Can It Be?
April 5, 2010
We celebrated Easter Sunday yesterday. The churches were full. Unusually full. Many have done their duty nodding their allegiance by their twice a year obligatory attendance at church. How large a percentage of “Christians” is this worldwide is hard to estimate. Vestiges of Christ remain among many in Western “Christianized” societies. Now life can go back to its usual drabness in the midst of a chaotic dog-eat-dog world.
Knowing Christ is life. Life that is stamped eternal, in kind and content. Life that saves from drab existence. “Salvation is life,” says Dallas Willard. A life that God infuses in us by various instrumentalities the chief of which is the Holy Spirit of God. Eugene Peterson calls this life Practicing Resurrection.
Those who practice resurrection life have God’s life: self-initiating, self-directing, and self-sustaining. They don’t have this life from within. It comes from without, from God. But when life comes to humans from God (Regeneration, or Salvation as life) is takes on the characteristics of God-life. This God-life is the activity of God penetrating “the darkened world of the human soul and begins to act in it and around it” (from Spiritual Formation as a Natural Part of Salvation, quoted from D. Willard in Life in the Spirit: Spiritual Formation in Theological PErspective, ed. Jeffrey P. Greenman and George Kalantzis, IVP Academic). This life invasion is the stuff of poetry, and song. Charles Wesley wrote of it (Willard quotes this stanza from Can It Be That I Should Gain) to describe this salvific living:
“Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin an nature’s night; thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth and followed Thee.”
Now that the resurrection celebration has taken its rightful place on the calendar, and the crowds have finished their Hosannas, I pray that resurrection life will take its rightful place every minute of our existence, who remain as church people. Let’s arise with Him, go forth, and follow Him, demonstrating that by loving God and loving others we are truly practicing resurrection.
Rule of Benedict 45
March 28, 2010
Benedict continues dealing with humility in verses 9-13 of Chapter 7 of his rule. Previously he spoke of Jacob’s ladder. He continues on the same theme.
The sides of the same ladder we understand to be our body and soul, in which the call of God has placed various steps of humility or discipline, which we must ascend. The first step of humility, then, is that a person always keeps the fear of God before his eyes (Ps 36:2), avoiding forgetfulness: that he is ever mindful of all that God has commanded; that those who despise God will be consumed in hell for their sins; and that he always considers that life everlasting is prepared for those who fear God. And keeping himself at all times from sin and vice, whether of thoughts, tongue, eyes, hands, feet, or his own will, let him thus hasten to cast away the desires of the flesh. Let him consider that he is always beheld from heaven by God, and that his actions are everywhere seen by the eye of the Divine Majesty, and are every hour reported to God by the angels.
Two thoughts: one, humility is not a passive stance. We can do something to humble ourselves before almighty God by living in awe of God, not forgetting his ways, not giving free will to our sinful nature. Two, that our lives are open books, lived in the presence of God. We can hide nothing, not with figs, not with twigs, not with brick or mortar, not with denial. The Divine Majesty pays attention to our lives. We give account. We live in the company of angels, open to the cosmos to see. What we do in the dark, is revealed in the light. Not for condemnation but for mercy.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. I desire to climb this ladder of humility but with God’s enabling. The upward mobility that I seek is from an external show of humility to the internal height of self-denial, and holy self-love. I desire to live by the fear of the Lord as guide and I desire to live in obedience so that the crown of righteousness I receive from your hand can be placed at your feet: “Lord you showed mercy. I give back to you the gift of humility.”
Lord Jesus, have mercy. Amen.
A Good Life
August 21, 2009
I just finished and strongly recommend Robert Benson’s A Good Life: Benedict’s Guide to Everyday Joy. Here is a small taste.
“Many of us do not even know much about the office anyway. We are not always taught that this way of praying is part of our heritage as faithful people. The liturgies and forms and practices have long since been dropped from the ways that we are taught.
Our lives are already very busy from morning until night-too hectic, it seems, to stop two or three times each day and read the prayers from a book or to say them from memory. We live in a world in which we are encouraged to multitask, and to read books on tape (which is something that actually cannot be done, if you think about it). We eat fast food, expect overnight delivery, and sign up for instant messaging. We get too little sleep, have too many commitments and too much on our plate most days and weeks.
So we look for books that can help us pray our way to powerful Christian living in ten minutes a day, and we wonder why we are often left feeling somehow devoid of God’s presence in our lives.
“Can you not stay with me for one hour?” asks Jesus of the ones who said they loved him.
“Can you not move a little more quickly?” we seem to be saying in return.
