Preferring Nothing to Christ

WEEK THREE
TUESDAY

Zephaniah 3:1-2. 9-13
Matthew 21:28-32

‘In your midst I will leave a humble and lowly people, and those who are left in Israel will seek refuge in the name of the Lord.’

The promise that God will leave ‘a humble and lowly people’, a faithful remnant, runs throughout the Prophetic literature of the Old Testament. This group of people is often referred to as ‘anawim’, the poor ones. Sr Maria Boulding osb, in her book, The Coming of God’ explores their role in the story of salvation:

‘These anawim appear as the spiritual kernel of the nation from the seventh century BC. These were the have-nots, the underprivileged, the powerless, the oppressed, the people whose economic poverty drove them to unlimited trust in God.
The poor were the humble, the people who were obedient to the will of God, those whose very misery had forced their hearts open to him.’

God constantly entrusted himself in love to the people of Israel. Those who were poor and humble had space enough to receive him. They had lived lives of faithfulness to the Torah and could do no other than follow its commands.

In the Gospel scene today two sons are asked to go and work in their father’s vineyard. One is bold enough to say ‘no’, but then relents and goes. The other is outwardly compliant but doesn’t go to the vineyard. It’s fairly easy for me to imagine myself as both sons. If I am honest, I am quite likely to grumble inwardly, decide not to do something and then find my heart is melted and I’m ready to do what is asked. Advent invites me to examine the things that harden my heart.

‘The first step of humility is unhesitating obedience, which comes naturally to those who cherish Christ above all.

This very obedience however, will be acceptable to God and agreeable to men only if compliance with what is commanded is not cringing or sluggish or half-hearted, but free from any grumbling or action of unwillingness.‘

Chapter 5, Obedience

St Benedict has a very developed understanding of the complexities of human nature. His guidance is always firm, fair and challenging. He knows very well that some tasks in monastery will be a burden for some, but not for others.

When you first enter a community, you are eager to help with pretty much anything that comes your way. You will more than likely be asked to do things that you feel are outside your sphere of competence- or so you tell yourself! You have a go. Once the honeymoon period wears off there will be parts of your timetable that make your heart sink. Now the hard work begins. If you start reading Ch 5 of the Rule at this stage, two things can happen: your heart is lifted and you carry on, or you think you’ll never get the hang of unhesitating obedience, and you are tempted to give up. The beauty of the novitiate is that you learn to find a way to do the things that are burdensome. You largely can’t wriggle out of them. It all takes time. The shifts in your heart are subtle. One day you will find that a little space has opened up in your heart for ‘unhesitating obedience’.

In St Benedict’s monastery there is always room for both sons from today’s Gospel text. The monastery isn’t an assault course where you need to get it right first time, or you are disqualified. It is something much more humane. Chapter 64, The Election of An Abbot, contains one of my favourite quotations from the Rule:

‘…he must show forethought and consideration in his orders, and whether the task he assigns concerns God or the world, he should be discerning and moderate, bearing in mind the discretion of holy Jacob who said: If I drive my flocks too hard, they will all die in a single day (Gen 33:13). Therefore, drawing on this and other examples of discretion, the mother of virtues, he most so arrange everything that the strong have something to yearn for and the weak have nothing to run from.’

In truth, we are all strong in some areas and weak in others. We all need to ‘yearn’ and we all need to pull back a little and admit when something is too much. Community gives us the potential to work together and support each other in the journey of obedience.

How is Christ calling you to open your heart in obedience during Advent?

Photo by William Krause on Unsplash

THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT
MONDAY

Numbers 24:2-7,15-17
Matthew 21:23-27

Today’s first reading is a rather unfamiliar text from the Book of Numbers. We hear one of the oracles of the prophet Balaam.

How fair are your tents, O Jacob!
How fair your dwelling, Israel!
Like valleys that stretch afar,
like gardens by the banks of a river,
like aloes planted by the Lord,
like cedars beside the waters.

The poetic language has resonances with the Psalms. It’s likely that the Book of Numbers was edited during the period of exile in Babylon. Balaam’s oracle reassures Israel that deliverance it as hand:

 A hero rises from their stock, he reigns over countless peoples.

This text finds a place in our Advent liturgy as Christian writers interpret this as a reference to Christ. This idea is further reinforced a few verses later:

I see him-but not in the present,
I behold him- but not close at hand:
a star from Jacob takes the leadership,
a sceptre arises from Israel.

What’s special about Balaam is that he is a Gentile. He is held up for us here as an example of one who interprets the signs and acknowledges the coming of the Messiah.

