Confession 1
March 30, 2009
Admittedly: Confession is hard to do. Is it for you?
Richard Foster, of Celebration of Disciplines fame said:
“Confession is so difficult a Discipline for us partly because we view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see is as a fellowship of sinners. We come to feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We could not bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy.
But if we know that the people of God are first a fellowship of sinner we are freed to hear the unconditional call of God’s love and to confess our need openly before our brothers and sisters together. In acts of mutual confession we release the power that heals. Our humanity is no longer denied but transformed.”
How do you practice confession in your community? Is it practiced? Should it be? If so, what would it look like?
Rule of Benedict 24
March 30, 2009
I have now journaled 24 times about the Rule of Benedict. With the exception of one or two things regarding the relationship between the Abbot and the members of the Monastery, I have found the Rule that the Benedictines follow very applicable in any context where followers of Christ relate.
Today, I continue with Chapter 4:2-9. Notice how so much of the Rule is simply quoted principles from Scripture. Chapter four is about the instruments of good works.
The first was to love God.
Then, to love your neighbor as yourself. You are not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to covet (Rom 13:9). You are not to bear false witness (Matt 19:18; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20). You must honor all (1 Pet 2:17). You must not do to another what you would not have done to yourself (Matt 7:12; Luke 6:31).
Comment: Honoring is not easy to do. It means to show respect, to treat with dignity. It means especially to esteem the worth of a person based not on what they contribute to me, but who they are as human being created in the imago dei, that is to esteem them not less than myself. More, to esteem them more than myself (as another biblical commandment has it). Separating the attribution of worth to me, and to God, is the hard work of honoring. It has to do with the basic ways we relate to God and to others in love. We love because he first loved us. We honor, because He honors everyone made in His own image. The dignity of humanity is inherent in each person, even the ones on death row, or in dire straits, even those who are taking advantage of us economically.
Lectio: Letting the text read my soul: Do I honor all? Whom in my circle of relationships do I not honor?
Prayer: Help me be aware today how I relate to everyone around me. More than awareness, help me attribute the right worth (the imago dei worth) to everyone I interact with. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
The Way of the Cross 5
March 27, 2009
Jesus Dies on the Cross
Someone yelled an order and the body, nailed and tied to the cross-beam was hoisted in its place. Pain passed like electric shocks from the pierced wrists to the strained shoulder blades as they pulled him up. There was no careful handling. Just a rough treatment reserved for criminals.
Jesus is now hoisted and they hurry to nail his legs. More hammer blows. More torn flesh. More blood. More pain. It is all happening fast. The soldiers are done. It was just past the third hour (9.00am).
One of the soldiers posted a notice written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek which read “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” (Jn 19.19). As soon as the notice was affixed to the top of the cross, the elders expressed their vehement protests. They left and went directly to Pilate to ask him to change it. But Pilate stood firm in his decision (Jn 19,20).
Timed passed by slowly. Three hours of agonizing pain had already passed. Dark heavy clouds covered the sun. All around the spur of Calvary seemed to reign an eerie silence. Only the heavy suffocating breathing of the condemned could be heard. Their lungs were slowly giving in, as did their senses.
Jesus said “I am thirsty”. (Jn 19,28), and a soldier went running and “offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it” (Mk 15,23).
The robbers crucified with him started arguing between themselves about Jesus, and he, looking at one of them, said “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Lk 23,43 ). Silence on the hill and festive chaos in the city.
And Jesus gathered his breath and screamed aloud the lines of the Psalm “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani ?”–which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27,46).
He was praying aloud now. His lungs were making a whistling sound. Pain was all over his face and body. The extremities of his fingers and toes had changed color to bluish black. The sky was overcast and darkness fell over the city.
Those under the cross heard him whisper “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Lk 23,46). And after a few moments he almost screamed his last breath out with the words “It is finished” (Jn 19,30). Saying this he breathed his last!
