Preferring Nothing to Christ

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?

WEEK ONE
SATURDAY

Isaiah 30:19-21. 23-26
Matthew 9:35-10:1. 6-8

Read through the Scripture texts and then look back over your week.

Where have you seen the ‘wasteland rejoice and bloom’?
Have you heard God say ‘Courage! Do not be afraid.’?
Are there things for which your heart can shout for joy?
What do you most need and desire for this next week of Advent?

WEEK ONE
FRIDAY

Isaiah 29:17-24
Matthew 9:27-31

‘What page, what passage of the inspired books of the Old and New Testaments is not the truest guides for human life?’

Ch 73: This Rule only a Beginning of Perfection

Read through the Scripture texts. Choose one and copy out the whole text.
Notice the words and phrases which strike you. How is God speaking to you today?

Welcome to A Path Through Advent with St Benedict.

I’ll be using the Advent Liturgy of the Word as a framework for our reflection. I’ll choose a theme from the readings and relate this to my experience of living the Rule of St Benedict. You don’t need to have any prior knowledge of the Rule. But if you would find it helpful to have the full text, I’ll be quoting from this translation: The Rule of St Benedict in English, Timothy Fry, osb. You can find a sample here:

https://litpress.org/Products/GetSample/8792/9780814687925

There are many other translations available. This is a useful archive:

http://archive.osb.org/rb/rbbib/index.html

Poet and priest, Malcolm Guite, captures the essence of the Rule of St Benedict beautifully in his sonnet. This is a helpful starting place for our journey.

You sought to start a simple school of prayer,
A modest, gentle, moderate attempt,
With nothing made too harsh or hard to bear,
No treating or retreating with contempt,
A little rule, a small obedience
That sets aside, and tills the chosen ground,
Fruitful humility, chosen innocence,
A binding by which freedom might be found

You call us all to live, and see good days,
Centre in Christ and enter in his peace,
To seek his Way amidst our many ways,
Find blessedness in blessing, peace in praise,
To clear and keep for Love a sacred space
That we might be beginners in God’s grace.

Malcolm Guite

Our journey begins on Sunday 27th November. I’ll post on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. (On Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays there will be shorter posts.)

I am delighted that so many have shown interest in this.
I look forward to sharing the journey with you.

2 Samuel 5:1-3
Colossians 1:12-20
Luke 23:35-43

News that King Charles may ‘trim down’ his Coronation service has prompted me to think about Kingship and what it might mean for our world today. Is it an outmoded concept? Is it something which becomes redefined with each new monarch? I don’t get very far with these ‘earthly’ questions as I realise my outlook is very biblically coloured. In the biblical world prophets and kings are chosen by God and anointed. Kings are marked with God’s seal and are tasked with the care of God’s people, from the greatest to the least.

In the Liturgy today kingship is portrayed in three different ways: David, the one chosen and anointed, Christ the Lord of all heaven and earth and Christ, the Servant King, who promises the thief paradise.

During these past weeks we have journeyed with Jesus to Jerusalem. We have seen Him as the fulfillment of all that was promised through David. As the first born of all creation He has walked among us and inaugurated the Reign of God. And now, as the journey ends, he hangs upon the cross as our Servant King.

It’s the image of the Servant King which speaks loudest to me this year. Luke’s portrayal of Jesus over these past weeks has taken us many times to the margins. There we find scenes that don’t conform to our tidy constructs of ‘who is in and who is out’. Both Jesus and the thieves now find themselves on the margins. They are outside the city walls, dying the death of the outcast and the disgraced. Into this darkness one thief speaks words of hope when he has the courage to ask to be remembered: remember me when you come into your kingdom. When Jesus replies it is with some of the most reassuring and tender words in Scripture: ‘Indeed, I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.’ To the very last, Jesus, our Servant King, reaches out to those who find themselves on the margins.

Our Servant King walks among us today. Do we recognise him?

Luke 21:5-19

Throughout the story of our salvation the people of God have searched for and longed to be in the presence of God. They have sensed the sacred and marked it in physical ways by the erecting of stones and the building of altars. When Solomon builds the Temple it’s the fruit of the longing and desire of the whole people of God. God promises to be in the Temple and never to leave. This fills the people with hope and firmly places the Temple in their theological imaginations.

When Jesus speaks of the destruction of the second Temple, he too is speaking of a physical place that has always been a guarantee of God’s glory and presence. Luke’s hearers have already experienced the destruction of the Temple (70 AD) and Luke, writing in approximately 80 AD, has Jesus predict this. This sets Jesus firmly in the prophetic tradition.

Luke is writing for a community that is already experiencing persecution and the inevitable collapse of their certainties. Jesus promises them a type of strength and fortitude that only he can give:

Keep this carefully in mind: you are not to prepare your defence, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict.

Jesus doesn’t promise to rebuild the Temple because now, instead of bricks and mortar, it is his flesh and blood that will be the guarantee of God’s presence. All the longing and devotion that once filled their hearts as they made pilgrimage to the Temple is now at God’s service in the welcoming of the kingdom and the building of community.

Where is God calling you to welcome the kingdom and to build community?