You might be starting to feel a sense of urgency with your Christmas preparations. I always imagine that I have slightly more time than I actually do. The challenge each year is to be open to those glimpses of the Messiah in the ordinariness of our lives.

The invitation to recognise Christ is writ through monastic living. Some of the structures in the monastery directly facilitate this. The Abbot, for example, holds the place of Christ in the monastery. St Benedict’s chapter on the Qualities of the Abbot is a very sobering read. The qualities outlined are Christ-like in their rigour and compassion:

‘He must so accommodate and adapt himself to each one’s character and intelligence that he will not only keep the flock entrusted to him from dwindling, but will rejoice in the increase of a good flock.’

The Abbot is to lead by example too:

‘…he must point out to them all that is good and holy more by example than by words, proposing the but demonstrating God’s instructions to the stubborn and the dull by a living example.’

Everyone in a monastery can learn from the example of others. We are each called to image Christ for each other. Sr Aquinata Bockmann osb, who has taught the Rule for many years, challenges her students to become themselves ‘a living commentary on the Rule.’

Whatever our path in life, we are called to be channel’s of Christ’s love and light.

How can you recognise Christ this week?

Photo by Hartmut Tobies on Unsplash

WEEK THREE
SUNDAY

Isaiah 35:1-6, 10
Matthew 11:2-11

Today Isaiah offers us poetic vision of all that God promises for the people of Judah: everybody and everything will be restored in a land governed by God. Judah has experienced a period of barrenness and dryness in her relationship with God. All of this God will turn into fertile land, where everything can flourish. It is a very exuberant text. The glory of God is seen in a land where everything is restored and blossoms. What was once arid will now become fertile. The power of God to heal and save will be felt by everyone:

‘Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the death unsealed, then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy for those the Lord has ransomed shall return.‘

In the Gospel text from Matthew, John the Baptist sends a disciple to ask Jesus if he is ‘the One’. John the Baptist was expecting a particular type of Messiah. His reading of the Scriptures led him to believe the Messiah would be cutting down rotten trees and using a winnowing fan. Instead, in his reply, Jesus is saying that the Kingdom has begun. In his very being the reign of God is inaugurated:

‘Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me.’

In the Rule of St Benedict the Kingdom breaks through in more subtle ways. Philip Sheldrake in his book, Spaces for the Sacred, sees a kingdom dimension in monastic living:

Monastic spirituality invites us to live as if the inner harmony, the interpersonal reconciliation, the social conversion of the Kingdom of God were actually the case. It is anticipatory, but in the sense that practising the ‘as if’ is, in God’s providence, an irreducible aspect of the Kingdom coming to be.

The practice of hospitality is one dimension of monastic living which makes the Kingdom tangible. Everything is to be done as if you were welcoming Christ himself. Every tiny detail of setting a table, cooking a meal or answering correspondence honours Christ and builds for the Kingdom. Once the guest arrives St Benedict is very clear that prayer is to form part of the welcome.

Many guests comment on experience of being welcomed to the Liturgy in a our monastery. It is truly humbling to hear this.

How can you welcome others build for the Kingdom during Advent?

WEEK TWO
SATURDAY

Ecclesiasticus 48:1-4. 9-11
Matthew 17:10-13

The prophet Elijah is mentioned in both readings today. His message was simple: turn away from sin and turn towards God.

Look back over your week. How has God called you to conversion?

Photo by Eric Muhr on Unsplash

WEEK TWO
FRIDAY

Isaiah 48: 17-19
Matthew 11:16-19

‘If only you had been alert to my commandments,
your happiness would have been like a river,
your integrity like the waves of the see.’ (Is 48)

‘But as we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.’ (Prologue, Rule of St Benedict)

Use the Scripture texts for your prayer.

Reflect on the two quotations. How is God speaking to you through these texts?

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Genesis 3:9-15, 20
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12
Luke 1:26-38

In her book, Born Contemplative, Madeleine Simon writes about the spiritual development of young children and explores her thesis that we are all born with an innate capacity for God. She says that a child’s faith journey begins the moment the mother knows that she is pregnant. As we celebrate today’s Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception the church invites us to stand back and to imagine that moment when Mary was conceived, the beginning of her faith journey. All that we know of her parents comes from pious legend and so we are left to imagine the upright, God-fearing couple, Joachim and Anne, who have followed the path of Torah all their lives.

In our liturgy today we are engaged in a collective looking back over the story of our salvation. The story of the Fall in Genesis Ch 3 looms large and lays before us the human dynamic of sin and shame. It’s always important to hold Genesis Ch 1 alongside Ch 3, as here we find a theology of blessing: ‘And God saw that it was good.’ Our relationship with God is ruptured, but it is not beyond repair. God never loses sight of our innate capacity to live with Him in love.