The earth shook and the rocks split. (Mt 27, 51). “When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” (Mt 27,54). It was the ninth hour (3 pm) when Jesus died on the Cross at Calvary!
*Thanks again to via cusis for their content
Missio Dei 5
March 26, 2009
I have borrowed this quote from my friend, Brad Brisco at Missional Church Network.
“The first step in maintaining or getting a sense of mission for oneself is to feel the sweep and power of Jesus’ own sense of mission.”
– Albert Curry Winn in “A Sense of Mission: Guidance from the Gospel of John”
Now reflect on the Apostle’s Creed’s missional ethos: What speaks to you of the missio dei in the Apostle’s Creed?
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead and buried:
He ascended into hell;
The Third day He rose from the dead;
And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit:
The holy catholic church,
The communion of the saints:
The forgiveness of sins:
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting. Amen.
I think this Creed (what the early Christians believed) is passionately missional. It has a “for the sake of others” in every word, sentence, and section. Whether it is the fatherhood of God (the begetting of children in the likeness of His Son), or the “Sentness” of Jesus which translates in incarnational realities, or the actions of the Holy Spirit in his world, everything here speaks of the mission God is on: Restoring his creation, and everything in it, down to the last one of us into a loving relationshiop with himself. The earliest Christians were not only articulating their “beliefs” or mental assents to the truth they thought about. They were fleshing out their drivenness by the Holy Spirit to go to the whole world, with the passion of knowing the purposes of God for it in Christ, in the Holy Spirit.
Confession
March 25, 2009
Do you believe James? Is there room in our lives to live such unique Christian experiences he describes? Powerful and effective, do they describe our prayers?
James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Frederick Buechner said:
“To confess your sins to God is not to tell him anything he does not already know. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the bridge.”
What is your experience with confession as bridge?
Rule of Benedict 23
March 23, 2009
Chapter 4 of the Rule of Benedict is entitled The Instruments of Good Works.
Verse 1:
In the first place to love the Lord God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength (Ex 20:2; Matt 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:47).
Today verse 1 sets the tone of the chapter, much of which is taken directly from Scripture by the founder of the Benedictine Order. I cite Norvene Vest for a few excellent comments. Her comments are in quotes.
“In a sense, this chapter of the Rule is an icon for the entire Rule itself, a summary, a window opening onto the whole vision of the life to which the Christian is called.”
The most appealing aspect of Benedict’s Rule to me as one with a high view of Scripture is how faithful the Rule is to Scripture, often quoting chunks of it as the heart of the Rule.
And
“The way we respond best to God’s presence within the ordinary occasions of each day is to offer each of those occasions to God. God is involved in everything; we come to know that by offering everything to God.”
We come to know that God is with us, by the actions of the Holy Spirit who reminds us of the sacredness of each occasion in time.
And
“This work of offering or consecrating every moment to God is the basic work of Christian formation. It is thus practiced and learned and deepened in us within every moment. This simple task is a life-long one.”
This is a freeing thing. Christian formation needs not be any more complicated than being aware that each moment we live belongs to God who beautifies it, imbues it with meaning, and embeds himself within time. The work of God in sanctifying time, is also our work.
Lectio: What a glorious start to any Rule of life, to begin with our love for God, premised on the love of God for us. Rules that are not premised on love and that do not have love as a goal, are chains that bind freedom in Christ and suck the joy of living out of Christianity. God begins with love. I must begin here.
Norvene Vest’s testimony of The Shema quoted by Benedict is: “When I think of the phrase with my mind, as a command, I get confused and I don’t know where to start [and a puny start it will be]. But when I let it be the prayer of my heart and my body, I am comforted (in the old sense of being both heartened and strengthened), because I know this phrase to be something the Spirit does in me. I know it to be one of those ‘effective words’ of God, whose empowering presence is taking root in me.”
Prayer: Dear God, thanks for starting with love. You inspire me to start there. I can love because you are love. Shed more of it abroad in my heart. Amen. Have mercy, O lover of my soul.