If it is beginning to sound to you like I am trying to sell you something, it is only because I am. And if you have begun to feel that I am preaching to the choir, remember that I am in the choir myself and have been in it long enough to know that this is the best way to get us to sing.
For centuries, the payer of the office was at the center of the life of those who would serve the God that we say we want to serve. The people of Yahweh, our mothers and fathers, and the people of the early church and the people of the church across the years since–the desert monastics, the ones who kept the church alive through the Dark Ages, the ones ho wrestled it through the Reformation, regardless of which side they were on-kept such traditions of prayer alive. They preserved the prayer, they observed the prayer, and they have now handed those traditions of prayer to us in our time.
It may well be time for us to pick up the mantle, shoulder the burden, take up the song, or whatever metaphor you want to choose. It may be time for us to learn to pray the hours, to do the Work of God-with devotion, with art, with discipline, and with care.
It is reasonable to wonder about the efficacy of such prayer, especially when it is unfamiliar to us. And so much has been written and said about dead liturgy and dry, rote prayers that we are right to enter into such prayer with care and with discernment. And we are certainly wise to consider the time and effort that it will take to say such prayer.”
Mark 3: 13-19
August 1, 2009
13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve [a] that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons. 16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Mark 3:13-19
I think it is safe to say that when Mark writes that Jesus was up on the mountain he is telling his audience that Jesus was in communion with the Father. Luke’s version adds “to pray”. Matthew paints Jesus as the new Moses who is with God on the Mountain. In other words I think it is extremely important to notice that the appointment of the 12 was birthed out of prayer and intimacy with God. “Appointed” is literally “he made.”
Jesus appoints the 12 with a double assignment; “to be with him and to be sent out”. At first these two assignments appear to be mutually exclusively (and we sometimes still treat them this way), but I don’t think the disciples need to choose between being with Jesus or being sent out. Joseph Ratzinger writes, “They must be with him in order to get to know him; in order to attain that intimate acquaintance with him that could not be given to the “people”-who saw him only from the outside and took him for a prophet, a great figure in the history of religions, but were unable to perceive his uniqueness (Matt. 16:13).”
Being with Jesus and being sent by him clearly belong together. The Apostles have to learn to be with him in a way that enables them, even when they go to the ends of the earth, to be with him still. Being with him includes the missionary dynamic by its very nature, since Jesus’ whole being is mission.”
The first task they they are given is preaching. to announce the Good News of God’s in breaking kingdom. However, the preaching of God’s Kingdom is never just words, never just instruction. It is an incarnational event, just like Jesus, God’s Word is person.
In your experience has “being with Jesus” been fused together with “being sent out?”
How have you been able to keep from separating worship and evangelism?
Can the two even be separated without damaging the integrity of both?
For more thoughts along these lines check out Jesus of Nazareth by Joseph Ratzinger.
Praying Colossians 6
July 2, 2009
Praying Colossians 1:13-14
Affirming (what we know from Scripture) the identity we know God to be is a form of prayer. Repeating to a person (face-to-face) their qualities as as person is affirming, edifying, pleasing, and honoring. Although Paul speaks of the person of Christ in the third person, changing his compliments of Christ to a direct address to Christ makes it a prayer of adoration or praise. “O how I love him, how I adore him” becomes “you are the one I love, you are the one I adore…” Here are Paul’s words from the ESV.
1:13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus, your powerful light-life is able to overcome any darkness-life in me and your church. Our hope is in you for a daily exchange of kingdoms. We give you our darkness; we receive your light. Day by day, minute by minute, your presence is a light unto our feet, the sun of life unto our path. Thank you for this exchange, the best deal we have ever had. Jesus we also love what our Father did in you and what you did in him to bring us back to you from that kingdom of evil. We are not alone. We are billions strong. We couldn’t have made it back on our own, that’s for sure. You lived in that kingdom, you suffered in that kingdom, you remained devoted to God, our Father, then you died in that kingdom. Now my sins are forgiven, separated from me, beyond your sight, hidden deep in the cross of your death and life. How vast is that life of yours to absorb all sin! You deserve all the praise. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
On Pride
June 17, 2009
This is an unusually long blog post for me. It is the result of cogitations during the last couple of weeks.
Why am I at times like this?
I think much more about myself when I should be more mindful of others? I cause pain to those I love. I’m a chicken when it comes to standing up to those who hurt others. I act stupidly. I make a mess in my life by having unhealthy appetites. Why is speaking badly of others so at home on the tip of my tongue? Why is my soul so broken?
