Saint Benedict: Seeker of God in Ordinary Things.
Saint Benedict never struck me as the sort who aspired to have his own feast day in the liturgical calendar. Nor would he have taken well to the title “Patriarch of Western Monasticism.” On the contrary, all of this likely would have left him slightly embarrassed, because none of it squares with the simple life that he chose. For someone who sought the presence of God in the ordinary, such grand gestures would have seemed entirely superfluous.
That said, there’s no denying the enduring influence of Saint Benedict. Born in Umbria in the late 400’s, he went to Rome for studies. There he found the social scene repugnant, and soon he fled to the mountains outside of Rome, where he began his search for God. From his experience as a hermit and then as an abbot, he drew the principles that undergird his appreciation of human behavior. From Eastern sources like Saints Basil and John Cassian and especially from his meditation on the Scriptures, he knit together a spirituality that puts him squarely in the Wisdom tradition of Christian writing.
From all this Benedict distilled the elements that went into his Rule for Monks. Today, nearly 1,500 years later, his Rule still guides men and women living the monastic life. That might not surprise him all that much. But his popularity among many outside of the cloister would likely astound him.
For modern readers there are passages in the Rule that may seem hopelessly dated. But peel those away and you find a spiritual vision that centers on one fundamental goal. People come to the monastery to seek God, and around that aspiration Benedict structures an experience that reveals God at every turn.
Benedict writes that the encounter with God ought not be rare, because one should see God regularly and easily. All you need to do is to open your eyes. First you will see God in the abbot, who is believed to hold the place of Christ in the community. The monk also sees Christ in the sick brethren and in the guest and in the poor. And in a departure from his sixth-century neighbors, Benedict writes that one can find wisdom (and God) even in the youngest of the brothers. I’m tempted to say that if Benedict were writing today, in our youth-centered culture, he would have to reverse the teaching. Only then would we understand the counter-cultural statements he often made.
In the monastery Benedict proposes a balanced life which is neither harsh nor burdensome. Monks are to work and pray, but they are not to engage in the competitive ascetical practices that distinguished earlier generations of monks in Egypt and Palestine. His monks were to have enough to eat, sufficient sleep, decent clothing and all the other things that were necessary for life — in proportion to each monk’s need. In fact, Benedict discouraged any self-denial that might stir up pride. His asceticism was not a regimen of doing without, but rather doing pretty much the same as everyone else.
While prayer and meditation predominate in his monastic schedule, Benedict’s emphasis on the importance of work was unusual for Roman society. For him all work was noble and all monks should work. Neither should they take pride in their talents, nor should they denigrate those who labor at menial jobs. Every task and every person has value in the monastery.
So what does Benedict have to offer to the 21st century? First, and despite our tendency to think otherwise, Benedict reminds us that God is not absent from our world. God regularly appears in the poor and the sick, and in the faces of our family and friends. And perhaps God even shines forth in our own faces when we serve others.
When it comes to a balanced life, Benedict is equally pointed in his critique. Contemporary culture tends to value work above all else, and the highly-paid are the most respected of all. But in Benedict’s estimation all work is noble, and all who work for the good of others deserve our respect. Nor should we dismiss non-economic activity as worthless. Prayer has no monetary value, nor do music and recreation and time spent with family and friends. But in so many ways those are the activities that make life worth living.
We shouldn’t need a saint to remind us of this. But on the other hand, someone who does recall us to these priorities has to be among the saints of God. Maybe that’s why we celebrate the feast of Saint Benedict. He certainly doesn’t need this feast day; but we do.
NOTES
+On July 11 we celebrated the feast of Saint Benedict. Today’s post first appeared in 2013 in The Abbey Banner, which Saint John’s Abbey publishes for its friends. To my knowledge I’ve never used this article in this blog before, so in the interests of conservation (my time and wits, primarily) I decided to recycle it as today’s post. It worked in 2013, and not all that much has changed in our appreciation of Saint Benedict since then.
+On July 11th we witnessed the first profession of vows by Brother Jacob Berns, as well as the renewal of vows by several of our confreres. To cite the youngest and oldest of them, Brother Simon-Hoa celebrated his 25th anniversary, and Fr. Hilary marked the 70th anniversary since his first profession. Brother Jacob grew up in Perham, MN, and is an alumnus of Saint John’s University. After graduation he worked as a Benedictine Volunteer at the Abbey of Sant’ Anselmo in Rome, and then worked in music ministry in his parish. He plays the viola and organ (not simultaneously), and I look forward to hearing him at the organ console soon.
Likely the highlight of the profession Mass was a communion hymn sung by Brothers Andrew, Thomas, Emmanuel, and Benedict — the four Cistercian monks from Vietnam who have been living and studying with us. They were joined by a Florida priest-friend of Brother Simon-Hoa. With four of them singing in Vietnamese and Brother Benedict playing the flute, their voices literally stole the show.
+On July 14-15 we hosted 75 oblates of the monastery, who returned to Saint John’s for the annual oblate retreat.
+On July 15 we hosted at Mass and lunch some 30 Abbey volunteers who generously contribute their time and energy in a host of activities around the monastery.
+Saint Benedict wrote that “guests are never wanting” in a monastery, and that has certainly been the case this summer. For several days we have been blessed with the presence of Bishop Felipe Estévez, from Florida. The bishop of Saint Augustine, he prayed with us and joined us for meals in the monastic refectory. We thoroughly enjoyed his company. Currently we are hosting Frs. Efrem de Montellá and Bernat Juliol from the Abbey of Montserrat, located just outside of Barcelona. They direct the Escolonia, the choir school at Montserrat; and they have been here to talk about the Benedictine Volunteer Corps. For several years we have had graduates of Saint John’s working there as volunteers, and they continue a relationship between our two abbeys that stretches back nearly a century.
+The top three photos in today’s post show the site of Benedict’s first monastery, at Subiaco, outside of Rome. At Saint John’s images of Saint Benedict abound. The stone etching of Benedict’s motto — “Work and Pray” — is embedded in the exterior brick of the Quadrangle, while the granite carving of Saint Benedict is mounted on the wall inside of the east cloister walk of the monastery. Benedict’s preference for remote locations is confirmed by the view from Monte Cassino, at bottom. The monastery is renaissance in design, but the view of the clouds and countryside is as Benedict left it.
Read Full Post »
These sorts of conundrums still puzzle us. We prefer the easy answers for their clarity, and so we set up the Ten Commandments as a kind of idol. But we know that Proverbs teaches us to demand more of life and more from ourselves. To that deeper self-examined way of life Jesus also calls us. And so today we could do no better than to pray for the gift of wisdom and for the patience to make the most of it.