The Way of the Cross 4
March 21, 2009
Jesus is nailed to the Cross
The soldiers grab Jesus and lead him to the cross-beam on the ground. They almost push him down. He offers no resistance. He is forced to lie down face up. They stretch his arms. In an instant, too many things happen. The banging of hammers on the nails, the piercing pain of sharp metal entering the flesh, the echo of the wooden beam, his painful scream.
He screamed aloud to relieve the pain. His voice echoed to the furthest corners of the city.
With each hammer blow, the metal tore into the flesh at his wrists, broke the arteries and fractured the bones. It was unbearable. He was almost senseless and the sunbeams were blinding him.
He had lost count of the hammer blows, of the orders yelled next to his ears, of the different voices talking or screaming. He could not follow the sequence of events any longer.
His feeble body was contorted with pain. Blood was dripping from his pierced wrists. He closed his eyes. He could not take it anymore; he almost lost his senses.
On the sides there where those who had come to see this “spectacle”. They stood there motionless and impassive. But there were also a few women sobbing quietly in a corner.
All was set. The body was nailed. The chords had been brought down from the wooden beams prepared to take the crucified body. And Jesus was now nailed to the Cross.
Prayer
Dear Jesus, I cannot stand the pain you are suffering for me! I cannot bear to remember what you had to go through for my salvation! If I pierce my finger with a needle I scream! And you? A nail went through your wrists tearing into your flesh! How can we ever understand your suffering, Lord? And still with dignity you suffered through all of it!
Lord, help me to never inflict pain on others and above all, Lord, help me put all my faith and hope in you! Visualizing your nailing to the cross, Lord, makes me realize how futile it is to put my hope in anyone except you. You know, Lord, how many times I got carried away thinking that someone or something might have been more important than you. You know too, that whenever this happened, many times I lived to regret it! Dear Jesus, I do need my faith in you!
*Thanks to via crucis for their content
Rule of Benedict 22
March 20, 2009
In case you haven’t followed these comments from the beginning, what you read in these posts on the Rule of Benedict, are my simple reflections by way of journaling through the Rule. I’m no expert in monastic living, Catholic theology, or Benedict. I am inspired and drawn to comment on the Rule of Benedict, as a discipline for journaling. My comments are mostly my own but at times they are inspired by Norvene Vest’s running commentary on the Rule called Preferring Christ: A Devotional Commentary on the Rule of St Benedict. When I quote I give due credit.
Chapter 3 continues and ends with verses 7-13 (The translator, Fr Luke Dysinger, OSB entitled this chapter Summoning the Community for Counsel):
Let all, therefore, follow the Rule in all things as their guide, and from it let no one rashly turn aside. Let no one in the monastery follow the will of his own heart: nor let anyone presume insolently to contend with his abbot, either within or without the monastery. But if he should dare to do so, let him be subjected to the Rule. The abbot himself, however, must do everything with the fear of God, and in observance of the Rule: Knowing that he will have without doubt to render to God, the most just judge, an account of all his judgments.
If it happens that less important matters have to be transacted for the advantage of the monastery, let him take counsel with the seniors only, as it is written: Do all things with counsel, and you will not afterwards repent of it (Sir 32:24).
Comments: The Rule to live by for Benedict is an elaboration on the Law of Love, the Rule that must govern all Christian relationships. Sobering. In John 13:35 (and too many other places to name) Jesus describes and prescribes the life of community, loving relationships between disciples glorifying God. This Rule of love attracts others to God and to Christ.
Here’s a way of life (A Rule) not many of us adopt because of our rampant individualism and misunderstanding of freedom: Live well in communities of loving relationships, live willingly and satisfied under the authority of someone who has much input and guidance into our lives, and live by a well defined rhythm of life (or common commitments) that defines and trains us as loving apprentices of Jesus in the life of the kingdom.
Lectio: Living in obedience to God is desired. Living into the spiritual direction of another human being causes chafing in me. But it is one thing that is needful.
