The world that we live in is a rough place.
The world has always been a rough place. It will always be a
rough place.
We should never delude ourselves by thinking the world will
embrace the light of Christ that shines through us. That the world, and vast
numbers of people of the world, will ever be anti-Christ is plainly evident in
the teachings of Scripture. We are called to live in this world but to be separate
from this world.[1]
We see the Light of the world. We yield ourselves to the
Light of the world. The Light of the world fills us and shines through us.
Others see the Light in us. Some will find the Light desirable. Others will
reject the Light. My responsibility is to shine. How others respond to the shining
is their will to perform.
I find it easy to accept the reality that the world will
always live in opposition to Christ. I also have to accept the reality that not
all who profess to be Christian live in a way that honestly reflects the Gospel
life-ideals that demolish the relational problems created by self and selfishness. Where the world is concerned, and where others that
make some type of profession of faith in Christ are concerned, all I can
possibly do is live in the Light of Christ that I know.
Monastery enclosures are wonderful places.
Inside, interiorly, there is a holy structure, a rule, that governs
daily life and supports the ongoing development of the interior life of those that
willingly enter in. The very physical structure of a monastery, unlike a prison
that is built to keep criminals locked away from society, is constructed to
keep the world locked outside the gate.
I think, and this is just some reflective thinking on my part,
that had I been reared in the Catholic faith as a child, had I been introduced
to the possibility of monastic life at an early age, that I would have been
strongly inclined toward a monastic profession and life in a habit. I do not
find it coincidental that life as an Oblate coincided with my conversion to the
Catholic faith as a Protestant adult.
Our natural conception, birth, and childhood formation belong
to a dimension that none of us have any control over. Our spiritual conception,
birth, and subsequent spiritual formation (especially as adults) reside in a
dimension where we have the definite ability to add our yea or nay to the
process that heals, renews, and remakes us into images that gradually and more positively reflect and model the image of Christ.
Christians need safe relational
community.
Professed religious are intimately involved in relationships
within the safe refuge of the monastic community where they pray, worship, eat,
work, and grow in grace together under the careful example and guidance of an
Abbot.
Here, in the tough world outside the monastic enclosure
where we are constantly assaulted in our encounters with the world and, sadly,
by the abrasive actions of misinformed or mal-informed professors of the
Christian faith, Oblates, and all Christians for that matter, need safe refuge
within a relational community (Church) that supports and fosters intimate personal relationships
and deep spiritual formation.
We need safe refuge where we can share and participate in
what is intended to be the normal communion of Christian community. The Apostle
Paul spoke to this when he wrote,
Complete my joy by
being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one
thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vain glory; rather, humbly
regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his
own interests, but (also) everyone for those of others. Do everything without
grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of
God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among
whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life, so
that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor
in vain.[2]
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