By Sr. Constance Joanna, SSJD
The very first word in the Rule of St. Benedict is “listen” – “Listen carefully, my child, to the instructions of your teacher, and incline the ear of your heart.”
Listening is one of the most difficult things for human beings to do. Even when you have good hearing and don’t wear hearing aids or rely on sign language, listening is very difficult. Hearing is passive and much easier than listening. It has to do the anatomy of our ears and how our brains interpret sounds for us. But listening is active – even ordinary listening, especially in this century characterized by multi-tasking and democratic processes that require us to listen really carefully to understand another person we may disagree with. To listen with the ear of our hearts adds another dimension – it means listening with empathy, listening with our hearts and minds wide open to the hear to voice of the Holy Spirit in the midst of our conversations.
Something else that is challenging about listening – the Latin root word for listen has the same root as the word for obedience – obedire – which means roughly something like “listen and respond.” To obey in the Benedictine sense does not mean a senseless jumping to do what an authoritarian lead tells you to do. We see that all over the world, and it leads to a diminishment of our human agency and our capacity for discernment.
In fact the word discernment could almost be a synonym for the best kind of obedience. It’s a word based on one of our other senses, our eyes. To discern is not just to see something but to see with the eye of our heart, to seek the wider context and the deeper meaning of what is happening, and to respond appropriately.
I think these two senses – listening and seeing – are at the heart of Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries, which for the last 40 years or so ordinary Christians not living in monasteries are coming to see is at the heart of their own Christian life.
St. Benedict was born in the fifth century, and after establishing a number of monasteries, wrote this little book that he called “a little rule for beginners.” It’s kind of a Christianity 101, with all the guidelines for Christians living together in community. Why is that important now? Benedict lived in an era when the Roman Empire was falling apart, when tyrants were starting to control the western world because the safeguards and structure and safety net of the empire could no longer hold chaos at bay.
It’s almost identical to what we see happening in our time. As in Benedict’s time, people longed for stability, for the kind of structure that Augustine said would set us free. The Rule provided that for the monasteries of Europe and England, and eventually the Anglican Communion was born out of the Benedictine tradition. The source for the Book of Common Prayer, for instance, was the English Benedictine office developed in Salsbury.
Today people everywhere are longing for God, whether they know it’s God they long for or not. And yet we see the monasteries, like the church as a whole, shrinking. As I think and pray about what that means for us, I see new things, exciting things, happening everywhere. One of the most obvious is the growth of Oblates of monastic communities – that is, people who don’t live in the monastery but are associated with it, make promises to live by a community rule, and support the community with prayer and service, and when possible financially as well.
Larry Barker will be renewing his vows this morning as an Oblate of Elmore Abbey, an Anglican Benedictine community in England based now in Salisbury, UK – a perfect place for an English Benedictine community because the Benedictine office that formed the basis of The Book of Common Prayer was the rite used at Salisbury – the so-called Sarum rite.
Larry told me that the community at Elmore is tiny now but has over 100 oblates. Our SSJD oblates are growing, too. We now have more Oblates than sisters. I believe that Oblates are a sign that we need to look for new ways to live Benedictine monasticism. Those who come for retreat and refreshment in out Guest House is another wonderful sign of how the circule of a monastic family encompasses far more than the core members.
So where is this Sisterhood going? Where are other Anglican communities going? What is God calling us to? And the “us” includes Oblates, Associates, and all those and care about and pray for us.
God is calling us to listen with the ear of hearts, to discern with the eye of our hearts, so that we may be obedient – to act in the best way we believe God is calling us. Our own community’s Rule of Life, which is based on the Rule of St. Benedict, says the following about our vow of obedience:
Obedience in the religious life is the fulfilment of the will of God as discerned through respectful listening and discussion; through the Chapter and other formal decision-making processes provided in the Constitution; through the Community leadership as provided for in the Statutes; and through living together and sharing the fruits of our individual and common prayer.
Whether vowed members of a monastic community or Oblates or Associates, our obedience, in this sense, works against authoritarianism and tyranny. Our prayer has a mysterious and powerful impact. Again, to quote our Rule:
Prayer is God’s gift, enabling growth in our relationship with Christ in every aspect of life, and releasing creative power into the world for the glory of God.
Today we celebrate this feast of St. Benedict, we pray for Larry as he renews his Oblate promises, and we pray for our church and its monastic communities as we look to how we will live out our vocation in the future.
I began this reflection with the first words from Benedict’s Rule of Life. Let me close with his very last words:
You who would hasten to your heavenly home, with the help of Christ keep this modest rule, we have written for beginners. Then you can, with God’s aid, set out and reach the loftier summits of the teaching and virtues that we have pointed out. Amen.