Prayer: Lord, you have placed many in my path who can input of the abundance of the Spirit into my lives, and many who are in tune with you to give counsel from the ancient paths. Thank you. Make me a completed listener, hearing with my head, heart, and in obedience. Amen, Lord, have mercy.
Missio Dei 4
March 18, 2009
A couple of days ago, Brad Brisco at Missional Church Network listed passages from the Gospel of John that concern the sending of Jesus. I would like to reflect on a couple of passages today. Hopefully a missional mandate may result.
John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” It is obvious from this that our Messiah is a missional Christ. Jesus is sent, and Jesus willingly came as the sent one in order to save humanity. It is also obvious to me that this passage is descriptive of the actions of God, and the actions of Jesus with the resultant effects.
In John 20:21 the resurrected Jesus says to his disciples again: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” Then Jesus breathes his sending breath on them saying: “receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”
This sending of the disciples for the purpose of forgiveness is a power pack. It packs all the punch that the Holy Spirit can pack. The power of the Holy Spirit, the accompanying breath of Christ and of God, is present when forgiveness is happening as the peace of God, which is brought in the sending and going, is released. This passage is descriptive to a point but there is prescription here too. The prescription is to go in response to the sending Christ and his Breath. In other words, there is expectation on the mind of Christ that we imitate his actions as the sent one. The everlasting life and the forgiveness are of the same genre of spiritual realities. The one is described as Jesus’ action, the other as our action.
Being missional happens in that imitative action. He brings salvation, we proclaim the promise of forgiveness and its actuality. That’s imitative action. Anytime we extend the promise of forgiveness we are being missionally imitative.
Prayer: May this missional community bring the promise of forgiveness to many today.
What other missional actions of Christ are also to be imitated to a missional end by us?
St. Patrick the “Missional”
March 18, 2009
This week marks the celebration of the Feast of St. Patrick. He was known as the apostle to the Irish andone of the most important missionaries of Christian history. Thomas Cahill (in his book How the Irish Saved Civilization) claims that if it weren’t for the work of Patrick, and his fellow missionaries and monks, Europe would have had no Christian legacy or memory to withstand the onslaught of Islam which arose only a few centuries later. Patrick’s work was not only soul saving but culture making. (Two enterprises that should never separated.)
Remember that St. Patrick’s day is a good time to recall the way in which God works through the small and despised; through the failed and forgotten; through the Samaritan (Stephen, the woman at the well,) and through the Irish (Patrick, Aidan, Brendan, Columba, Killian, Art Guinness, Brigid and Bono).
Living as God’s people require that his mission become our own. Patrick is one of the best examples of following Christ into the world. He returned to a world that had once abused and enslaved him. Yet, Patrick followed God’s lead and joined Christ in the work he was doing among the most dangerous and despised of the world.
The Irish saints had strong sense of God’s presence and power in their lives. Regardless of where they were, whether adrift at sea like Brendan, engaging the violent pagans in conversation like Patrick, or establishing beachheads of the faith in far away places like Aidan, they each knew that God was with them and that Christ was working through them. This trust in God’s abiding presence is evidenced in the morning canticle from CDP:
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
Rule of Benedict 21
March 18, 2009
Chapter 3 of the Rule is called “Summoning the Community for Counsel.” Verses 1-6 are quoted below:
As often as any important matters have to be transacted in the monastery, let the abbot call together the whole community, and himself declare what is the question to be settled. And, having heard the counsel of the brethren, let him weigh it within himself and then do what he shall judge most expedient. We have said that all should be called to council, because it is often to the younger that the Lord reveals what is best. But let the brethren give advice with all the restraint of humility, and not presume stubbornly to defend their own opinion; but rather let the matter rest with the abbot’s discretion, that all may submit to whatever he shall consider best. Yet, even as it becomes disciples to obey their master, so does it behoove him to order all things prudently and with justice.
Benedict is ever mindful of the influence of the abbot, or leader of the community. He gives him the final responsibility to decide on matters related to community life but often adds to his authority elements such as prudence and justice. This is good advice.
