In the Beginning
But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth. 1 John 2:20-21
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him, nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5
Piety
Chapter 73
This Rule Only A Beginning of Perfection[i]
The reason we have written this rule is that, by observing it in monasteries, we can show that we have some degree of virtue and the beginnings of monastic life. But for anyone hastening on to the perfection of monastic life, there are the teachings of the early church writers, the observance of which will lead them to the very heights of perfection. What page, what passage of the inspired books of the Old and New Testaments is not the truest of guides for human life? What book of holy writers does not resoundingly summon us along the true way to reach the Creator? Then, besides the Conferences of the early church writers, their Institutes and their Lives, there is also the rule of Basil. For observant and obedient monastics, all these are nothing less than tools for the cultivation of virtues; but as for us, they make us blush for shame at being so slothful, so unobservant, so negligent. Are you hastening toward your heavenly home? Then with Christ's help, keep this little rule that we have written for beginners. After that, you can set out for the loftier summits of the teaching and virtues we mentioned above, and under God's protection, you will reach them. Amen.
According to Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, this last chapter of the rule leaves us with a reading list for future spiritual development. Benedict, Benedictines, Christians, and Cursillistas do not believe that the simple reading or study of spiritual literature is sufficient. That is why the other two legs of our tripod are piety and action. It is not what we have read or will read that is important. “It is what we become that counts.”
She explains that every major religious tradition, in fact, has called for a change of heart, a change of life rather than for simply an analysis of its literature. The Hasidim, for instance, tell the story of the disciple who said to the teacher, “Teacher, I have gone completely through the Torah? What must I do now?”
And the teacher said, “Oh, my friend, the question is not, have you gone through the Torah. The question is, has the Torah gone through you?”
Study
Bottom Line Up Front: Let no one deceive you in any way. “Caveat discipulus.” Let the student beware. Least of all or most of all, beware of yourself!
You only think this is the last day of the year. John’s letter warns us of “a last hour,” what the NABRE calls the period between the death and resurrection of Christ and his second coming. While we are in the Second Advent (the waiting for the return) we are warned to be on guard against “the antichrists,” not one but many false teachers and “pseudochrists” (translated “false messiahs”) referred to by Matthew, Mark, and St. Paul.
If Ordinary Time is intended to be the Second Advent, John 1:1 gives us the words to live by, words that will guide our piety, our study, and our action until we Encounter Christ again.
The “last hour” referenced in the First Letter of John is not written in anticipation of the Tiffany Ball dropping in Times Square. It refers instead to the time when we prepare for the Second Coming of Christ. The Second (longer) season of Advent. We do this even though the much-anticipated commemoration of the First Coming was only seven days ago. We hardly have had a chance to contemplate the miracle of the Nativity with all the feast days of martyred saints following Christ’s Mass. It is almost as if the Magisterium itself is waging war on modern Christmas. Is the message “Don’t get too happy and merry?”
Maybe, these reading point out the charade we commonly call Christmas. No, I am not referring to the proverbial secular “war on Christmas.” I am referring to the Christian ticket punching. The Christians who revel in Christmas one day of the year and go about their busy-ness for the other 363 (they get credit for Easter, too.).
Were you (like me) at a Mass on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day that was standing room only? The 6 pm Christmas Eve Vigil Mass at Nativity Parish in Burke, VA, was SRO 20 minutes before the entrance song. Was turnout for Mass yesterday the same?
In 2015, the Christmas Charade Parade was called out by none other than Jorge Mario Bergoglio: “The world continues to go to war. The world has not chosen a peaceful path. There are wars today everywhere, and hate,” Pope Francis said then and could echo now. “We should ask for the grace to weep for this world, which does not recognize the path to peace. To weep for those who live for war and have the cynicism to deny it. God weeps; Jesus weeps.”
Action
Not only is this the last day of the year, Benedictines everywhere complete the third reading of the Rule of St. Benedict this year. Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, tells us why reading and reading the rule is so important:
Even at the end of his rule, Benedict does not promise that we will be perfect for having lived it. What Benedict does promise is that we will be disposed to the will of God, attuned to the presence of God, committed to the search for God and just beginning to understand the power of God in our lives. Why? Because Benedictine simplicity gentles us into the arms of God.
After a Liturgical Year of Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and 34 weeks of Ordinary Time, we still do not “get it.” We still have to be reminded every single day.
Our Fourth Day also could be called Chapter 74. Are you ready to write Chapter 74 in the New Advent? Here is a nice way you can start it:
“In the beginning…”
What comes next?
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