John Dominic Crossan, an historical Jesus scholar, believes Jesus’ execution was not about martyrdom or atonement but about nonviolent resistance. 

Dom Crossan proposes that Jesus stepped into a tradition Jewish leaders had been developing for decades. Relying on the writing of first century Jewish historian Josephus, he describes a remarkable development in Palestinian Judaism between two violent revolts against Rome in 4 BCE and 66 CE. During these 70 years, Jewish religious leaders experimented with programmatic, strategic and deliberate nonviolent resistance to Roman power and oppression. 

This nonviolent resistance took two forms. The first Crossan calls “Prophet reenactments.” Leaders took people out into the desert to reenact God’s liberating acts of the past – the Exodus from Egypt, the crossing of the Jordan, the walls of Jericho falling – as a way of tapping into God’s  liberating power. The second type was mass nonviolent protests. The most stunning example of this occurred in 40 CE, when the Emperor Caligula ordered his statue to be set up in the Jerusalem Temple. Thousands of Jewish farmers left their fields at harvest or planting time and sat in protest. They told the Roman governor, Petronius, “If we cannot prevail with you, we offer ourselves for destruction. We gladly put our throats at your disposal.” 

Crossan believes that Jesus took up this tradition of nonviolent resistance, staging acts of protest throughout his ministry. His defiant healings on the Sabbath, his friendship with lepers, blind, deaf and poor people, his meal fellowship with prostitutes, tax collectors and other disreputable persons, and his interactions with foreigners are examples of such protests. Though the immediate “target” of these protests was the oppressive Jewish theocracy, indirectly they “targeted” Roman authority, the power behind the local Jewish theocratic government.

Jesus’ acts of protest came to a climax at the Passover in Jerusalem in two demonstrations. The first was Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. On that day, the radical contradiction between the Commonwealth of God and the Empire of Caesar was publicly and dramatically revealed in two processions. Jesus entered the city from the east on a donkey surrounded by peasants from Galilee and Judea singing his praise while Pontius Pilate entered from the west riding a war horse surrounded by armed Roman legions in an intimidating demonstration of Roman power.

This is not the only demonstration Jesus staged that week in Jerusalem. He also symbolically shut down the Temple, which had become the Jewish theocracy’s power center rather than a house of prayer for the people. Following this protest action, he took over the Temple, teaching there daily, surrounded by crowds of Jewish common people spellbound by his words. These acts of nonviolent resistance led directly to his arrest, trial and execution. 

Jesus’ execution was about nonviolent resistance. Jesus also called and continues to call his followers to continue this practice of nonviolent resistance against Empire’s oppressive power. In the end, 11of his 12 closest disciples answered this call and were killed or exiled because they did so. Followers of Jesus who take up that call today are not likely to forfeit their lives, but must expect to pay something if they resist the power of empire.
 
May God give us courage to practice nonviolent resistance to Empire and help us love those whom we are resisting as we do so.

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Lent is around the corner but I’m of a mind to look back on the wintry beginning of Advent. The gift – and torment – of the season of Advent is the quiet stillness that beckons us to turn inward, to perceive the darkness residing within. By December every year I’m aware of some niggling bit of unpleasantness that separates me from God, and I know that ‘now is the time’ to reckon with it. I always look forward to the peace and space, the early sunsets that make it easier to use the evening time for reading and reflection. There is less busyness all around and the invitation to stillness is appealing. But I’ve never experienced as much agony during Advent as I did this past year. When Christmas arrived and the readings and songs proclaimed that Christ has come, I was still feeling my way in the dark cave, not having untangled the knot of dissatisfaction.