He is also mindful of the valuable contributions that the younger ones in the community can offer the community as a whole.
Although very few Christians, relatively speaking, live in cloistered communities, the advice of Benedict pertains even in communities that are not cloistered, which is how almost all of us live.
Cloistered or uncloistered communities have to make decisions constantly. How does your community address questions or spiritual matters that concern it? What community helps you with answers to your life?
Lectio: “It is often to the youngest that God reveals what is the best” answer to questions of community. Now that I’ve turned 60, and most consider me old, I must be careful to keep listening to the younger voices in my community.
Prayer: Lord, your voice is your voice. Your sheep, whether young or old, know your voice. Help me to listen as attentively to the younger sheep as to the older sheep. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Rule of Benedict 20
March 16, 2009
Verses 37-40 close out chapter 2.
Let the abbot know that he who has undertaken the government of souls, must prepare himself to render an account of them. And whatever may be the number of the brethren under his care, let him be certainly assured that on the Day of Judgment he will have to give an account to the Lord of all these souls, as well as of his own. And thus, being ever fearful of the coming judgment of the shepherd concerning the state of the flock committed to him, while he is careful on others’ accounts, he will be solicitous also on his own. And so, while correcting others by his admonitions, he will be himself cured of his own defects.
Lectio: Hebrews 13:17 is inspiring this section of the Rule. It says this: Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Lord, I hear you saying that in correcting others, I would also pay attention to my own defects so that in the process of correcting others I too may be cured. The leader who humbly corrects others will be cured also by the very same correction.
Prayer: Lord, you have designed that the humble receive your correction even while correcting others. Help me to be willing to stand corrected in midst of correcting others. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Rule of Benedict 19
March 15, 2009
After a little hiatus because of illness, I come back to our daily look at Chapter 2:30-36.
The abbot ought always to remember what he is, and what he is called, and to know that to whom more is committed, more is required. And he must consider how difficult and arduous a task he has undertaken, of ruling souls and adapting himself to many dispositions. Let him so accommodate and suit himself to the character and intelligence of each, winning some by kindness, others by reproof, others by persuasion, that he may not only suffer no loss in the flock committed to him, but may even rejoice in their virtuous increase.
Above all let him not, overlooking or undervaluing the salvation of the souls entrusted to him, be more solicitous for fleeting, earthly, and perishable things; but let him ever bear in mind that he has undertaken the government of souls, of which he shall have to give account. And that he may not complain for want of worldly resources, let him remember what is written: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt 6:33), and again: Nothing is wanting to them that fear him (Ps 34:9).
Lectio: the one who is called by God to the vocation of the cure of souls has a great task that demands discernment and skill to evaluate the best way to help others reach their potential as followers of Christ. To whom much is committed much is required. Let your enabling equip me to the task you have chosen for me. Nothing is more serious than the task of helping others accomplish their God-given goals.
Prayer: Dear Lord, help us to model a willingness to be brought nearer to the ways of Christ so that others may also with our help be inclined to follow and walk with the Master. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Do you consider that the task you have been given includes being in charge of souls? How do you dispense this charge toward those in your care?
Way of the Cross 3
March 13, 2009
Jesus is Stripped of His Clothes
Reflection
Jesus arrives at Golgotha. The soldiers take away the cross-beam from his shoulders and neck. Jesus is relieved from this weight. He stands there motionless. Everyone around him is doing his business. He just waits. They move around.
Jesus looks up and sees the two thieves already in their place. They are screaming with pain. He looks down again and, keeping his eyes fixed to the ground, awaits his turn. Suddenly the soldiers came. He knew it was his time.
They take off his clothes and throw them in a heap nearby. Jesus is again humiliated. He stands there almost naked and empty handed. The bloodstained body shows the bruises and the open wounds of the lashes. He starts shivering as the northerly breeze chills his sweating body.
