FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 6 2013
SCOTTISH CATHOLIC OBSERVER
REFLECTION
Jesus lies at the heart of spiritual life and prayer
In the first
article of a new series on spirituality, ABBOT MARK
CAIRA from Nunraw Abbey explains the many benefits of monastic life.
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The
general reader may be forgiven for wondering what the monastic life has to
offer them. They probably see that there
is a place for the monastic life in the Church and that monasteries may even be
somewhere they may want to go to visit and perhaps even stay for a few days to
unwind and recharge their batteries. But monasteries seem to have no immediate
link with ordinary life in the world.
Monks and nuns, after all, are people who ‘leave the world’ to follow
their vocation. They live a life that is
totally different from the rest of mankind and they should be left alone to get
on with it. - Is it as simple as that?
The Church is, in the main, immersed in ordinary society. Christians are meant to live out their
calling from God and to make the world a better place for their being a part of
it. It is true that we all don’t always
live up to our calling. but Christ’s call is not to give up. When we do fall down we need to see ourselves
as we are, get up after each failure and walk more humbly before God. Whatever befalls us we are called to continue anew
following the Gospel through all the twists and turns of our lives. That applies to monks and nuns as well as the
rest of the Church and society.
We are all human. We all
receive the gift of life in Christ through our baptism. Monks and nuns have a great deal in common
with the rest of the Church for they bleed like the rest of mankind. They get tired and hungry like everyone
else. And, as with everyone else, they
have a need to know and love God. It is
good to remember these basic truths in this time of renewal in the Church as we
celebrate the 50th anniversary of Vatican II. Pope Francis has also been encouraging us in
these months after his election to take up the challenge offered us by Christ
and to joyfully engage in the life he offers us.
What
is the point then of going to live in a monastery when God can be loved and
served in ordinary everyday life in the Church and society?
One way of answering that question, perhaps, is take a closer
look at the makeup of society in general.
In everyday life people choose to live in different ways. They take different jobs, they make different
choices in how and where they live. They
choose to marry one person and not another or they may decide to live
singly. We who believe that God is present
in all of our lives know that he actively helps us to decide where our greater
happiness in life lies.
Everyone has a vocation be it to marriage or the single life. Within either state of life they may feel
called to other things as well, like nursing or teaching. The monastic life in its various forms is one
such option that some feel God is calling them to follow. As in other vocations it needs prayer and
enough time and space to discover if that is what God is really asking of them.
Being a priest or a religious has often been described as being
a ‘higher’, or ‘better’, vocation than others.
The natural temptation was to seek this ‘higher’ vocation, according to
that way of thinking, rather than what it was that God was offering.
The understanding of Martha and Mary in the gospel gives a good
insight into the question of vocation. We
are often told quite clearly that, to quote the Gospel, ‘Mary had chosen the
better part’. That seems to put Martha in
her place. But, it is interesting to
note that in the calendar of saints, on the 29 July, the feast of St Martha, the
Cistercian Order celebrates not just Martha but also that of her sister, Mary, and
Lazarus her brother. In a commentary on
this feast, St Bernard tells us that a monastic community can profitably learn
from all three of these saints and not just from the ‘contemplative’ Mary. In a monastery monks need to work and they
suffer illness, as much as to pray and to do other things that are necessary
for the normal organising of life lived together..
There are many God-given vocations in the Church. The only perfect one for us is the one that God
calls us to live. Often we find it
difficult to find out what that means for ourselves.
Life
in a monastery is different
from what most would regard as normal.
And yet, when you put aside the fact that monks live mostly within the
confines of the monastery and with a set pattern to their life, what they do
from day to day is what most people already do outside the monastery. Besides
their time for prayer, they work and rest.
There is the daily upkeep and cleaning of the abbey to be seen to; there
are meals to be prepared. Newcomers to
the community need training into the spirit and understanding of this life they
have chosen and to be shown when necessary the practical day to day organising
of the community life. There are also
the physical needs of those who are unwell and the elderly to be taken care of. So, monks may be ‘out of the world’ in one
sense but they are very much grounded in the needs and realities of everyday life.
The early Cistercians, in the twelfth century used their
energies and talents to build their monasteries and set about reclaiming the uncultivated
land around them. Their ingenuity was
put to good use in all of this. Their
lives were very much rooted in the world that God created. Their minds and hearts were centred on
God. But it was Jesus, the Word made man,
that lay at the heart of their lives and prayer. That is the lifestyle that has been handed
down to the present day Cistercians.
Perhaps we can consider that in some detail at a future date.
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