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2 Jan. 3 May. 2 Sept.

Let us then at length arise, since the Scripture stirreth us up, saying: It is time now for us to rise from sleep." And our eyes being open to the deifying light, let us hear with wondering ears what the Divine Voice admonisheth us, daily crying out: "To-day if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts." And again, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches." And what saith He? "Come, my children, hearken to Me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Run while ye have the light of life, lest the darkness of death seize hold of you."

Broad Strokes and Bright Colours

Yesterday's passage from the Prologue of the Holy Rule contains elements of a baptismal catechesis. This should not surprise us, given that the monastic life, unlike later developments of consecrated life in the Church, was not established to address any special need or in response to a particular crisis as were, for example, the Dominicans (to combat heresy by contemplating and preaching truth), or the Jesuits (to be soldiers under obedience, ready at every moment to fight the Church's enemies and to carry the message of Christ the King to the remotest ends of the earth). Monastic life is, quite simply, the baptismal life writ with broad strokes and bright colours. It is an intensification of the Way lived by the Christians of the early Church as described in the Acts of the Apostles. For this reason, monastic life is the original vita apostolica (the apostolic life) insofar as it seeks to reproduce in every age the pattern left by the Apostles. Although individual monks may, under obedience, be called to cultivate certain specialized skills or fields of knowledge, Benedictine life, as such, has no specialization

And they were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles, and in the communication of the breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: many wonders also and signs were done by the apostles in Jerusalem, and there was great fear in all. And all they that believed, were together, and had all things common. Their possessions and goods they sold, and divided them to all, according as every one had need. And continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they took their meat with gladness and simplicity of heart; Praising God, and having favour with all the people. (Acts 2:42-47)

A Classic

I still put into the hands of every man who comes to the monastery to discern whether or not he may have a Benedictine vocation, the splendid old classic that was put into my hands so many years ago: The Ideal of the Monastic Life Found in the Apostolic Age by Dom Germain Morin, O.S.B. (1861-1946). Originally published in 1913, it has lost nothing of its value; it remains a clear and accessible exposition of Benedictine life in all its simplicity and grandeur.

In the Face of Christ Jesus

The monk is a man roused from sleep and called to stand on his two feet, as one risen from the tomb, in order to meet the gaze of the Father with the Son. The Word of God shakes him out of the cozy slumber of mediocrity. "Now is the hour for us to rise from sleep" (Romans 13:11). The heavy drapes of isolation from the Divine Light are pulled back; the brightness of Christ comes streaming into the room; the monk is obliged to wipe the sleep from his eyes and fix his gaze on the splendour of the Holy Face of Christ. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

The Sound of His Voice

Having opened his eyes to the light that streams from the Face of Christ, the monk must also open his ears to the sound of His voice. There is not a day, not an hour, when Christ, the Word, is not speaking to the human heart. "Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Apocalypse 3:20). How does Christ speak? How does He knock at the door of one's heart? He speaks through His creation. He knocks through the experience of all that is beautiful, of all that is good, and true. He speaks through Divine Revelation as received and transmitted by the Church. He knocks in every verse of the psalms that are chanted in choir by day and by night. "I sleep, and my heart watcheth; the voice of my beloved knocking: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is full of dew, and my locks of the drops of the nights" (Canticle 5:2). He speaks through the most ordinary events and in all the circumstances of life, including failure, disappointment, loss, illness, and every manner of suffering. He even knocks by means of the experience of the sin that leaves one feeling alienated, bitter, and empty.

The Fear of the Lord

One who hearkens to the voice of Christ, one who opens the door upon hearing Him knock, will learn the fear of the Lord. What is this fear? It is not the cringing, crushing apprehension of punishment. It is, rather, the spirit of ceaseless adoration and the profound reverence that overtakes one awestruck by the closeness of the thrice-holy God. It is the spirit of the very prayer of Christ's own prayer to the Father, a spirit at once filial and sacerdotal. Christ, "in the days of his flesh, with a strong cry and tears, offering up prayers and supplications to him that was able to save him from death, was heard for his reverence" (Hebrews 5:7).

Now Is the Acceptable Time

Saint Benedict has no time for lolly-gaggers and dawdlers. "Run," he says, "while ye have the light of life, lest the darkness of death overtake you." There is an urgency about the monastic vocation, because there is an urgency about being Christian. The temptation to put off one's response to the light and to the voice of Christ is perilous.

And we helping do exhort you, that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For he saith: In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Giving no offence to any man, that our ministry be not blamed: but in all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armour of justice on the right hand and on the left. (2 Corinthians 6:1-7)

3 Jan. 4 May. 3 Sept.

And the Lord, seeking His own workman in the multitude of the people to whom He thus crieth out, saith again: "Who is the man that will have life, and desireth to see good days. And if thou, hearing Him, answer, "I am he," God saith to thee: "If thou wilt have true and everlasting life, keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips that they speak no guile. Turn from evil, and do good: seek peace and pursue it. And when you have done these things, My eyes will be upon you, and My ears will be open to your prayers; and before you call upon Me, I will say unto you, "Behold, I am here." What can be sweeter to us, dearest brethren, than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold in His loving-kindness the Lord sheweth unto us the way of life.

