St Benedict (1) - Balance

BALANCE

'Which is the way to Subiaco?' asked my late wife, Mary, of an Italian Police Officer in 1986.

In the finest BBC English accent I have ever heard, she replied: 'Do you speak English?’

We were asking for directions in order to visit the place where St Benedict commenced his ministry in the solitude of the hills at Enfide, east of Rome.

At the time, I was writing a thesis on Benedictine Spirituality, for part of my Masters Degree, and was therefore wanting to capture something of the atmosphere of where Benedict established his first religious community sometime in the sixth century. St Benedict of Nursia was Abbot of Monte Cassino, Father of Western Monasticism and he is commemorated on 11 July.

The life of Benedict's community was regulated by a document called the 'Rule', and it is the wisdom of that ‘Rule', which has led to it being the basis of all religious community life throughout the centuries, and has earned him the title of the 'Father of Western Monasticism’.

Although written some fourteen hundred years ago, and written for Christians wishing to find God within the confines of a religious community, I believe it still has relevance for us today, who live within the community of the Christian Church.

Benedict was not a religious permissive. He believed that a 'little strictness in order to amend faults and safeguard love' was essential in providing an environment in which a person could grow in the spiritual life. Therefore, he says, in the Prologue, 'In drawing up its regulations, we hope to set down nothing harsh, nothing burdensome'. In short, he sought to encourage growth with firmness, tempered with gentleness.

I want therefore to bring to your attention three illustrations of this sense of balance in the Rule of St Benedict, and indicate its value for today.

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Firstly, the need for balance in our physical lives.

Benedict recognised that a person consists of body, mind and spirit, and that it was therefore essential that these three elements of personality be held in balance. Hence, he divided the monk's day up into three separate activities, corresponding to the three aspects of their personalities. Four hours a day was to be spent in prayer for the benefit of the spirit. Four hours a day was to be spent in study for the benefit of the mind; and six hours a day was to be spent in work for the benefit of the body.

Whilst I am not suggesting that the same timetable should be applied to ourselves, I would suggest that we bear in mind a similar need for balance in our lives.

For instance, we have all heard the expression, 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' and I suppose, Jill a dull girl! It reminds us that it can become dangerous to be a workaholic.

And yet it is all too easy to become consumed by work. For some, it is because they are fortunate to enjoy it and get tremendous satisfaction from it. For others it is essential towards gaining promotion and their first million. Whilst for others, it can be a way of escape from family responsibilities or from facing up to difficulties in the home.

However, being a workaholic can be dangerous to our development. The person who enjoys his work can become dull and boring if they can talk about nothing else. The person on the road towards their first million can often experience a heart attack as a result of strain and stress; and the person running away from his home responsibilities can find himself in a lonely, loveless situation. Hence the need for balance in our physical lives.

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Secondly, the need for balance in our spiritual lives.

Benedict wrote his Rule to assist ordinary people in their life of discipleship. He was not concerned with producing spiritual giants, and neither was he prepared to tolerate people who did not take the spiritual life seriously.

In setting goals in the spiritual life, Benedict advises the Abbot in charge of the monastery 'to temper all things that the strong have something to long after and the weak may not draw back’.

How very wise. It is so easy to die either of exhaustion or stagnation in the spiritual life.

For instance, some parish priests ran a very strict policy demanding regular church attendance of parents before Baptism. Needless to say they are put off from the church. On the other hand, some will baptise anyone, without laying down any requirements, which does a disservice to the church. The answer is that sense of balance.

Again, many people have given up reading their Bibles because they have sought to read the Bible from cover to cover. Whilst others just allow the dust to collect on their Bibles. Perhaps a chapter a day, initially, from one of the gospels would be more beneficial.

Likewise with prayer. It is better to set aside five minutes a day, and allow that to grow into ten minutes, or even fifteen minutes, than to start with fifteen and give up.

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Thirdly, the need to apply balance in applying discipline.

Benedict was a realist. He recognised human frailty. Even monks were not immune from sin. Whilst it may be necessary to discipline a person, it was important that it be done, not as a means of punishment, but rather with a view to restoring that person to fellowship. Fellowship with God and fellowship with one another. Above all, discipline needs to be applied in a constructive manner and not in a destructive manner. On the one hand, it does not help a person to turn a blind eye to their faults, whilst on the other hand, it does not help if one destroys the essential goodness in a person.

Once again, a sense of balance is needed in applying discipline.

So Benedict advises the Abbot to admonish with prudence and love, 'lest being too zealous in removing the rust he breaks the vessel'.

This is sensible advice. After all, when a person has done wrong, their self-esteem is already diminished. A person is therefore not helped by destroying the remaining self-esteem by unnecessary harshness. Whilst a person needs to be made fully aware of their failing and encouraged to face up to their responsibilities, at the same time, they also need to be able to put back together the broken pieces of life, and continue along in their journey.

With that in mind, I was very impressed with the Benedictine approach of John Habgood, the then Archbishop of York, at the General Synod meeting of the Church of England in November 1987. The Reverend Tony Highton had put forward a private members motion, seeking to exclude from office, any clergyman found guilty of committing adultery, fornication and homosexual acts. The archbishop replied that, 'a Synod motion which is all firmness and no gentleness does a disservice to those who are trying to be honest about themselves and the world’.

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So we come back to need for balance. Balance in our physical lives, balance in our spiritual lives and balance when applying discipline.

Make no mistake, my friends, balance is not about playing safe. It is not about mediocrity. It is not about compromise. It is about holding together in one centre ultimate values. It is about accepting situations and not denying them. It is about using the tensions of life creatively and not destructively. Above all, it is about wholeness of life.

The alternative is rigid polarisation. Whilst extremism may look attractive, it avoids facing the tensions of life, and is in the end, divisive.

The story is told of how a hunter in the desert was shocked one day at seeing Anthony The Great enjoying himself with some of his friends. Wanting to show that it was sometimes necessary to meet the needs of his friends, Anthony said, 'Put an arrow into your bow and shoot it’. So he did. Anthony then said: ‘Shoot another’ and he did so. Then Anthony said again, ‘Shoot yet again'. But the hunter replied, ‘If I bend my bow so much I will break it’. Then Anthony said to him, 'It is the same with the work of God. If we stretch the brethren beyond measure they will soon break’.

If you and I wish to avoid that breaking point, it is essential that we exercise that sense of balance which is the hallmark of the Rule of St Benedict, and of the Anglican Church through the Via Media.