Two readings touched me during the season. The first one guided my internal meanderings, a dim light that I recognized as a way out of my conundrum. It hung on the refrigerator in our kitchen during the month of December. “Once we admit who we are, fearlessness takes over,” a quote from Joan Chittister. That’s it, I realized. I truly, truly don’t want to admit who I am. There are some aspects of my personality that are so disappointing to me. I don’t want to be a person whose ego revels in attention and flattery or who withdraws from others when I’m feeling lonely. It’s so….unBenedictine. I’m finding that the longer I’ve been here at the monastery, the harder it’s become to admit my faults. It feels like I have more to lose. I want to be a certain person, a good monastic, and in my mind that means shedding certain traits. When I see so clearly that I have not in fact shed these unpleasant characteristics, it feels like failure and it wounds the (false) self-image I persist in holding onto.

The thing is, the desires are not the problem. As in politics, the problem is not the thing itself, but the cover-up.

Which brings me to the second reading, from my book of daily prayer. I will quote it at length.

“Jesus chooses to reveal himself in poverty, but it can be exquisitely difficult for us to show him ours. We are easily bothered by the marks of our humanity, especially those things we loathe about ourselves. Like Adam – who hid from God when he realized he was naked – we try to hide parts of our personality….We want to approach God with our clothes neatly ironed, hair nicely combed, teeth brushed, and shoes shined. But is that what God wants?

On the contrary, God persists in loving what we loathe. Because, if we ask for and are given the grace, the things we hate can be transformed into stones that, each by each, create a royal road that leads to honest self-knowledge and a hard-won humility. This is the only sure way to enter a life with God….Without humility we can only wander in a wilderness of pride and self-satisfaction.”

Rachelle Linner – “The Fastest Way to God’s Heart” in Give Us This Day January 2022

I’m quite familiar with that wilderness, so let me pray for the humility to admit who I am: a flawed person who would sometimes rather pretend to be perfect than have the humility to ask for the grace to be loved as I am.

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Nowadays, in church, cemeteries and home altars, secular traditions merge with Christian religious practices. One example of this syncretism is seen in the altars of the Day of the Dead where traditional Christian symbols, crosses and images of saints, coexist along with cempoalxochitl (a carnation-like bright orange flower), papel picado (confetti) and sugar skulls.

The flower of cempoalxochitl on the altar marks the way, so that the dead find the altar and their ofrenda (offering) on it. Usually a path of scattered petals of cempoalxochitl from the cemetery to the house’s altar and candles are used to guide the souls of the dead. On the altar it is also important to have a censer with copal incense, to demarcate the sacredness of the place and make it more appealing to the visiting souls. The pleasant light and aroma is to attract and welcome their souls to enjoy the gifts offered to them.

The flowers on the altar remind the dead of the beauty of life. The altar has objects that remind us of the person we want to honor. These are things that they liked when they were alive, “pan de muerto” (bread), hot chocolate, and fruit. It is important to include salt and water to honor them as souls who are returning to visit.

At the same time these elements of salt and water will support the souls in their return to the afterlife so they will not get trapped in this world. The altar must have sugar calaveras (skulls) and dancing skeletons as a reminder that they are dead and they should depart once the day is over; otherwise their souls can be trapped in this realm. The souls of our beloved dead will take with them the salt and water and all the offerings on their return journey to the afterlife.

In Mexico and the US, the Day of the Dead is not just a day to remember and honor our dead, but is also a day to protest. This year, at Holy Wisdom Monastery, the topic of migrant conditions and the children’s separation from their parents will be considered in the upcoming Sacred Citizenship event on Tuesday October 29, 2019. I hope you can join us.

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The hospitality of Abraham and Sarah
– icons by Peter Pearson which grace the sisters’ dining room

In preparing some thoughts on hospitality to share with our Benedictine Women of Madison Board, I came across an article Sister Joanne Kollasch wrote in 1984 for a meeting of the American Benedictine Academy. She includes a quote from a conference by the late Demetrius Dumm, OSB, a monk and Scripture scholar from St. Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, PA. It sent my thinking about hospitality in a new direction. Here is what Demetrius Dumm said:

In Scripture, the entertaining of guests and the entertaining of strangers is the entertaining of mystery; this is to make room for that which is not known, for that which is potentially threatening for the future, ultimately for God. The greatest stranger is the future. Primary characteristics of anyone with authentic faith is their attitude toward the future. Not because it is so promising but because it is from God. God gives us the future. The trademark of the monastic witness is a positive attitude about the future.