Dare I ask it? Why is yours? Neither you nor I are the first to struggle with answers to our experience of pride.
When asked what is wrong with world, G.K. Chesterton responded with this shortest essay ever written: “I am.” The reason he was so sure of his response is because of a realistic view of his own sin, which is first and foremost a power inhabiting our physical bodies. Long ago, one of the early Christians told us that sin “tends to make that which is cease to be.”
Jeff Cook sees sin as a parasite in need of a host, which we willingly supply. As a power sin cannot exist on its own. Just like the demons in Jesus’ parable, sin takes up residence in the house of a willing host.
Early in the life of the church all kinds of saints tried to understand the reality of sin and its manifestations. So they created lists of the most essential elements of sin. One author called these elements “wrong thoughts.” Others prefer to see them as challenges to our faith. Another named them deadly sins. History finally settled on naming seven of them: Pride, envy, sloth, greed, lust, wrath, and gluttony. In these all other sins known to humanity originate. Violence and murder come from anger or wrath. Cheating and hording come from greed. You get the idea.
Why do some call these seven sins the deadly sins? Well, cogitate with me for a moment. For example, a person who is totally possessed by pride, or his heart is strongly grasped by it, will be affected at the deepest levels of his being by his arrogance. Its tentacles extend to all aspects of his life. The way his perceives everything is affected by his high view of himself and low view of others.
Do you own shares in this sin? Are you a club member in the sin of pride? Is pride running and ruining your life? We all naturally love ourselves and self-love is mandated by our Lord “love your neighbor as yourself.” But when I exaggerate this love of myself or pervert it into contempt for others, I am full of pride. Pride or arrogance is a debilitating, death-thirsty disease, gone on a rampage in us. If pride is leprosy, I pronounce myself unclean. Well, thank God that he owns all the shares in the business of raising dead people like me from the grave of pride. He raises me up in order to be free of pride as he was free of it.
The proud think they contribute more than they do. They believe they are more important than they really are. Because their own self blinds them, they are unable to recognize the contributions of others. They believe that if they think highly of others somehow they are thinking less of themselves.
One who knows wrote: “Pride is the cause of the most damaging fall for the soul. It induces the Christian to deny that God is his helper and to consider that he himself is the cause of his own virtues” (Evagrius of Ponticus). Another, who struggled with pride for a long time wrote: “pride made the soul desert God, to whom it should cling as the source of life, and to imagine itself instead as the source of its own life” (Augustine of Hippo).
Jeff Cooke adds: “the more I make my life, my well-being, my enlightenment, and my success primary, the farther I step from reality. Thus the hell-bound do not travel downward; they travel inward, cocooning themselves behind a mass of vanity, personal rights, religiosity, and defensiveness” (The Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes, p. 34).
The elder son in the prodigal son story is the epitomy of this kind of pride. It destroyed his ability to connect with his father and his brother. Pride is the one sin that makes everyone ill and especially the one who has it.
When you find pride in yourself, or in others, you will also find much private thinking, much time spent alone because of disdain of others, and much lone ranger activity.
Christianity in North America suffers today because millions of individual Christians have decided to go it alone without the church. Believing they are right, they do their own thing without any accountability, any submission to authority, deeming themselves captains of their own souls, masters of their own ships, with the determination to seek their own destinies apart form others. Pride moved into their neighborhood, and became a virtue. Jesus and me and a few others and the h… with the rest of you…
If an implosion of Christianity were to take place in the West, we will find pride as the fuse that lit the movement.
The antidote of pride is humility, the subject of a future article. Meanwhile, think through with Jesus about the damage to your soul that pride is wreaking (read Luke 15:11-32; Luke 16. There are great lessons about pride here). Walk a little with the master. Look full into his wonderful face. The things of pride will grow strangely dim.
Being the Presence of Jesus
May 22, 2009
I’ve been reading God in the Alley by Greg Paul. It has really been messing with my heart and head. Early in the book he tells Neil’s Story. Neil has AIDS. Greg, the author of the book tells how he signed up to be a “buddy and gofer” for Neil. Over time the relationship moves from being cold and formal to being warm and genuine. In short, they become friends. Then one morning Greg stops by to visit Neil. As he enters the hot and humid room he discovers Neil “writhing in a soundless panic, half sitting up, his pajama bottoms and the bed sheets wound around his ankles, his spindly arms flailing in a futile effort to free himself, a look of sheer terror on his face. He had soiled himself, and it was everywhere. He was disoriented, uncertain where he was or what was happening to him.”
