RB Reflections: 6 May 2008

Prologue 33-38

That is why the Lord says in the Gospel: Whoever hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house upon rock; the floods came and the winds blew and beat against the house, but it did not fall: it was founded on rock (Matt 7:24-25).

With this conclusion, the Lord waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, his holy teachings. Therefore our life span has been lengthened by way of a truce, that we may amend our misdeeds. As the Apostle says: Do you not know that the patience of God is leading you to repent (Rom 2:4)? And indeed the Lord assures us in his love: I do not wish the death of the sinner, but that he turn back to me and live (Ezek 33:11).

I find it amazing that Benedict either:

A. had the Bible in his head so well that he "thought in Bible" much in the same way others would later say Bernard wrote in Bible.
B. had a Bible to look up things.

My vote is for A, because the thought of Bibles laying about in the Sixth Century, as they do now, is ludicrous. What access to a Bible did Benedict have? He had not always been an Abbot, spent the early years of his monastic life as a Hermit in a cave. Somewhere Benedict laid hold of a Bible, or listened to whatever lectionary might have been in place at that time, however it got there, Benedict was a master of the use of scripture. My admiration of his knowledge and thinking process has grown exponentially. That didn't start until I took up preparing the daily reflections.

Benedict makes suggestions. Then he uses scripture to back himself up.

In my Church of Christ years, as a young child and young teen (I converted quickly), you could argue anything so long as you had a Bible verse to back you up. Benedict goes one better, he doesn't just back it up with a verse, he goes forward to draw some conclusions.

The Lord waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, his holy teachings. Therefore our life span has been lengthened by way of a truce, that we may amend our misdeeds.

By way of a truce. Gosh, that's an odd word to think about in the context of a monastic rule. We think that because we read a rule that we are safe, but Benedict says we have a truce!

The Merriam-Webster says truced is Middle English trewes, plural of trewe agreement, from Old English trēow fidelity; akin to Old English trēowe faithful — more at true
Date: 13th century
1 : a suspension of fighting especially of considerable duration by agreement of opposing forces : armistice, cease-fire
2 : a respite especially from a disagreeable or painful state or action

Well, now that has cleared up why "our life span has been lengthened by way of a truce." It is definition 2 that applies here. We are to "amend our misdeeds," so says Benedict.

As Lay Cistercian's of Gethsemani, and the entire International Lay Encounter 2008, we need to be heard by the order as people who have taken seriously our Rule of Life, who have developed the documents they asked for. We have taken the Rule of Benedict as our own, yet they do not include us in their Intercessions.

The only way to do that is to amend our misdeeds and run towards the Lord with our heart flung wide open. Only the Holy Spirit gives the Charism, only the Holy Spirit can work out our own life as Lay Cistercian's of any variety. We can plan, we can write, we can meet, we can fly all over the world to talk, write and meet, but in the end it is prayer we need most, so that the light of God may seep into us as deeply as the Bible seeped into Benedict.