St Benedict (5) - Opus Dei

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT

(THE OPUS DEI)

Words, words, words.

Life is full of words. From the minute we get up in the morning until we go to bed at night, we are bombarded with words. Our ears are ringing with the constant demand for our instant attention.

Words spoken on the television, the radio, the telephone and in conversation. Words printed in newspapers, colour supplements, letters, advertisements and books.

Even when we seek for a bit of peace and quiet in Church, our worship continues the bombardment of words - words of hymns, prayers, psalms, the scriptures and, of course, the words of the sermon droning on.

It seems as if every empty bit of space of our lives must be filled to capacity with words. Words demanding our attention. words spoken louder and louder. Words written bigger and bigger.

The result is that “familiarity breeds contempt” and whilst we hear the words, we cease to listen to the words and therefore they fail to communicate.

St Benedict was aware of this danger way back in the fifth century. He sought to provide the right kind of external environment whereby the monks could not only hear the word of God, but listen to it, and become caught up with God in prayer.

He therefore sought to remove unnecessary distraction by encouraging silence. “Speaking and teaching are the master’s task”, he writes, “the disciple is to be silent and listen”. And again, “Monks should cultivate silence at all times, but especially at night”.

By silence, St Benedict, does not just mean that one should not talk. He is more concerned about developing an inner attitude which is free from distracting chatter. Whilst this may have been comparatively easy for Benedict, living and working in the solitude of a cave at Subiaco, it does nevertheless point to the need in all of us to develop that inner silence whereby we can hear the voice of God speaking to us in the quietness and stillness of our hearts. As Ester de Waal points out, “Silence asks me to watch, and wait and listen, to be like Mary in readiness to receive the Word”.

If we are really serious about the spiritual life, we need to cultivate that habit of external silence which leads to that internal silence of the heart and mind whereby we are in the right disposition not only to hear, but to listen to the “still small voice of God”. God does not force himself upon us. He does not fight to be heard amongst the many and varied claims upon our attention. He waits and speaks only when we are ready to receive him.

It is interesting to note, in passing, that one of the reservations that W. Vanstone has about so much of our modern liturgy is that in its attempt to involve everyone in worship, it denies space for a person to be still and quiet.

Yes, we need to be still and quiet if we are to be in a position to hear God speaking to us.

And how does he speak?

As far as St Benedict was concerned, it was primarily through the Word of God in the Bible.

So, in his daily timetable for the monks at Subiaco, and later at Monte Cassino, he provided for the monks to spend at least four hours every day reading the Bible in private. Fully aware there was a danger that a monk could easily allow himself to become distracted in the privacy of his cell, he suggested that, “one or two sessions must be deputed to make rounds of the monastery whilst the brothers are reading. Their duty is to see that no brother is so apathetic as to waste time or energy in idle talk to the neglect of his reading and so not only harm himself but also distract others”.

In addition to daily time allocation, there was also the corporate hearing of the Word of God read in the daily round of services, besides further time set aside on Sundays, in lieu of physical work, and during the annual season of Lent.

So he sets up the physical environment which will be conducive to the monks hearing the Word of God. He wanted them to be soaked in the words of scripture so that they became second nature to them, as indeed they were for him, as can be seen by the frequent quotations of the Bible in his Rule. In fact, there are between 200-300 quotations or allusions to both the Old Testament and the New Testament, including extensive references to the psalms in his Rule.

Benedict gave priority to the Word of God because it is primarily the means whereby God communicates with us. So he says of the words of Scripture that they “speak to us”, “cry to us”, “command us”, “exhort us” and “warn us”. They are indeed “the voice from heaven” and “the light that comes from God”.

You see, the reading of the Bible, for St Benedict, was not just a matter of accepting knowledge, as one might acquire from some text book. The Bible provided the reader with a sacramental encounter with the Word of God. Through the reading of the Word of God, a conversation developed between the reader and God himself. A conversation which demands not only listening but also talking - a two way process which leads to the inner transformation of the reader.

If such a conversation is to develop it means we must approach the Bible in a different attitude than we would other reading material. For instance, when reading the newspaper one normally reads the headlines, and if they attract the attention sufficiently, one might then read the article below. On the other hand, if one is reading an instruction manual or technical journal one usually reads a paragraph at a time. If one does not fully understand what has been written one goes back and reads it again, until it is fully understood.

Since the ultimate reading of the Word of God is our inner transformation, it obviously will involve the whole person, including body, mind, soul and strength. It is much more than just an intellectual exercise.

In her book, Searching for God, Ester de Waal describes the Benedictine method of spiritual reading with these words: “Words are tasted to release their full flavour, weighted in order to sound the full depth of their meaning. It is not only that it was customary to pronounce the words with the lips in a low tone, so that they were heard as well as seen, they were also learnt”. She continues: “So the Scriptures are mouthed by the lips, understood by the intelligence, fixed in the memory and finally the will comes into play and that which has been read is also put into practice”.

To begin to appreciate this method of reading, may I suggest you read a passage of Scripture silently and slowly to yourself and then re-read it quietly aloud to yourself? Not only will the reading take that little bit longer, allowing the words to speak more clearly to you, but the words will take on a new significance as they speak with a freshness that speaks to your inner depth. Obviously, such a method of reading cannot be hurried. You must provide space for God in order to allow him to engage you in conversation and draw you closer to himself. Nevertheless, slowly but surely, you will be not only transported into the nearer presence of God, but also transferred into the person he is calling you to be.

Perhaps, it might be appropriate to say something about the psalms, which are rapidly becoming a discarded treasury of spirituality with the decline of Morning and Evening Prayer in favour of the Eucharist.

St Benedict provided for the whole of the psalter to be read once a week. It is not surprising that he quotes from the psalms, in his Rule, more than from any other book.

He discerned, as have countless other Christians in subsequent centuries, that the psalms plumb the depths as well as the heights of all of us. They speak to all the human conditions in which we find ourselves - those moments of anger, of longing, of doubt, beside the moments of joy and happiness. They are indeed words which speak to the depths of our being and enable us to articulate our innermost feelings. No wonder Jesus found himself automatically allowing the words of Psalm 22 to drop from his lips upon the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Although Benedict was unique in giving such prominence to the Word of God, this was only part of a life devoted to searching for God.

Left to our own private devices, he knew we can easily slip away from our high ideas. We need the supportive encouragement of others around us. And so the regular daily cycle of worship provided the necessary structure and framework, in which to pursue one's private exploration or journey. The saying of the seven daily offices provided a continual reminder that the monks were engaged upon the work of God - the opus dei.

Private and corporate prayer go hand in hand. The one feeds the other. To neglect either is to diminish the transforming influence of the other. We are moulded and shaped, not only by God speaking to us individually, but also corporately. We shall certainly be the poorer if we fail to keep that Benedictine sense of balance between the two.

At the end of the day, we are seeking to develop that inner attitude of the heart whereby we are continually aware of the presence of God in our lives. We are seeking to cultivate that inner disposition whereby he is as much part of our life, as the air we breathe.

These thoughts that I have been privileged to share with you in this series of sermons are, in the words of St Benedict, “nothing less than tools for the cultivating of virtues”. They are insights from his Rule, which I hope and pray may be of some help to you along your journey as you seek to know God more fully in your life.