Once Greg is able to free Neil from the tangled mess, he begins to calm down. Greg then carries Neil to the tub. While Neil soaks Greg proceeds to change the soiled sheets before coming back to dress Neil in clean pajamas and carry him back to his bed. Greg comments, “He seemed almost weightless, just bones shrink-wrapped with grayish skin. His temples were hollow, and his teeth seemed too large for his face.”
As Greg begins to tuck Neils feet into the bed, he notices that one of Neils feet was not completely clean. Greg grabs a wash cloth and begins to wipe that foot. In his own word’s Greg describes what happens next, “As I did so, I was struck by what I can only describe as a powerful revelation, two streams of thought converging, and both seeming to me to be the voice of God. Cradling his foot in my hands, my mind was filed with the image of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, a towel around his waist, determinedly taking the servant’s role. I had been meditating on the story from John’s gospel just the day before, and now I could almost see Jesus hunched over Peter’s foot, his hair hanging forward and obscuring his face, quietly insisting against Peter’s protestations that those feet, but only the feet, needed to be washed. This moment was what my whole time with Neil had been for! This was what it meant to be the presence of Christ. I had been looking for opportunities to preach, wanting to effect a clear and possibly dramatic conversion. I realized in that moment that my longing for those things was as much or more an indication of my desire to be successful as they were of my passion for Neils’ soul. It became clear that, being Jesus to Neil, while it certainly included praying for him, and announcing the good news to him, was most perfectly summed up by the mundane and even odious task of gently wiping excrement from his foot.”
Praying Colossians 3
May 13, 2009
In this series of praying through Scriptures, I am learning that in order to pray the Scriptures, time is needed for reflection, for paying attention to the presence of God, and for paying attention to the condition of my soul, and my heart’s desire. I have the impression that Paul, though he did not know he was writing Scripture, he was in deep prayer (communion with God) and that this letter was not just dictated but breathed by God through Paul for the sake of the the Colossians, North Carolinians, Topekans, and Kansas Citians.
1:5 Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel 1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.
Prayer: Jesus, I am experiencing the truth of these words of your servant Paul and the Holy Spirit. I am tasting faith and love that spring from hope. I see brokenness around me always and this present brokenness, which I know will be put to rights, inspires me to express love, trust, and faithfulness in my walk with you and for the sake of others. Your word is alive in me. What more do I want?
I also pray that the power of the gospel, which is foolishness to paganism, will continue to spread in our world, the only hope our world has. Help me and my brothers and sisters in Christ, in our various societies of Jesus, to increase in our faith and undrstanding of the unlimited truth that is the gospel. This is good news about you, it’s you, and by default is unfathomable. Give me my share of it. I trust you for it. Give my borthers and sister in Christ their shares of it and together we will be the wiser for it. Amen. Christ have mercy.
Rule of Benedict 29
May 10, 2009
This week’s reading of the Rule (the way of life) of Benedict is from verses 34-38 of the fourth chapter. See previous posts for other entries. Going through the Rule methodically has been eye opening of the vision, intentionality, and means of living and loving in community of like-minded followers of Christ. Personally I am challenged by its rigorous demands, demands that are no less than what Christ demanded of his own.Today’s exhortations of life in community are just as challenging as others. There is no more thoroughly biblical rule than that of Benedict. Notice the biblical content and the added references.
Do not be proud, nor given to much wine (Titus 1:7; 1 Tim 3:3). Do not be a glutton, nor given to much sleeping, nor slothful (Rom 12:11).
Comment: Benedict saw that there is a direct relationship between our bodily appetites and needs and the possibility of failing to follow Christ faithfully. Historically, Christians were austere people. They were not given to lavish lifestyles. They did not confuse heavenly blessings with material possessions, and earthly pleasures. They sought to live ethically upon the earth while at the same time celebrating God’s goodness. I seldom hear of God’s blessings today without a monetary mention as if this mattered most.
Lectio: Gluttony leads to sleepiness leads to laziness. Deliver us O Lord.
Prayer: Lord, I consider the first and most important blessing in my life is You. Helping to not seek any substitute. Lord, have mercy on me!
Gluttony, being given to too much sleep, and laziness are hardly ever the subjects of preaching/teaching in the church. Why not? Why is fasting, prayer vigils through the night, and industriousness not considered needful disciplines in the church?
Rule of Benedict 28
May 4, 2009
The Rule of Benedict has been translated umpteen times. The translation that I’m using is by Fr. Luke Dysinger, OSB (a Catholic acronym designating the Order of Saint Benedict). For ease of use translators divide the Rule into chapters and verses.