The whole of Biblical revelation charts the path of God’s relationship with his people. We see in each page God’s desire to restore harmony. God will use the lowly and the weak to fulfill his plan. Mary enters the story of our salvation as one who is poor and lowly. She has been nurtured in a tradition of God’s Word (Torah), God’s Service (Prayer) and God’s Work (Kindness). She had learnt the ways of faithfulness and love.

In today’s Gospel story of the Annunciation, we see the flowering of God’s plan as Mary is told that she has ‘won God’s favour’. Every small choice from the very moment of her conception has led to this day. It’s easy to feel inadequate when Mary is held up as ‘the one without sin’. But perhaps we could see today’s feast as an invitation to make each small choice count?

The day to day life of a monastic is made up of many little things. The monastic may not feel as if she is running at all. At the beginning of my novitiate my novice mistress said to me: ‘Never underestimate the energy it takes to turn up at the right place, at the right time, with the appropriate expression on your face.’ These were wise words indeed and I revisit them frequently. Saying my ‘Yes’ to God opened up a world where faithfulness is needed for the big things and the little. You largely don’t go in search of the big things, they come to you. But the small things are there around every corner in the monastery. When life seems overwhelming and there are many calls on your heart and your mind, I have learnt the wisdom of just doing the next right thing.

How is God calling you to say ‘Yes’ this Advent?

SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT
WEDNESDAY

Isaiah 40:25-31
Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’

Whenever I hear this text from Matthew 11, I find myself thinking about those people in my life who have shown me what it means to be ‘gentle and humble of heart’. There are many. Some of these people you wouldn’t necessarily notice in a group. You would be more likely to notice when they are missing. These people are graced with a solid sense of who they are. They image Christ for me. Sometimes, without realising it, I have sought out these people when I have felt over-burdened. I have come away lighter and at peace.

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.

Prologue, Rule of St Benedict

In the day-to-day ordering of his monastery St Benedict wants there to be an atmosphere of peace and harmony. His is a deeply incarnational spirituality where moderation and measure shape prayer and work. He knows very well that daily communal living provides enough ascesis in itself. He doesn’t add to this with rigorous fasts and ascetic practices. Of course, Benedict’s monastery isn’t a free for all where anything is tolerated. It is a school wherein you learn to serve as Christ served. Daily there are opportunities to choose to be ‘gentle and humble of heart.’ Advent reminds me to make this choice.

Where is Christ calling you to be gentle and humble of heart?

SECOND WEEEK OF ADVENT
TUESDAY

Isaiah 40:1-11
Matthew 18:12-14

Today Isaiah paints the scene of a triumphant homecoming for Judah, their time of exile ended. Isaiah uses the familiar biblical theme of reversal, and we are invited to picture a landscape where valleys, hills, ridges and mountains are transformed. It’s likely that the image of ‘a straight highway’ will have reminded the hearers of this prophecy of the triumphal journey of the Israelites through the Red Sea and of the entry into the Promised Land. The language of triumph continues as a messenger shouts the joyful news: Here is your God! This God shows all the solicitude of a shepherd:

He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering the lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewes.

The link is made easily with our Gospel story from Matthew of the man who leaves his ninety-nine sheep in search of one that has strayed. Dom Henry Wansbrough comments that while Matthew’s story lacks some of the affection of Luke’s, what is significant is that this story is told in the middle of Ch 18, which is all about living together in community. Going in search of the lost is intrinsic to Christian community.

The Rule of St Benedict is only seventy-three chapters long. It fits easily in a pocket. Yet within these seventy-three chapters there is wisdom which has stood the test of time. The more familiar I become with the Rule, the more I notice the nuances, and most especially the humanity of the text.

Ch 27 of the Rule deals with ‘The Abbot’s Concern for the Excommunicated’. It is part of a series of chapters which are often referred to as St Benedict’s ‘Penal Code’. They largely don’t make for easy reading. Even if we take into account St Benedict’s historical context, we are still left with practices and some attitudes which we wouldn’t and couldn’t countenance today. There’s is, however, a thread which runs through each chapter: actions done by one member of the community affect the whole. What motivates St Benedict is the good of the whole community in its search for God.