Seeking Workmen

This portion of the Prologue is best read, I think, against the parable of the labourers in the vineyard:

The kingdom of heaven is like to an householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place idle. And he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. (Matthew 20:1-7)

The Work of God

Christ descends into the marketplace of the world, a place of chaos, bargaining, trickery, and dreams of a better life. He stands in the midst of the multitude, in much the same way as He stood once on the last and greatest day of the festival, crying out, "If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink" (John 7:37). He is looking for workmen, that is for men who will share in His own divine work: "My Father worketh until now," He says, "and I work" (John 5:17). What is this pressing work of Our Lord and of His Father? "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he hath sent" (John 6:29).

The Gift of Faith

The gift of faith is the work of the Father operating secretly in the soul by the Holy Ghost to bring the soul to Christ. "No man can come to me, unless it be given him by my Father" (John 6:66). The work of man is to receive the gift of faith freely offered, and to stake his life upon it and nothing else. This is what a monk does. He stakes his life -- his one and only life -- upon the fidelity of the Father, who has drawn him to the Son, by the Holy Ghost. This is the essential work of the monk: a participation in the very work of God.

Life and Happiness

What are the fundamental qualifications that Christ looks for in a workman? They are very simple: that the workman desire life and want to see good days. The work to which Our Lord calls men is not an end in itself; it is ordered to the abundant life that only He can give. "I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). Work in the vineyard of the Lord is likewise ordered to good days, that is, to happiness. Nothing makes a man happier -- in this life and in the next -- than becoming a co-worker with Christ in the Work of God.

Keep Thy Tongue from Evil

When a man, hearing Christ's invitation, answers, "I am he," God immediately engages him in a new way of being: true and everlasting life belongs to the man who keeps his tongue from evil and his lips from guile. Silence is an indispensable condition of this new way of being. "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man" (James 3:2). Christ's workman is not quick to speak. He listens. He observes. He ponders. He looks upon others with eyes of mercy. When he speaks, his discourse is gracious and mild, soothing and modest.

Turn Away from Evil and Do Good

True and everlasting life belongs to the man who turns away from evil (i.e., avoids the occasions of sin) and does good (i.e, practices virtue); who seeks after peace and pursues it. It is not enough to turn away from what is evil; Christ's workman turns towards what is good. He is not negative and dismal, forever harping on what is wrong, and castigating corruption; rather, he turns away from the darkness resolutely and, facing the light, invests his best energies in doing good. It is especially important in one's conversation to eschew the dreary rehearsal of all that is wrong in others, in the Church, and in the world, so as to focus, instead, on the power of grace, the splendour of the truth, and the beauty of holiness.

Seek After Peace and Pursue It

Benedictine life is the pursuit of peace, not the fragile, negotiated, and transient peace that is the fruit of merely human endeavour, but the divine peace that descends from above, the gift of the Lamb of God, imparted to those who partake of His sacrifice. The coat-of-arms of the Benedictine monks of the Congregation of Saint-Maur in the 17th century bore the word "Pax" encircled by a crown of thorns: pax inter spinas. The legendary pax benedictina (benedictine peace) is won at the price of much suffering. It is the prize of those who enter with the Lamb into the thicket of His bitter passion and, with Him, become obedient unto death, even death on a cross. "As it is written: For thy sake we are put to death all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter" (Romans 8:36). Mother Mectilde de Bar was fond of describing the Benedictine way as "a life of death." She meant, by this, that all is fleeting and disappointing here below, save union with Christ in His passion and death.

The Promises

Today's portion of the Prologue ends with a series of glorious promises:

And when you have done these things, My eyes will be upon you, and My ears will be open to your prayers; and before you call upon Me, I will say unto you, "Behold, I am here." What can be sweeter to us, dearest brethren, than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold in His loving-kindness the Lord sheweth unto us the way of life.

There is nothing more consoling in the monastic life than the assurance that, if one lives as Christ's workman, one can be certain of meeting His gaze, of being heard in the hour of prayer, and of finding Christ waiting and desirous of one's company, even before one has begun to pray. "The Master is come," said Martha to Mary, "and calleth for thee" (John 11:28). At every hour of the day and night, Christ speaks from the tabernacles where He dwells as one poor and hidden, saying "Behold, I am here." There is nothing sweeter to the ear of Christ's worker than this invitation to abide close to Him who, out of love, abides close to the poorest and to the least of all.

Lollygaggers Need Not Apply

Christ Seeking His Workman