“The greatest stranger is the future.” This is the line that caught my attention. It adds another layer to a Benedictine understanding of hospitality. It also provides an intriguing and life-giving way to think about the future. With all that is happening in the world, some days the future seems quite intimidating. The future is certainly always an unknown mystery.

It hadn’t occurred to me that entertaining the stranger was a practice that opens me to entertain the future, but of course, that is exactly what happens in the biblical stories of entertaining strangers. Abraham and Sarah provide a meal for three guests who come in from the desert one afternoon and Abraham and Sarah’s future opens up with the promise of a son.

Pharaoh’s daughter welcomes the stranger as a Hebrew baby boy when she draws Moses out of the water and decides to raise him. With that act of hospitality the future of the Hebrew people (as well as the Egyptians) changes.

Of course, the ultimate act of receiving a stranger is humanity receiving Jesus as God incarnate. Whenever and wherever people have received him, their lives and futures are changed. In calling forth this act of hospitality God provides the opening for newness, change, challenge and growth in human life.

Novices and novice directors gathered in one group, including Lynne Smith (back row, 2nd from right), Paz Vital (front row, left) and Denise West (front row, right)

At the Novice and Director’s Institute that novices Paz Vital, Denise West and I attended in May, each of the novices was asked to make a presentation about their communities. One of the items they were to address was some community plans for the future.  As Paz and Denise prepared their presentation, we had a conversation together in the sisters’ community about how we all saw the future. Mary David and Joanne, who have the most experience among us of welcoming the future, talked about how our community has moved into the future through welcoming and listening to others.

They shared their experience of receiving the Lutheran missionaries for seventeen summers, praying with them, eating with them, talking together and sharing life those years. Through this and other experiences, Mary David and Joanne were stretched. Their hearts were changed. This became one of the experiences that led to their openness to welcome women of any Christian denomination into our community making our community the first ecumenical Benedictine women’s community in North America. The Spirit led them into the future through their exercise of hospitality and the monastic practice of conversatio – fidelity to the monastic way of life and openness to change.

Mary David and Joanne told other stories of welcoming immigrants from India, Vietnam, Guatemala, China and welcoming Missionary Benedictine sisters from many countries. Their hospitality went deep, beyond just providing food and shelter. It extended to opening their community living space and their personal lives to these strangers who brought blessings from the Spirit. Through this opening, their future took a turn in ways they could not have foretold when they joined the community fifty and sixty years ago.

When Paz and Denise gave their presentation and spoke about the community’s future, they said, “We don’t know what the future holds for our community, but we know how we will get there:

• Listen and dialogue with people of faith from all different backgrounds
• Maintain a commitment to prayer and excellence in liturgy
• Change with the times and respond to the needs of the world
• Continue to work for justice and a reverence and care for all creation
• Seek help in leadership; we can’t do it alone!”

Joan Chittister, OSB, has written that if we live the present well, we will be prepared for the future. So I am encouraged to renew my practice of hospitality with an openness to what God is doing among our community of communities that will open up a future I don’t have to control because I can trust God will lead us as God has done in the past.

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Anticipating Christmas with the O Antiphons

During the last week before Christmas, we begin the daily singing of the   O Antiphons, an ancient practice that embraces the sense of longing and anticipation for Christmas which swells with each day.  These antiphons are sung prior to the Magnificat, the Song of Mary from Luke 1:46-55, in our evening prayers throughout this week.  Each antiphon begins by addressing God with a name that expresses God’s loving design for people of all times and places.  Each antiphon is completed with the petition to “Come” and continue the redeeming activity needed in our lives and in our world today.  We invite you to enjoy the richness of this tradition, by joining us for evening prayer (4:30 pm) throughout these days. Antiphons for each day and accompanying prayers and blessings are reprinted below, along with special prayers for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Epiphany Sunday.

December 17
O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come teach us to walk in the paths of knowledge.

