The Front Line Of The Battle

The world and its worldlings?

I admit that I’ve grown weary of them. 

I cannot say that I despise the world and its worldlings. That would not be fair. The world and its worldlings, simply put, are under the control of the Evil One and in dire need of redemption. A fiery hell awaits the unredeemed. A fiery hell awaits every soul that rejects the Gift of God and the way of life presented to us by Christ.

Eternal banishment, and its accompanying eternal punishment, is a gravely serious matter.

I have chosen a path that leads away from the dire consequences of rejecting Christ.

It is not an easy path to walk. It is, in fact, quite challenging. 

Jesus said, If any want to be my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.[1] 

Following Christ [not just trailing along behind him but, rather, earnestly endeavoring to emulate the life that he lived] is a constant uphill journey where I am locked in a never ending battle with the darkness and depravity of my own human selfishness.

This battle is the “front line” for all of us.

This battle is the Conversatio Morum [Conversion of Life] that is part of the Benedictine Vows and Oblate Promises. Everything related to the Benedictine Vows and Promises of Obedience and Stability is directed toward creating and cultivating an environment where Conversatio Morum can occur.

Conversatio Morum is the objective of Benedictine monasticism. An ever-deepening conversion of life is the point of it all.

Conversatio Morum is, in fact, the objective of the Christian life. Without it we grow stagnant and stale, more “in” Christ’s way than “on” Christ’s way. Without Conversatio Morum we will ever be discovering ways to dress up and justify the darkness, depravity, and selfishness of our human condition.

Jesus said, Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.[2]

We do well to remember that the children in the time of Jesus were submissive and obedient to the authority figures in their lives … to their parents and to their religious teachers. Most of the problems in the Church today are caused by adults acting like modern children … spoiled, selfish, disobedient, and constantly insisting that the Church bend her standards to suit their unrestrained inordinate interests.

Historic Hebrew childlikeness is the image that Jesus expects to see in those of us who profess to be his followers. So much of the behavior that we see in the modern Church presents a stark contrast to the model of childlikeness that Christ sets before us.

I have no difficulty feeling compassion for the world and its lost worldlings that are blind to the reality that Satan holds them in his nasty grips. I cannot say the same about these embedded camps that exist in the modern Church.

Honestly.

There are growing numbers of people and people groups in every Church parish that are constantly exercising themselves in ways that undermine legitimate Church authority, disturb and destroy the peace of others, and are constantly causing relational problems. They are everywhere. They are in every parish. Banded together in groups, they know how to exercise themselves in ways to generate maximum effect. These are people that profess to be Catholic followers of Jesus.

There is no legitimate excuse for these behavior patterns. Everything taught by Jesus [everything taught by the Church] is opposed to these behavior patterns.

I look at the Church, and at local parishes [ours included], through Benedictine eyes. [Saint Benedict and his Rule have cultivated me to see as a Benedictine.] Benedictine monasteries are, after all, microcosms of the larger Church. What would Benedict do, what does the Rule of Saint Benedict insist be done, when people exercise themselves in ways that adversely affect the health and well-being of the community?

A lot of modern “followers” [according to Benedict and the Rule] would be experiencing varying degrees of excommunication until they learned to behave themselves and made satisfaction for their errant behavior. Benedict also teaches in the Rule that none of the brothers are to associate or have anything to do with those undergoing the redemptive and penitential tool of excommunication.

I cannot help but to withdraw and distance myself from those that make it their ministry to cause trouble in the Church … from adults acting like modern children … spoiled, selfish, disobedient, and constantly insisting that the Church bend her standards to suit their interests, especially when there is no observable interest in Conversatio Morum.  

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.[3]

Christ’s words, from the very outset of his earthly ministry, called [and still calls] people to a radical Conversatio Morum … to a radical conversion of life.

[Photo - 2007] I was watching one of the brothers pruning the apple trees inside the cloister at the Abbey of Gethsemane OCSO.

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[1] Mark 8:34

[2] Matthew 18:3

[3] Matthew 5:1-12

The Middle Is Gone

The middle, not so long ago, was a lot bigger.

It shrank and has almost altogether disappeared.

That middle, today, is more of a memory than some measurable body. I miss it. It was a relatively safe place.

What happened to this middle that allowed people a place where personal friction and relational confrontation were kept to a manageable minimum?

My first inclination is to blame its diminished state on what appears to be the agendas of national politics and special interest groups. 

These are, after all, the items that fill the news feeds on all the social media platforms. News anchors and talking heads have become professionals at spinning the news in a way that supports the views and opinions of networks receiving advertising dollars from the same special interest groups that are influencing the legislators and lawmakers that our votes put into State and National Offices.

Worse than this [Yes. There is a worse.] is how this mess has infiltrated and infected the Church with its polarizing and divisive dis-ease. Even here, in this place that is supposed to be a “safe-haven” from the world and its ungodly soul-robbing ways, we are forced to guard ourselves against those that are spinning the Truth to make it fit their own post-modern agendas. We are forced, even here, to choose between Right and Left … between Conservative and Liberal.

Both without and within the Church.

We consider the available options and make our choices. 

Our choices will always unavoidably define us and consign us to one side or the other. Both without in the secular world and within in the Church where the secular world has no rightful place. There is no need to personally lay claim to being Right or Left, Conservative or Liberal. Other people will do a good job of labeling and pigeonholing us both behind our backs and to our faces.

We would do well to remember the injunction that we have to “Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you.”[1]

The context of 1 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 insists that the world has no place in the Church or in the lives of those who by faith, and through their profession of faith, enter into the Church. Go ahead. Pick up your Bible. Blow the dust off the cover. Thumb it open and read the words for yourself. The context insists that we are to put the world and its ways behind us. In perfecting holiness in our lives, we cease to seek excuses that justify our worldliness and lack of holiness.

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr. He earned the title of Martyr at age 32 in the year 258. Lawrence refused to yield to the demands of the pagan Roman Empire. It cost him his life. The Romans put him on a grid and literally cooked him alive.

We spend so much time wondering and worrying about the opinions of those around us.

There is a larger and more important audience that we should concern ourselves with … all the Martyrs and Saints that have preceded us … that Holy Cloud that not only awaits us but also watches us.

Make no mistake about it.

The eyes of ALL the FAITHFUL of all ages are upon us.

Yes.

That is a scary thought if we are doing something that we should be ashamed of.

The writer of Hebrews discourses on the meaning of faith and offers examples of faith in action[2]. He tells us, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.[3]

First inclinations tend to be knee-jerk reactions to problems with more serious origins.

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[1] 2 Corinthians 6:17

[2] Hebrews 11:1 – 12:12

[3] Hebrews 12:1-2