At Missional Order we are committed to learning from all those who followed Christ faithfully before us and are now following him into the life that is truly life in Christ Jesus. Benedict, I believe, is a good teacher of the Way of Christ. The Rule that he left his fellow followers of Christ has stood the test of time as an eminently practical guide.
Chapter 4:29-33
Do not render evil for evil (1 Thess 5:15, 1 Pet 3:9). Do no wrong to anyone; rather, bear patiently the wrong done to yourself. Love you enemies (Matt 5:44; Luke 6:27). o not render cursing for cursing, but rather blessing. bear persecution for justice’s sake (Matt 5:10).
Comment: The New Testament makes it clear that loving those who love us is no great accomplishment. Love of those who don’t is. Loving of those who wish to hurt us is. Loving our enemies is a mandate, not a choice. The reason the New Testament harps on this is because we don’t come by it naturally. We must cultivate it through hours, days, and years (yes years) of intentional formation of our character (heart, soul, mind, social interactions, and body). Benedict discerned this reality from reading the scripture and his way of the spiritually formative life promotes the love of the enemy as a natural way of life, as a first response force in our lives.
Lectio: Do no wrong, bear the wrongs done to you patiently. I get you Jesus. You did it well. You showed me the way. You proved it can be done. I’ve gotten glimpses of it, it’s been rumored possible.
Prayer: Jesus, make me like you able to respond in love when hurt is hurled at me. Make me compassionate, when hate is aimed at me. Make me suffer quietly when it is easier to respond in kind to the sufferings others inflict on me. Amen. Jesus, have mercy.
Your turn: add your prayer to mine if you dare to be vulnerable.
What’s your reputation?
May 1, 2009
I was poking around on the website for Adullum, an incarnational community that has taken up residency throughout the Denver area, when I was reminded of this amazing quote by Roman Emperor Julian,
Atheism (Christianity) has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not one single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.
It appears the early church was known by the way she loved strangers.
She was know in the way she loved and cared for those forgotten and left alone.
She had the reputation for extending love to those who played on the other team.
What is the reputation of the church in America today? If a leader in you city were to write down the first three things that came to mind when they thought about your church, would their list describe Jesus?
Rule of Benedict 26
April 13, 2009
Today, I continue my reflections on the Rule of St Benedict from Chapter 4:20-21. These two verses pack a huge one two punch to the heart.
To keep aloof from worldly actions; to prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
Reflection: Well, the whole Christian worldview and basis for actions is in these fourteen words. Keeping aloof from worldly actions is general and would be made more specific in the rest of the chapter. But it is also answered by the preferring nothing to the love of Christ. This too is general in nature and will be specified in the rest of the chapter.
My question here is: What worldly actions would you consider to keep aloof from? Are there boundaries that must separate Christians from the world? Is crossing boundaries helpful to anyone, churched or unchurched?
Lectio: Lord, I do indeed hear that I nurse worldly actions such as anger. Thank you for the reminder that anger is to be put away or put to death for me (Colossians 3) as a debutant lover of God.
Prayer: Lord, indeed mercy me and grace me with abilities to kill anger again and again. Amen.
Are you attractive?
April 10, 2009
“as I am lifted up from the earth, I will attract everyone to me.” - Jesus
To be “lited up” was a nice way of reffering to being tortured to death on a Roman stake. Jesus in his humiliating death became attractive. It wasn’t power, but weakness. It wasn’t in dominating, but in being troutured that Jesus became attractive, compelling. I don’t follow this “way.” I seek power and control as neceesary means to being attractive (liked by others ). Churches and organizations I have been a part of have sought to be excellent, succesful, and the best in an effort to be popular. This seems contrary to the way of Jesus.
Another thing that strikes me is just what is attractive? In John’s telling it is Jesus. Are we supposed to develop programs and services that are “attractive” or are we, the community of Jesus, the tangible body of Christ on the earth to be attractive? I believe we are to be attractive and not because we have it all together, have power or control of things or are able to manage life well. Our attractiveness comes, when like Jesus, we are “lifted up from the earth” as an offering and sacrifice to God. The churches attractiveness should be in her (people’s) willingness to choose and embrace suffering for the sake of the world, which itself is broken and suffering. We will be attractive when we love and serve rather than judge and ignore.
Lord be gracious to me, that I may be crucified with you and may you be my strength springing up out of my weakness. Grant me the grace to embrace those who are suffering. Allow me to be part of a community that chooses suffering over comfort and that places others before self.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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