Holy Wisdom, Mother and Friend, you fill our hearts but are never exhausted; you guide our ways and never fail us. Give us powers of discernment to seek your ways, and guide us, heart and mind and conscience, in being followers of Jesus, who is Emmanuel, God with us, for ever and ever.

Blessing
May holy Wisdom bless us with her presence, enlightening our hearts and refreshing our minds. 

December 18
O Adonai, leader of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and gave him the law on Mount Sinai: come with open arms to set us free.

Liberating God, in Israel you set down a pattern of bringing your people out of slavery into the glorious freedom of your children.  Help us to see the bondage of sin and death afflicting the times in which we live, and to be part of your liberating grace.  We ask this through Jesus, who was, who is, and who is to come, Incarnate God, for ever and ever.

Blessing
May Adonai, the Lion of Judah, reach out with a strong arm to defend us and to be our Savior. 

December 19
O Root of Jesse’s stem, you stand as a sign among the peoples; to you all nations cry for help; before you rulers stand in silence: come to save us, do not delay. 

O God, in the fertility of Elizabeth and Zechariah, you trace your saving ways in human history. Open our hearts and minds to the miracle that is every human birth, and to the goodness in which we are born. We ask this in Jesus’ name.

Blessing
May Christ, the Flower of Jesse’s stem, take root in our lives and bear fruit in our communities. 

December 20
O Key of David, scepter of the house of Israel: you open and no one closes; you close, and no one opens. Come free the prisoners in darkness and the shadow of death.

God of light, as evening draws on, we bring to mind all who live in prisons of any and every kind. Led by your desire for freedom and joy for all peoples, may we spread the good news to all captive hearts. 

Blessing
May God bless us, who comes in Christ to save us and release us from the chains of death. 

December 21
O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light and sun of justice: come illumine those lost in the darkness and the shadow of death. 

O God, the dawning of each day is the promise of your salvation at work in our lives. In Jesus you have radiated a new light through his words and example. Keep the light of Jesus burning brightly in our lives so that the work of the Gospel may continue, and people may be freed from doubt and despair. We pray this through Jesus the Christ.

Blessing
May Christ, the rising dawn of eternal light, shine on us with justice and illumine us with peace.  

December 22
O Ruler and hope of all nations, cornerstone uniting all as one: come save the people you formed from the earth.

O God, your love for us unites us in Jesus. By the power of that love, you seek to break down barriers between peoples, nations and churches. Strengthen in us a drive to unity and reconciliation which can speak to the divisions of our times. Grant this, we ask, through Christ, our Peace, for ever and ever.

Blessing
May God, the Ancient of Days, lift us up through the salvation Christ is creating among us. 

December 23
O Emmanuel, God’s presence among us, our Ruler our Judge: come to save us, O Christ, our God.

O God, you are near, even in our hearts, and have opened to us the mystery that lies within our very being. Grant that we may cherish the interior life, finding in abiding contemplation the gift of energy in the world. We pray through Jesus the Christ, living with you and the Spirit, now and for ever.

Blessing
May Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, bless us with abiding peace. 

Christmas Eve – Blessing of the Crèche

God of Mary and Joseph, of shepherds and animals, bless us whenever we gaze on this crèche. Through all the days of Christmas may these figures tell the story of how humans, angels and animals found Christ in this poor place. Fill our households with hospitality, joy, gentleness and thanksgiving and guide our steps in the way of Christ’s peace. Grant this through Christ our Savior. 

Christmas Vigil

Good and gracious God, while all the world lay wrapped in deepest silence, and night had reached its midpoint, your Word leapt down to grace the world forever. As year by year the beauty of this night returns, growing old with our aging, yet renewed in the wonder of every child, so may we give birth to Christ again in lives of faith, hope and love. We pray through Jesus, the Word made flesh, living in the splendor of eternal light with you and the Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Christmas Day

God of love, eternal parent of all, the waiting night that once covered the earth has given way to the brightness of your Word made flesh. Make us a people of light. Keep us faithful to your Word, that we may bring life to the whole world. Grant this, we ask, in Jesus’ name. Amen

Blessing
May God’s blessing be with us for joy, for the warmth of love, and for peace.