I am always struck by the humanity of the words quoted above from Ch 27. The abbot deputises ‘mature and wise brothers’ to seek out the wayward brother. The fact that this is to be done in secret speaks volumes. The last thing you would want to do is make public the struggles of another. I get the impression that these ‘senpectae’ would have seen it all before and be unshockable. It is noticeable too that St Benedict doesn’t suggest that the abbot himself seek out the brother. As a wise physician he knows when to call upon the particular skills of others in the community. The abbot is to act with ‘speed, discernment and diligence’. St Benedict knows that timing is everything when difficulties arise.

Is Christ calling you this Advent to be a wise physician and to reach out to someone who is struggling?

Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash

WEEK TWO
MONDAY

Isaiah 35:1-10
Luke 5:17-26

In the days of the overhead projector and the use of acetates I remember watching a clever presenter build up a picture by laying five acetates, one on top of each other. Something similar is perhaps at work with the liturgy of the Word in the season of Advent. We look forward to Christ’s birth at Christmas, are mindful of his Second Coming and are watchful for the signs of His Kingdom here and now.

The Gospel texts this week are a reminder that the Kingdom inaugurated by Christ will reach its fulfilment when he comes again. We await this coming just as eagerly as our Old Testament ancestors waited for the Messiah. We wait in hope and faith.

Today the story of the paralytic from Luke offers us a richness of themes. Woven together in one story I see faith, trust, friendship, courage, the attentiveness of Jesus and a clear sign of his divinity. What struck me today was this sentence:

‘… as the crowd made it impossible to find a way of getting him in, they went up on to the flat roof and lowered him and his stretcher down through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, in front of Jesus.’

What struck me in particular was the word ‘middle’. The men, through their ingenuity and faith, bring their paralysed friend from the periphery right into the middle of the gathering. That day was surely life-changing for them all. A shared experience of internal and external healing will perhaps bind them their life long.

In St Benedict’s monastery there are two things which take priority over all else: the Work of God (Divine Office) and care of the sick.

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 25:26), and, What you did for one of these least brothers you did for me. (Matt 25:40).

St Benedict so arranges things that nothing is left to chance when it comes to care of the sick. The sick are not to be on the peripheries of the community, rather they are to be integrated into the whole. There is a designated person, the Infirmarian, who takes overall responsibility and concessions are to be made with diet and the taking of baths. It’s a common sense and reassuringly practical approach. But the care and consideration isn’t all one way. St Benedict cautions:

Let the sick on their part bear in mind that they are served out of honour for God, and let them not by their excessive demands distress their brothers who serve them.

There’s a delicate balance to be struck between admitting a need and hoping that it will be met. There’s courage and love needed for those who serve and for those who are served.

Who do you identify with in today’s Gospel text?

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

Isaiah 11:1-10
Matthew 3:1-12

While last week’s Gospel text invited us to ‘Stay Awake!’, the message this week is no less urgent: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of God is close at hand.’ John the Baptist walks into our Advent landscape with a message that is uncompromising. His cry of ‘Repent’ is for deep and radical change where hearts are to be turned away from all that would hinder their love for God. John’s message echoes that of the Old Testament prophets who proclaimed the great day of reckoning, the Day of the Lord. With imagery of warfare and cataclysm the Old Testament prophets warn of a time when God will come to right all wrongs.

As Advent unfolds for us, we may find ourselves trying to hold together this radical call to conversion on the one hand, and on the other an atmosphere of expectant joy and glitz created in all our high streets and on our tv screens. I’ve been struck by the popularity of Dr Michael Mosley’s book and series ‘Just One Thing’ and wonder if this might hold the key for us. Mosley suggests that in the bewildering array of material available on health and well-being, changing just one thing can provide great benefits. Perhaps Advent might be the time when you respond to the call of conversion by making one a small change.

When St Benedict writes the Prologue to his Rule he is clear that conversion lies at the heart of his monastic vision:

Therefore, we intend to establish a school for the Lord’s service. In drawing up its regulations, we hope to set down nothing harsh, nothing burdensome. The good of all concerned, however, may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love. Do not be daunted immediately by fear and run away from the road that leads to salvation. It is bound to be narrow at the outset. But as we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.

Amending faults and safeguarding love are the very stuff of monastic life. There is something about the regularity of the life which makes it relatively easy to see one’s own patterns of behaviour. Where the real hard work begins is learning how to amend faults. St Benedict doesn’t expect this to happen overnight. In Chapter Four of his Rule, The Tools of Good Works, he provides the monastic with a spiritual toolkit. There are seventy-four tools which will aid the monastic in their craft. I take great heart in the fact that the last tool of all is this: never lose heart in God’s mercy. The monastic way may be narrow and at times hard, but the promise is there that if you are faithful your heart will expand and overflow with love.

Is there one thing you would like to change this Advent?