A WAY OF SEEING OTHERS

 The other day I was part of a Zoom discussion on the Wisdom of St. Benedict for a small group of people who are preparing to serve as pastoral caregivers. Their training is based on "The Community of Hope International Pastoral Caregiver's Notebook," which s based on the spirituality of the Rule of St. Benedict. 

I was really touched by the paragraph on hospitality. But before I share that, let me reviewsmfor you the historical context on which Benedict was living.  

ST. BENEDICT'S WORLD

What was the world into which Benedict was born in 480?  

Well, things are not looking too good. Twenty-five years before Benedict's birth, Rome had been sacked for the second time. Four years before his birth, the last Roman Emperor was deposed, leaving no Emperor in the West. Benedict was watching the demise of the Roman Empire. Markets were failing, communications were becoming almost impossible, the army was non-existent. The barbarians are not only at the gates but inside -- the world was being run by barbarians: Nobody seemed to be in charge of anything. Order, of all sorts, had broken down. The great Roman institutions that had worked for so long, had collapsed, just simply stopped working.  

All the sources of security that people had counted on had crumbled, or were in the process of crumbling right before their eyes. There’s a huge social imbalance by which the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Does this sound familiar? And above all, there was the fear that goes with the shifting of familiar landmarks.  

It is into this world that Benedict is born! Young Benedict is sent to Rome to be educated, as middle class kids did back then. Took one look at  the decadence and headed for the hills of Umbria,. Benedict begins living by himself, then meets Romanus, who was living this experimental Christian life as a monk, and Benedict got initiated into this new hermit life.. 

Through the holiness of his life, young Benedict attracts others who want to live this life. Over the years he gains a lot of wisdom and experience. But he also is very well read. 

The monastic movement is already 200 years old, having started in the Middle East, certainly in  Palestine and Egypt, and was transplanted to southern France. 

THE HOLY RULE

Benedict knows these other traditions, and lists many of  them in his little Rule for Monks which he writes in  his later years. His genius is not so much as an innovator but as someone who synthesized the best of many varied traditions..  What would we expect to find in a document arising out of that troubled milieu? Build a thick-walled fortress to protect yourself? Preserve your values in concrete to withstand the pagan threat? Pull up the drawbridge and hang on?

So it’s fascinating that that’s precisely NOT what Benedict does! He refuses to give in to that fearful, defensive kind of thinking. Let me quote from a commentary on the Rule of Benedict, written by Esther de Waal, a lay woman person, who is constantly reflecting on what Benedict's insights say to her as a woman in the world:

Benedict refused to do this. He remained a man whose mind was open, just as the doors of his monastery were always open, and as he wished to have his monks have a heart open to all comers.  His Rule is, as a result, a true via media, the middle way, that holds centrifugal forces together to make them dynamic, life-giving”.  Surrounded by chaos, he comes up with an approach to life that is not reactionary or small-minded, but expansive, visionary, and life-giving.  

HOSPITALITY - A WAY OF SEEING OTHERS

Here is that passage from the handbook that I mentioned at the beginning of this post:

In sixth century Italy monasteries were the hostels where travelers and visiting monks could stop on their journeys and take refreshment and rest. Chapter 53 of the Rule is spent on the reception of guests and Chapter 61 on visiting monks. Hospitality was presumed as the norm for every monastery, for Benedict says that guests—and monasteries are never without them— should be adequately provided for with a separate kitchen, even when they come at unpredictable hours. Every guest is to be welcomed as Christ, but especially the poor, since we are naturally inclined to pay more attention to the rich. 

Hospitality ensures that the monks do not become so inwardly focused in their own schedules and agendas that they miss the opportunity to serve those who come into their midst, as Christ will say, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me."

A MIRROR FOR OUR TIMES

Think for a moment about the chaos that seems to be all around us, the breakdown of traditional morals and institutions, for example, to say nothing of the polarizing of people into hostile camps over almost everything. And then toss in the social distancing and other restrictions brought on by COVID19. It seems to me that the fear we see around us mirrors that of the world of Europe in the 500's. 

I suggest that we can take a good look at St. Benedict and try to understand and imitate his attitude and his response to the chaotic world around him. He answered to threats with an attitude of trust and openness and optimism. Threats were opportunities for him to welcome Christ in the alien, the different, even the threatening.

How about finishing this post on your own, looking at some of your own attitudes toward the world right now, toward others who are different from you or whose ideas are different from yours? Would these attitudes reflect the mind of our holy father Benedict?