions about my bodily life and death. The Church offers me some interpretative keys in the Liturgy of the Word. These are not keys that unlock the mystery straight away. For me these are well worn keys and I need a certain patience to unlock the various doors of mystery.

The first reading from Revelation invites me into the realm of apocalyptic literature. Today the ‘woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown.’ is Mary of Nazareth. I need to suspend what I understand to be the context and meaning of these words of Scripture and allow the text to have a meaning specific to the feast. Here we have Mary, Queen of heaven and bearer of our Saviour.

Today’s text from Corinthians plunges us into the mystery of the physicality of resurrection. There is a reassuring order in which things happen:

‘Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him.’

This text gives me such hope. Despite our weaknesses and our failings we know that we ‘belong to him’. In the Church’s understanding of the Assumption, Mary is so closely related to Jesus in mind and body that it is unthinkable that she her body should know decay. Legend has it that, perhaps in Ephesus, she falls asleep and is bodily assumed into heaven. In the bodily Assumption of Mary we find our hope too. I think there’s a case for understanding the Assumption as a sign that Mary’s body and our bodies too are places where God’s grace can take hold and where God’s power and glory can be seen. Our destiny, as those who belong to Christ, is to be resurrected with bodies that are glorified.

When we come to the Gospel text from Luke we are on familiar territory. This door opens easily for me. Two pregnant women meet in a sharing of joy and thanksgiving for the new life that they bear within them. Both women know that their bodies are channels of God’s promise and grace.

Poet Malcolm Guite expresses this so well in his sonnet, Visitation.

Two women on the very edge of things
Unnoticed and unknown to men of power
But in their flesh the hidden Spirit sings
And in their lives the buds of blessing flower.

As we look at this scene from the vantage point of the feast of the Assumption we see the dynamic of Mary’s faithfulness in mind, body and heart.

‘Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’

With Mary’s ‘Yes’, this promise takes shape in flesh and blood. What God has done in and through Mary, is God’s desire for each one of us. In celebrating the Assumption we celebrate redeemed humanity. Theologian John McQuarrie sees the Assumption as an on going event:

‘…whenever here on earth there is a gleam of true glory, a faithful act of discipleship, a prayer offered in faith, a hand stretched out in love, there is assumption, human life is being lifted up to God by God.’

How can you be open to the graces of the Assumption this week?

CHRIST

Let them prefer absolutely nothing to Christ,
and may he lead us all together to everlasting life.
(Ch 72, On Good Zeal)

That the Rule of St Benedict is Christological is evident on just about every page of the text. Whether St Benedict is speaking of ‘running in the way of God’s commands’ (Prologue), or treating the ‘goods and utensils of the monastery as the sacred vessels of the altar’ (Ch 31), it is to Christ that everything is directed.

There is a school of thought that sees the Prologue of the Rule as baptismal catechesis. Implicit is the leaving behind of one way of life in order to take up ‘the strong and noble weapons of obedience, to do battle for the true King, Christ the Lord.’ There is a clear sense that you are being invited to embark upon a new path. The Rule concerns itself with training us to run on a road together, under the direction of Christ.

In Baptism we were each called to a life that is centred on Christ, in the fullness of his humanity and divinity. We were called to imitate Christ in all that we do. As the priest anointed us with the Oil of Chrism he said these words:

God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you from sin,given you a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into his holy people. He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation. As Christ was anointed PRIEST, PROPHET and KING, so may you live always as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life.

The call to enter a monastery is one that makes concrete the call of baptism. Whichever way we choose to live out our baptismal call, our aim will be to become more and more like Christ. The monastic path offers us the opportunity to do this with a community of people, a Rule of Life, the guidance of an abbess, communal prayer, personal prayer and manual work. Our task in the monastery is to be open to the ways in which we can imitate Christ as Prophet, Priest and King in the monastic rhythm of each day.

How does your baptismal call shape your day to day life?
Where are you most aware of the call to image Christ?
Perhaps you have your own Rule of Life. How does this centre you on Christ?

Luke 12:32-48

This lengthy Gospel text from St Luke could almost be a manifesto for monastic life. I hear in every paragraph strong resonances with the Rule of St Benedict.

‘Sell your possessions and give alms.’

As I prepared to enter the monastery I went through several phases of divesting myself of my ‘worldly goods’. Most of my worldly good were clothes and shoes. One day I invited my friends round and opened up my wardrobes, inviting them to take whatever they wanted. It felt hugely liberating. Of course in the 30 years that have lived in a monastery I have probably accumulated roughly the same amount that I gave away. I’m no minimalist.

‘For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’

It’s very easy to read this text just as a warning about having too many possessions. However, the word that I always hear loudly is ‘treasure’. Treasure can be a subtle thing: what I treasure, you might not treasure. What I might hide away in order to keep safe, you might not even notice. I’m reminded here of St Cuthbert’s account of the death of Bede. As Bede’s death approaches he makes this request:

‘I have a few treasures in my box, some pepper, and napkins, and some incense. Run quickly and fetch the priests of the monastery, and I will share among them such little presents as God has given me.’

Each year I wonder what my ‘treasures’ are now, what do I keep in a safe place? I also wonder what I will consider ‘treasure’ when my life nears its end. In monastic culture it’s often the little things that make their mark on us. Monastic writers talk of poverty and simplicity and the importance of non-attachment to ‘things’. The lived reality is far more complex. Each day I have the opportunity to evaluate my choices and to steer that careful path between ‘wants’ and ‘needs’. Perhaps the key thing here is not so much how much or how little you have, but how willing you are to share.

‘See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit.’

This text forms the basis of one of my favourite Antiphons in Advent. I love the dynamism and sense of expectancy. For the monks of St Benedict’s day their way of life allowed them to take this text more or less literally:

They sleep clothed, and girded with belts or cords; but they should remove their knives, lest they accidentally cut themselves in their sleep. Thus the monks will always be ready to arise without delay when the signal is given; each will hasten to arrive at the Work of God before the others, yet with all dignity and decorum.

Rule of St Benedict, Ch 22, The Sleeping Arrangements of the Monks

On one level the monks weren’t doing anything unusual in sleeping clothed. Having special nightwear was not part of Sixth Century custom. St Benedict takes an ordinary thing and gives it a special significance; being ready for the Work of God was the priority in St Benedict’s thinking. Every thing is the monastic’s day is so arranged so as make sure that the liturgy takes priority.

All of the above quotations have something to say to us about how we prioritise things in our lives. They have something to say about how we open our hearts to God. I hear the texts in a particular way because of my monastic path. How do you hear these texts?

How can you open your heart this week?