Every once in a while you have heard me talk about St. Benedict. He wrote a Rule – The Rule of St. Benedict is a way for monks to live together in community. That way of life has been kept alive for centuries in the Catholic Church, especially in convents and monasteries where nuns and monks live in accordance with the Rule.

But we have to free ourselves from strict notions of a what a rule is in order to understand the Rule. We tend to think of rules as things that can’t be broken. Rules are strict and govern very specific things. Some of us are raised to respect rules, so much so that when we even think we just might be breaking one, we get a little anxious.

But for the Rule of St. Benedict, “rule” means something much more like a guide, or a guardrail. On roads, guardrails help us to see the edges of the road, especially when to go off the shoulder would be dangerous, like on a curve or next to a ravine. Guardrails help us keep on the road, so we don’t go off to the left or the right, but stay on the road, moving along toward our destination.

For Christians, this distinction between rules as strict orders and a rule as a guard for our way is vital. Because as Christians we are walking with and following God, not rules. Indeed, sometimes we can be idolatrous, making the rules or the commandments more important than God. John Calvin and Martin Luther (and the apostle Paul!) understood that in a very important way God’s law keeps us on a path towards fellowship with God and God’s people. But if we substitute the law for God, instead of following God who gives the law as a gift for our life, we are actually turning our back on God.

In Joshua 1, we hear God speaking to Joshua after Moses has died:

…”7Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. 8This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. 9I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Our way will be prosperous and we will be successful if we stay on the road, if we meditate on the law, God’s gift for our journey of fellowship. As we all know, prosperous and successful might not mean money or prestige, but it certainly means being ever more deeply rooted in our God who loves us, following God with more vigor the longer we follow even if we become more physically weak and tired. No wonder we are called to be strong and courageous: we will face things that frighten and dismay us, for sure, and the vast majority of us have faced such trials. But the Lord our God is with us wherever we go. So we watch the guardrails on the left and the right and do not depart from God’s law.

All the law and prophets hang on two commandments, Jesus said: to love the Lord our God and our neighbor as ourselves. If we attend to this rule, this guard, and if we get back up on the road when we slip, we are following God.

Blessings to you all,

Michelle

~ by admin on May 17, 2010.

Posted in Monday Morning Meditation
Tags: Benedictine life