Today we celebrate the Feast of the Passing of St.
Benedict. We celebrate it, not because
he died but because he lived an ordinary life that changed spirituality
forever. This simple yet holy man
brought to the world a discipline, not to be lived for the discipline’s sake,
but to live a life in which encountering the divine is possible on a daily
basis.
St. Benedict’s teachings for humility and hospitality have
lived through the centuries and we desperately need to embody them today. The world in which we live is plagued by
greed, selfishness, and unrest brought on by philosophical differences and
religious intolerance. Just think of the
changes each of us could make if we followed St. Benedict’s treatise to “greet
everyone as if they were Christ.” This
simple, yet very difficult, act of radical hospitality could begin to change
our immediate environment and eventually spill over into the neighborhood,
county, state or country where we live.
Embracing each person and discovering the presence of Christ
within them can be accomplished if we follow the steps of humility outlined in
the Rule. Not a false humility, but a
genuine humility that leads us to freedom from the deceptive trappings we hold
on to in our lives. Actually, we don’t
hold on to them as much as we allow them to cling to us; all for the sake of a counterfeit
sense of happiness and fulfillment.
The wisdom of our Holy Father Benedict continues to live in
us as we strive to follow the Rule. So as
we celebrate the life of St. Benedict and the legacy he left us, let us rededicate
ourselves to the discipline of humility and radical hospitality in our personal
life and our Benedictine community as we seek to find the presence of God in
all.
PAX,
Abbot Terry Boyer, OSB