They place the cross-beam on the ground in front of him, and the soldiers begin discussing what to do with his garments: “Let’s not tear it,” they say to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” (Jn 19,24) In this way they fulfill what was written in the scriptures, “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing”(Ps 22,18).
Jesus then lifts up his eyes to heaven completes the prayer: “But you, O Lord, be not far off! O my Strength, come quickly to help me!” (Ps 22,19).
Prayer
Dear Jesus, what a shameful spectacle they wanted to make of you! Some hours earlier during that same week, dear Lord, you yourself took off your cloak to wash the feet of your disciples. You told us then that we have to do the same as you were doing!
And now Lord, you left them undress you of your clothes, undress you of your dignity as a human being! You refuse to grasp and clutch. You stand wounded, broken and empty handed.
How could you bear all this, Lord? Lord, teach me how to do my utmost to serve the poor, the humble, the homeless, the less fortunate. Help me never to be a cause of any injustice against human dignity. Help me to live empty handed.
Lord, how can I not bring in front of your suffering heart the multitude of human beings who are held as slaves to day, who are left to die of hunger while we pile up rubbish dumps all over, the innocent children who are suffering because of the waring adults. Lord look at our misery and help us never to be a cause of misery to others!
St. Patrick’s Breastplate
March 11, 2009
The feast day of St. Patrick will be upon us next week. In preparation I thought it might be useful for us to read one of the passages from which portions of the morning canticle are drawn. The “Lorica of St. Patrick”, also known as “St. Patrick’s Breastplate”, is a prayer attributed to the saint. It is theologically rich with it’s emphasis upon God’s nature as Trinity but at the same time a very earthy, practical prayer of protection.
Legend has it that when St. Patrick and his followers were being pursued by a non-Christian king they prayed this prayer together. As a result God disguised them as deer allowing them to run away and escape their pursuers. From this the prayer draws it’s third name “The Deer’s Cry”.
- I arise today
- through a mighty strength,
- the invocation of the Trinity,
- through belief in the Threeness,
- through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.
- I arise today
- through the strength of Christ with His Baptism,
- through the strength of His Crucifixion with His Burial,
- through the strength of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
- through the strength of His descent for the Judgment of Doom.
The following portion includes the section from which CDP’s morning canticle is derived:
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ in breadth, Christ in length, Christ in height, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me…
Rule of Benedict 18
March 10, 2009
Chapter 2:23-29 (of 40 verses). Benedict says this:
Should punishment be part of the Christian’s Education? Should any Christian judge anyone else, or act toward them on the basis of that judgment? Do we have a responsibility to correct those in the wrong? Should we err in not doing it or in doing it?
For in his teaching the bot should always observe the recommendation of the Apostle, in which he says: Reprove, convince, rebuke (2 Tim 4:2). That is, he should sit his action to the circumstances, mingling gentleness with sternness; showing now the rigor of a master, now the loving affection of a father, so as sternly to rebuke the undisciplined and restless, and to exhort the obedient, mild, and patient to advance in virtue. And such as are negligent and haughty we charge him to reprove and correct. Let him not shut his eyes to the faults of offenders; but as soon as they appear, let him strive, as he has the authority for that, to root them out, remembering the fate of Eli, the priest of Shiloh (1 Samuel 2:11-4:18). Those of good disposition and understanding let him correct, for the first or second time, with words only; but such as are troublesome and hard of heart, proud or disobedient, let him chastise with bodily stripes at the very first offense, knowing that it is written: The fool is not corrected with words (Prov 29:19), and again, Strike your son with a rod and you will have freed his soul from death (Prov 23:14).
Lectio: “Let him not shut his eyes” these words made an impression. In the previous part of the chapter the abbot is to make an effort to discern the state of those under his care. Here he is not to shut his eyes if he sees “bad” and correct it. I certainly would not use Benedict’s physical ways but do I shut my eyes so that I don’t have to deal with wrong in others? Who am I to see the wrong in others and not in me? Are my motives pure to correct others? Do I have enough love to truth somone who is in the wrong? Is it just fear of a conflict that patalyzes? But the question is: Is there fear of the Lord and of judgment (present in both passages of Timothy and Samuel).
