Living The Rule - Benedict's Tools 3

It is not my intention to write a scholarly commentary on the Rule of Saint Benedict. There are already scholarly commentaries on The Rule. I do not have the necessary credentials to make such an attempt and, besides, there is no need in trying to reinvent the wheel.

My ambition is to allow these Biblical principles and values access to my personal will, wherein they are able to cultivate and convert me.

My ambition is to integrate these principles and values into the way that I am living my life in the Twenty-First Century. This, I believe, is what Saint Benedict insists that we all do. These principles and values, I believe, are what every follower of Christ is called to; whether or not an active association and identification as Benedictine is ever made.

I try, in writing these Oblate Reflections and Hermitage Notes, to avoid allowing any cynicism to bleed through. I try to avoid being critical. It is, at least I observe it to be so, that even those who look through analytical lenses at the issues that affect us modernites are quickly labeled as one or the other or a combination of both. I readily admit that it is practically impossible to write [or speak] in a way that does not “offend” people. I can make no apology to those who take offense at my understanding of Biblical morality and Theology.

I must also readily admit the caution that I use anymore in reading the ideas of anyone whose literary footprint is laid down this side of the last great Council [Vatican Council II]. I have, in this terribly divided age of liberalism, developed a preference for Pre-Vatican II material that bears the Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat. The Twentieth and Twenty-First Century movements of modernism and liberalism within the walls and halls of the Catholic Church are, to say the least, to be viewed with a lot of skepticism.

We were forewarned of these movements by Pope Saint Pius X [1903-1914]. Is it by chance that the Apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima occurred only three years after these warnings? I dare say that, in the realm of Divine Activity, nothing is left to chance.

There will always be the temptation to do the socially/politically correct thing and blend in. To become so in tune with the spirit of the age that written and spoken words simply settle into the soil of life as just more pieces of sand is to become purposeless and useless. I refuse to acquiesce to the spirit of this modern age.

Saint Benedict saw the prevailing worldliness [sinfulness] of the Sixth Century, sought refuge from the worldliness of the times in which he lived, and began what can be easily seen as a counter-cultural movement that significantly impacted the world in his time. His monastic model, governed by The Rule of Saint Benedict, also significantly impacted the Church. Oblation, for Oblates of Saint Benedict living in the world, is a personal offering of ourselves to live counter-culturally according to the precepts contained in The Rule.

I think the greatest failure that any of us can engage in, whether cloistered or living in the world, is to attempt making The Rule relevant to modern society. I continually remind myself that I cannot live by two sets of standards.

No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. [Matthew 6:24] Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. [Matthew 12:25] I know your works; you are neither cold or hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. [Revelation 3:15-16]

To live by The Rule, which we have already numerous times stated is to live according to the principles contained in the Gospel, is to live in complete opposition to the world. Saint Benedict, in this counter-cultural opposition to the world’s way of living, encourages me …

(20) To hold one's self aloof from worldly ways.

(21) To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.

(22) Not to give way to anger.

(23) Not to foster a desire for revenge.

(24) Not to entertain deceit in the heart.

(25) Not to make a false peace.

(26) Not to forsake charity.

(27) Not to swear, lest perchance one swear falsely.

(28) To speak the truth with heart and tongue.

I think often of something that Father Thomas O’Connor said to me in one of our cherished conversations during my novitiate as an Oblate Novice. We were talking about growing in the grace of conversion … conversatio morum; one of the Solemn Vows of monks and Solemn Promises of Oblates. In his soft-spoken grandfatherly way, he told me, “Lectio. Read the Rule often. And read the New Testament, especially the Gospels, often. They are your most important resources. They will not fail you. They will help you grow.”

Father O’Connor counselled me to always see Scripture and The Rule as my primary Lectio Divina. [Lectio Divina (Latin for "Divine Reading") is a traditional monastic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's word.]

Here, all these years later [I made my Final Promises in 2007], Father O’Connor’s words ring louder and truer than when they first passed through the gates of my hearing. 

There is a lot of reading that we can do without. Our Lectio, in Scripture and Rule, is, however, essential to our conversatio morum ... to our continual conversion. The neglect of it will always lead to spiritual immaturity, drought, withering, and possible falling away.