Thursday 18 June 2015

Monastic Life - Wednesday Chapte Br. Philip


 
     


Br. Philip. Wednesday Talk

Monastic Life                                   Chapter Talk – 17 June 2015

The Beginning – the Word

Jesus Christ did not directly found the monastic life, but He did have its origins in His preaching, for this included those elements which later became characteristic of the way of life of monks.  Did Jesus not tell us that “we must leave all to follow Him”?  That we must “sell our possessions and give to the poor” and that we must “renounce marriage” for the sake of the Kingdom”?  Did not Jesus surround Himself with men and women disciples who shared His everyday life and His care for the coming of the Kingdom and especially His mysterious dialogue with the Father?

Jesus appeared to his contemporaries as equal to those great men of the Old Testament who had been suddenly uprooted from their ordinary lives by the power of the word of God, so that they might be more completely dedicated to God’s service.  Men such as Abraham, Moses and the prophets.

From the beginning of sacred history the word of God has never ceased to work in this way.  It calls each one, inviting him in a special way to Him and dedicating him to a particular service.  The word of God recreates a man from the depths of his being – if necessary even changing his name.  In this way, through the call of one individual, the life of a whole people can be profoundly changed and they can be led to God.

At the beginning of every Christian life is the word of the Lord.  It comes in many ways, but it always calls accepted values and standards into question and stirs the soul of the believer to its depths.  St Anthony the Great, the father of monks owed his vocation to a word of the Gospel, heard by chance during a celebration of the Eucharist one day; “If you wish to go the whole way, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and then you will have riches in Heaven; come follow Me.  Anthony did not know where this would lead him.  But the word of Jesus suddenly coming alive in his heart was call enough.  On the strength of it, he committed his whole life.

Likewise, two centuries later, St Benedict who was to become the Patriarch of the monks of the West, did not know any other way than that of the Gospel.  St Benedict knew that his Rule would not supplant the Gospel.  On the contrary, when he wrote the final chapter he recalled that the Rule is only a sort of humbly beginning, a kind of manual of introduction to what he calls “the heights of perfection, the loftier summits of teaching and virtue” which the disciple will find in every page of the scriptures.  The word of God is the sole rule of life and it alone is more than adequate.  Any religious rule has meaning only to the extent that it can make the demands of the word of God specifically.  It must apply the Gospels to the concrete circumstances of a particular age and culture.  St Benedict knew nothing of the world wide destiny of his Rule.  He was content to prepare his monks to hear the word of the Gospel and to follow Christ.


_____ cf. Andre Louf  

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