It is easy to think of these early ones as primitive, that
their way of living the ideals of Christianity was only in the developmental
stage.
The simple truth of the matter is that those early ones were
fully alive, fully present, and fully in love with Christ and one another.
Those early ones were submersed in the words of Christ and the instructions of
the Apostles. They modeled the words of Christ who said, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have
loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that
you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”[1]
Commonality was one of the characteristics of this great
love in the lives of the early ones. Pentecost – the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit - was a real life changer for them. They were spiritually energized to
live the truth.
“Awe came upon
everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All
who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their
possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day
by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at
home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having
the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number
those who were being saved.”[2]
The Church, even under the heavy hand and hard sole of oppression
and dire persecution, multiplied and grew astoundingly.
Christ’s commandment to love, and the example of the early
ones in personal response to Christ’s commandment, present a significant
challenge in our modern times where it is so easy to pick and choose what we
want to accept and to rationalize away everything else that challenges us
beyond the planted hedges and erected walls of our personal comfort zones.
It is easy to argue that the supreme example of the early
ones was necessary for the “times” in which they lived; that such personal
devotion and surrender was required in order to get the infant Church going and
established in light of the hard scrutiny of both the Romans and the Jews. It
is much more convenient to lay claim to an easier salvation that retains,
supports, and promotes my own “rights” to the exercise of personal ownership
and other personal freedoms.
Yet, nothing that I can argue or do erases or negates the
commandment of Christ and the example of the early ones in the infant Church.
This example has survived the centuries of time since the
words of Christ and the acts of the early believers were written and preserved.
What was to become known as the Three Evangelical Councils (poverty, chastity, and obedience) have, ever since, characterized and given dimension to the lives
of men and women professing Christian monastic vows and clothing themselves in monastic
habits. Monasteries flourished around the world for centuries. Mother houses
regularly dispatched groups of faithful monastics to found new monasteries that
would soon be filled.
Benedictine Vows (and Oblate Promises) center around
obedience, stability, and conversion of life. Poverty and chastity are not specifically
included but are definitely implied and accepted as an integral part of
Benedictine monastic spirituality.
It is easy to dismiss these vows, promises, and councils and
consider them something applicable only to monastic communities. They are more
than something applicable to monastic orders and societies of priests. The
principles contained in them apply to every follower of Christ. Our own
catechism points out that “Christ proposes the evangelical councils, in their
great variety, to every disciple.”[3]
Times have indeed changed.
Where once the seats in monastic choirs were filled, now
many seats are empty. Few are entering into professions to fill the seats now
left vacant by brothers and sisters that have either lived and died in their
professions or recanted and left their professions.
Has God ceased to call men and women to the commonality of
monastic professions?
Has he ceased to call believers to a life of commonality
within the Church?
Or, has the modern Church become so infatuated with the
things and noise of the world that its sense of spiritual hearing has been dulled?
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