St Benedict (3) - Openness to Change

ST. BENEDICT (3) - OPENNESS TO CHANGE

A LEOPARD CANNOT CHANGE HIS SPOTS

In my previous sermon I talked about the need to develop that inner stability of the heart, whereby we may come to know God.

Tonight, you may think I am contradicting myself since I am going to talk about the Benedictine Vow of Openness to Change. But change can only safely occur if we are inwardly stable.

For instance, in the wedding service, those getting married make the vow, 'to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.' This vow provides the framework within which the marriage relationship can grow to fruition. If there is instability in the marriage, then the relationship will never completely develop since neither partner will be willing to trust the other.

And so the vow of stability provides the basis within which change can take place. And change there must be in the spiritual life if we are to grow into the unique person God calls us to become.

Unlike the leopard who cannot change his spots, we are continually subject to change.

Just as in the physical life, infancy is followed by childhood; childhood followed by adolescence; adolescence followed by early adulthood; early adulthood followed by middle age and middle age followed by old age, so in the spiritual life we are also subject to change. There must be a continual “letting go” of the past and a reaching out to embrace the challenges and opportunities of the future.

What then is Conversatio Morum?

That is the name which Benedict gives to the second monastic vow. I prefer to call it 'openness to change'.

One did not become a monk simply by joining a religious community. Becoming a monk was a whole lifetime experience. It was a continuous process as the monk learned, day by day, to let go of his former way of life and reach out to become the person God was calling him to be.

Benedict uses the image of ‘journey’ to convey this idea of growth. A journey which is not always easy. So he says in the Prologue to the Rule, "Do not be alarmed and run away from the way of salvation, the entrance to which is necessarily narrow. But as we progress in the monastic life and in faith, our hearts will be enlarged, and we shall run in the way of God's commandments with unspeakable sweetness of love; so that, never abandoning his rule but persevering until death in his teaching in the monastery, we shall share with patience in the passion of Christ, so that we may deserve to be partakers of his kingdom”. And Benedict concludes the Rule, some 73 chapters later with the triumphant words, “You shall arrive. Amen.''

Did you notice the use of those verbs, 'run’, 'progress', and 'arrive' which he uses to convey the idea of movement, of personal growth, of a journey?

This is a very biblical image. St Paul writing to the Christians at Philippi uses similar words to describe the Christian life also in terms of a journey. 'Forgetting what is behind me, and reaching out for that which lies ahead, I press towards the goal to win the prize which is God's call to the life above, in Christ Jesus’.

To describe the spiritual life as a 'journey', or 'pilgrimage' implies that it involves movement. Movement from what we are to what we can be. Such movement, or growth, must necessarily involve an inner attitude of an 'openness to change.'

So Benedict balances the Vow of Stability with the Vow of Openness to Change to show that the spiritual life should be thought of in dynamic terms and not static terms.

What then does the vow of 'openness to change' mean for us today?

Firstly, it involves a willingness to let go of the good things of the past.

The Benedictine monk, Daniel Rees uses the word ‘conversion' to express the meaning of the vow of ‘Conversatio Morum’. He writes, 'The vow of conversion is a response to the experience of God's unpredictability. The spirit of lifelong conversion entails a willingness not to cling to the signs that have, for a time, been bearers of God's grace and presence. It entails a constant letting go, and consent to having one's successive idols successively smashed.'

He is so right, isn't he? We all tend to cling to valuable 'signs' of the past which have been the bearers of God's presence to us and of which we are reluctant to let go. It is so very easy to allow these 'signs' to become 'idols’ which we worship, and refuse to allow them to be smashed.

Maybe it is the Book of Common Prayer, the Authorised Version of the Bible; some of the old Victorian hymns; a male dominated priesthood; private family baptisms or the learning of the Catechism. Whilst these 'signs' may have proved helpful in the past, we may need to let go of them so that we can grow in the future. We need a prayer book which is clearly understood, a Bible free from mistakes in translation, hymns which use symbols of today, baptism which demonstrates membership of the family of God and Christian instruction which acknowledges that most people can now read and write.

We cannot keep looking back, else like Lot's wife, we too shall become pillars of salt and cease to grow. We must learn to live in the present and discover God's presence in the here and now. We must allow ourselves to become that unique person he wants us to be today, and not the person he wanted us to be yesterday.

Secondly, 'Openness to Change' means letting go of the bad things of the past.

This is much more difficult because we often fool ourselves that such things do not exist. This involves letting go of those 'signs' of God's absence in our lives. Those moments which reveal just how low we are capable of stooping.

It is no good pretending these 'signs' are not there. It is no good trying to cover them up. They will not go away. In the end they will only hold us back and drag us down, unless we are prepared to acknowledge them, and seek for God's forgiveness. Then we can be released in order to go forward towards Christian maturity.

The Benedictine Sister, Joan Chittler, writing to her community says, 'If you are not committed to your own adulthood, if you are just coming in and going out, letting others take care of all the rugged edges of our life together, then you will see for ever the problem in someone else. If you want to know if you are committed to your own adulthood, ask yourself: “In the last three things that bothered me in this community, whom did I blame?".

That hurts, doesn't it! Like little children, we find it much easier to blame others, our home upbringing, our schooling, our wife/husband, our loneliness and so on. But part of growing up - part of maturity - is learning to accept responsibility for our own actions. And it is often necessary to experience forgiveness as part of that 'letting go' which 'openness to change' demands of us.

Thirdly, 'openness to change’ involves a willingness to endure pain.

The journey towards maturity can be a painful experience, as Ester de Wall observes. She writes, 'sometimes it will appear as a climb, an ascent. At other times as a battle and warfare! The idea of suffering is never far away and above all the thought of death is always there.' In fact she goes further to suggest that the vow of Conversatio Morum, ‘forces us to consider death itself, or rather the succession of lesser deaths that mark stages along the journey before the final consummation, in the last ultimate death.'

Every time I let go of the past I feel pain and hurt. I know exactly what Jesus meant when he said, "If anyone wants to be a follower of mine let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it: anyone who loses his life for the sake of the Gospel, will save it.”

It would not be too bad if it was a question of ending the excruciating pain once and for all. What really hurts is the fact that I must do it time and time again. And that also hurts my pride as I realise that I appear not to have progressed but rather regressed in my Christian formation.

According to the Sayings of the Fathers, a monk was once asked, "What do you do there in the monastery?". He replied, "We fall and get up, fall and get up, fall and get up again."

And that is what you and I often appear to be doing all the time as we journey in the spiritual life and 'succumb to sin'.

But we do not give up. Every time we fall he picks us up again.

You see, my friends, the experience of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is not something which happened long ago but something which you and I experience in the here and now, as we allow the risen Christ to pick us up and renew us. We not only share in his death, but we also share in his resurrection. But that can only happen provided we are 'open to change', so that it is not l who live but Christ who lives in me.

So in the words of the hymn, we are,

‘Changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place, there to cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love and praise.'

No wonder the celebration of Easter is so central to the whole monastic timetable in the Rule of St Benedict.

So, my friends, never give up heart.

As the Sayings of the Desert Fathers record: 'The Abba Moses asked Abba Silvanus, “Can a man every day make a beginning of the good life?' The Abba Silvanus answered him, “If he be diligent, he can every day and every hour begin the good life anew.”'

O God the protector of all that trust in thee without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we may finally lose not the things eternal: Grant this, O heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.