Epiphany Sunday Vigil

In the darkness of night, O God, a star has risen in the East, shining upon the Word made flesh, Savior of the world and light to the nations. Grant us to walk by this light, radiating your love for the world, and bearing a message of peace. For Jesus is God-with-us forever and ever.

O Antiphon texts adapted from traditional Latin antiphons and translations by Colleen Winston, OSB ©2001, St. Walburg Monastery, Villa Hills, KY. Prayers and blessings published by Benedictine Women of Madison, Holy Wisdom Monastery, Middleton, WI ©2010.

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Closer to home, I recently presided at the memorial service for two infant twin boys who died at birth. Their parents and family loved them greatly and are now suffering at their loss.

At midday prayer this Advent, we are reading from Richard Rohr’s Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent, written in 2008. The reading for Thursday of the second week of Advent included these lines: “Without great love and/or great suffering, human consciousness remains largely at the fight-or-flight, either/or, all-or-nothing level….It is largely great love and great suffering that create spiritual listening and larger seeing.”

As I ponder how to make meaning out of suffering, Rohr’s thought has remained with me. I consider how great suffering and great love have helped move me to a consciousness that seeks to integrate all that happens in life rather than dividing experience up into the dualistic categories of right/wrong, good/bad. I see that integration happens when I move through suffering rather than trying to deny it or avoid it.

On a personal level, I begin to see that some of my strengths were developed in response to great suffering. Though I still think what caused the suffering shouldn’t have happened, I can no longer say the suffering was categorically bad. I see that acknowledging and integrating suffering into my life with the help of others has made me a person of perseverance and hope. The grace of God working through prayer and other people helped me develop the resources of my inner life—that spiritual listening that Rohr mentions.

Great love accomplishes the same spiritual listening and seeing in us. Children who are greatly loved grow up with a sense of confidence and knowledge of their gifts that enables them to see and draw out the goodness and gifts of others.

As we prepare to celebrate the incarnation at Christmas, we see the world is still a place of great love and great suffering. That hasn’t changed since Jesus’ time. What we do with the suffering of the world can contribute to a change in consciousness which could move us to end the suffering. When the Twin Towers fell in 2001, the Rev. James Forbes, senior pastor emeritus at Riverside Church in New York City was asked what the United States should do next. I don’t remember his exact words but he said something to the effect of: I don’t know yet how we should respond. But the first thing we should do is get very, very quiet. His response was a contemplative one that could help us to see and hear the call to life in every event. How can we respond in a way that brings life out of great suffering and even death?

At the first anniversary of 9/11 this is what the Rev. James Forbes said. “…this is what I heard God say to me, and I think it may appeal to all of us: Love my children; that’s all I ask of you. Love my children; it’s the least that you could do. If you love them as I love them, we shall see them safely through. Love yourself, love me too. And whatever else you do, love my children.”

God’s answer to great suffering is to send us God’s love in human form that we may also become that love for a suffering world.

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The following reflections were shared by Sister Joanne Kollasch at a recent Benedictine Women of Madison Board of Directors meeting, part of the ongoing opportunities for our board to become more deeply rooted in the Benedictine tradition and values at Holy Wisdom Monastery.

____________________________________________

I continue to reflect on what’s happening in our country after the recent political election. The post-election turmoil is raised in many conversations I’m part of. So, what is my response?

I found this quotation from Thomas Merton and a beginning answer to my question:

“To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.        — Thomas Merton

And Tuesday, a week ago, I got a blog from Chuck Pfeifer: When Love is Not Enough.

As Paz says: “Oh, Oh.”

I turned my attention to other times of history when people had perhaps the same emotions of fear, anger, confusion, sadness, which led me to St. Benedict.

A first recounting of history in Benedict’s time tells of the Goths—barbarian invaders sacking Rome. The invaders began to dismember the Roman Empire already weakened from within by misgovernment, oppressive taxation and scourged by pestilence.