Prayer: Lord, neither let me shut my eyes on wrong, mine and others’, nor be eager to find it in others or in me. Let me be convinced by your Holy Spirit and enabled by him to speak the truth in love. Amen, Lord, have mercy.
Rule of Benedict 17
March 9, 2009
Chapter 2:16-22 of the Rule of Benedict speaks to me regarding the issue of discernment of those we lead. Perhaps something else will grab you.
How do you see how others in your circles of influence are growing in Christ? Beside prayer, what do you look for as marks in a person who is growing in Christ?
The abbot is not to make any distinction of person in the monastery. He should not love one more than another unless he finds one better in good actions and obedience. A free-born man is not to be put before a slave who becomes a monk, except for some other reasonable cause. Although, if justice requires it, the abbot may see fit to change anyone’s rank. Otherwise let each keep to his regular place, because whether we a re slaves or free, we are all one in Christ (Gal 3:28), Eph 6:8) and serve alike in the army of the one Lord; for with God there in son partiality among peersons (Rom 2:11).
Solely in this only are we distinguished in his sight: if we are found to surpass others in good works and in humility. Therefore, let the abbot show equal love to all and impose on all the same discipline, according to their merits.
Lectio: Discernment is the thought that kept grabbing my attention here. Though the word is not in the text, I am reading it into the abbot may see fit. This ability to see, I am calling discernment. How can I see unless Someone show me and how can Someone show me unless I am paying attention closely?
Comment: It is a difficult thing to measure spiritual growth (in others, more than in myself). But the fruit of the spirit is observable in the life (interactions between Chrstians) of the commnity. Norvene Vest, the commentator on the Rule, speaks of the “work of the heart the hidden action of amenability to the Spirit’s graces, the evolving disposition toward the mind of Christ–all of these are manifest for the one who has eyes to see and ears to hear.” Norvene mentions two concrete evidences that Benedict will elaborate on later: Good works, and Humilty/obedience.
Prayer: Lord, help me to see your work in me. Help me to see your work in those around me. Help to rejoice when I see it. And to weep at the absence of evidennce. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Way of the Cross 2
March 6, 2009
Station 2: Jesus Accepts His Cross
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:27-31)
Jesus, I cringe at the pain of the thorns. But I am wounded far more deeply at the humiliation and degradation you suffer, that the very thing you came to offer us as a gift becomes a source of ridicule. The crowds thought of a King in terms of power. But you came to be the kind of King who shepherds his people, who takes responsibility for their well being, whose principles are faithfulness, justice, and righteousness (Isa 11:3-4). And yet, the people are not ready for that kind of King.
I would like to think that I am ready to follow you who offer a Kingdom of peace and love for one another. But am I? Am I willing to yield my ideas of what the Kingdom should look like for the role of a servant? Am I really so willing to give up my human preoccupation with power and control and accept a different kind of crown than I was expecting?
I see you accept the Cross in the midst of such mockery. You could have refused. What more could they have done to you? Yet you begin this journey, knowing full well where it will lead. I hear no words of complaint, no protestations of innocence, no cursing the injustice. And yet I am so prone to complain and whine about the most trivial things. Sometimes the things I face in my life are more than trivial. Sometimes the troubles of life bear down on me. But I so easily fall into self-pity. I too often assume that I am the only one who bears a cross, or that my cross is larger and heavier than any others.
But I am not alone in that. People all around me bear far more than I must bear. You accepted your cross without self-pity. O Lord, forgive me for forgetting that in my weakness I am driven to trust on you, and that in that trust my weakness becomes your strength. Forgive my attitudes of self-pity that make me more repulsive than loving. I do not ask for crosses to bear. But when they come, give me the strength to bear them as one who follows your example.
*This post is taken from one of my Old Testament Professors, Dennis Bratcher.
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