Through the sixth century ecclesial society was almost as troubled as its civil counterpart. Into this scene comes Benedict who wrote a rule for monks.

“The Rule, a document whose brevity and simplicity belie its wisdom. …he saw that a new beginning had to be made to meet the need of the times. His moderation, his emphasis upon a stable community life in opposition to individualism, and his encouragement of civilizing work ensure that the institute he founded would become a powerful force in Christian Europe out of the ruins of the barbarian invasion.”  — RB 1980, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, p. 70

Which leads us to Benedict’s survival kit:

1. Receive all guests as Christ: is there a border? a frontier? a boundary? a threshold? to keep the guest out?

2. Seek God in prayer and worship, listening to God’s word in Scripture.

3. Respect the dignity of human work and its integration with the life of the individual and the human community.

4. Organizing human families where the healing love of Christ may be shared, where persons matter.

5. Regain a Christian and human relationship to the earth.

6. Collegial action as normative and ordinary in community affairs.

7. Respect for authority, responsibility, obedience and true freedom with a humble spirit and conscience.

The English Benedictine, Cardinal Basil Hume, a former archbishop of Westminster, says the search for solutions and balance is of vital import to our society, both in its sickness and hopes:

If national and international society is to be healthy, human life must be sound and good at its roots. The church must preach good news by many forms of contact and exchange with persons of all beliefs and cultures. A monastery may be a place where such exchange regularly occurs.

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Click on image above to view Lessons from the Monastery, Rosy Kandathil’s entire conversation with Pete Scazzero – recorded at and by New Life Fellowship, New York City

I had just finished an interview with Pastor Pete Scazzero at New Life Fellowship church in New York City, where I’d been a member for nine years before coming to Holy Wisdom Monastery. My life at the monastery remained a mystery to many of the people I served at the church, people I still cared deeply about. I hoped that my answers might help bridge the gap for this busy urban church where monastic life might as well be torn from the pages of a medieval history book.

As I looked into this earnest young woman’s face, I wondered how I should address her question. How do I experience intimacy as a celibate?  “It isn’t easy,” I admitted. “But I suspect that real intimacy is difficult for everyone. Every person experiences intimacy and fulfillment in different ways. There’s a lot of negotiating in a loving relationship. Although I don’t engage in sexual intimacy as a celibate, I still want and need intimate friendships. Relationships in which I can be my whole self and experience another person in their wholeness—warts and all.”  I paused for a moment before I added with a grin, “It’s work. But there’s a lot of joy in it, if it fits.”

The woman’s question stayed with me, and reminds me just how strange my current way of life must seem to others. As we talked together afterwards, she shared about her recent break-up and her own struggle to find intimacy. Among singles, there are so few who model what a healthy, engaged sexuality looks like. What we see in movies and television hardly serves to inspire authentically intimate relationships. Although most thoughtful people realize that more sex does not equate to more intimacy, it’s not always clear what does lead to fulfilling, satisfying relationships. Celibacy certainly does not seem a realistic or healthy alternative. It looks like a cutting off, a teeth-gritting denial of our deepest human needs and desires.

Although I wouldn’t recommend it as a lifestyle for everyone, celibacy, at its best, is a loving commitment that draws us toward intimacy with God, ourselves and others. It requires maturity, self-possession and self-giving. It can be life-giving, freeing and joyful, but it also takes work.

Rosy Kandathil shares reflections on the Rule of Benedict

There are skills for intimacy that can be learned, often through trial and error. Living in community at the monastery is not the same as having coworkers in ministry for roommates. When I first came here, though, that was what I imagined. I had no idea what to expect. There are few households that look like mine. I live with women today from very different walks of life. We are in our 80s, 70s, 60s, 40s and 30s. None of us chose each other, and yet we are committed to one another as we live in community guided by the Rule of Benedict. We don’t always get along, but we work on our difficulties and figure out how to accept each other. We share our moments and our days, interacting in intimate ways and yet we all sleep alone. While it does take work, commitment and practice, I’d be the first to say that celibate intimacy is real, possible and joyful.

________________________

Read other blog posts from Sister Rosy in her series, Letters home.

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From the writings of Louis Boyer:

By his words “I am the resurrection and the life” Jesus condemns the mistake of faith without hope. He is its living refutation, because, in this incarnate person, he is the incursion of the invisible world. He is the resurrection and life. Faith is directed to him, to that penetration of the unseen into the visible perpetuated in his existence, and not at an invisible world forever separated from the visible. In this way, the believer is placed by faith in possession of hope to share in the resurrection and the life, believing in them not as unattainable realities but put with reach.

The reading today from the holy Gospel according to John (selections from John 11):

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the people had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home.

Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

She said to him, “Yes, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”                  

We were invited to pray:

God of every relationship, you gave to Jesus, your chosen one, the intimate friendship of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and made them partners to the mysteries of death and resurrection. May we cherish faithful friendship as a privileged encounter with risen life.   Amen

Let us go in peace. And give God thanks. 

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I owe a great deal to Mary Collins, OSB for my reflections with you today. Scholars may continue to argue whether Benedict was counter-cultural or not. Settling this question doesn’t really matter so much because, from the beginning, the monastic way of life involved a re-valuation of persons, things and time, according to a set of standards that are different from those of the dominant culture. Monastic re-valuation can be clearly seen in the Rule of Benedict.

Persons were re-valuated not by social stratification of the Roman Empire, but the time of conversion, the time when they came to the monastery. They were valued by their humility, by their good works. For Benedict, those who lack public recognition—the sick, the marginal, the stranger—are the special ones. He says the rich automatically receive all kinds of attention, but the poor, the marginalized, they’re the people we have to watch for and look out for. In a Benedictine community, all persons are listened to for their truth. All persons—the beginners, the elderly, the scholars, the lay members—all are to be listened to because Benedict believed every person had something of the truth. Each person is gifted from God, in their person, in some way. Every person has some gift to share.

The monastic way of living also involves the re-valuation of things. The things of the sanctuary and the altar—these were certainly considered sacred. But with Benedict, anything that the monk used was considered sacred—anything handled by the monk. So there were books and tools, and the Rule talks about how you handle the books, how you treat the tools. There is no secular/sacred dichotomy in the Rule.

And how is time re-valuated? None is exaggerated or has priority, but there is a balance. There is time for communal life, time for daily manual labor, time for lectio divina, time for communal praise of God. When I’m talking to novices or candidates, I often say we don’t sleep all day, or pray all day, or work all day, but we have a balance of time.

What is the outcome of this re-valuation? There is greater wholeness in people. The whole person is developed. There is a greater simplicity because we aren’t all manual work and we aren’t all intellectual work. Someone has said, Benedictines are scholars with dirt under their fingernails. The scholar, too, must learn to balance physical work with mental or spiritual or intellectual work. So the outcome is a wholeness for people, a simplicity.

This re-valuating is prophetic, because it creates a new perception of reality. It was prophetic to people in a dying Roman Empire; it is prophetic today in our culture. Re-valuating can create a new perception of reality where humanness has been lost. Benedictine life, at its best, supports the truly human.

Something of God’s judgement is put forth and established on the disorder of society. That is also the prophetic. Monastic life refuses to cooperate with the arrogant use of power, preferring non-violent confrontation with demonic forces of bondage. Rather power comes from the word of God to expose sin and condemn it.

And, finally, there is the power of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. Benedict writes in the Rule that the Prayer of Jesus is said morning and evening so that the community has a chance to forgive one another and any faults that have arisen among community members. And so, every morning we say “we will forgive, because God has first forgiven us,” and the same thing at night. Forgiveness, healing and reconciliation become powerful forces in community. There is trust in the power of God and the strength of God to overcome our fear. For Benedict, and for us today, the monastery is a school of learning to break the power of violence.

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Mary Collins, OSB is a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, KS, a liturgical scholar and scholar of the Rule of Benedict.

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