Benedictine Holiness

I wrote my first reflection paper today which begins in earnest my Benedictine Oblate candidacy.  The topic was holiness.

In his Rule, Benedict only wrote briefly on the subject RB 4:61 “Not to wish to be called holy before one is holy; but first to be holy; that one may be truly so called.” 

Most interesting to me in trying to discern Benedict’s meaning was what came immediately before and after in the Rule.  Line 61 reminds monks to obey the Abbot/Abbess line 62 is a call to fulfil God’s commands in daily deeds. You can read the Rule of Benedict for yourself by following this link to St. John’s Abbey.   “http://www.osb.org/rb/text/toc.html#toc”></a

While I am not a scholar on Benedict, it seems to me that at least somewhere in his thinking was the fact that how we respond to people within our community (RB4:60) and how we live in response to God (RB4:62) are the very fabric of our holiness. That holiness is not a goal of the life of a follower of Christ, as much as it is a fruit of living as Christ lived.

What a relief (at least to me) that holiness is not something obscure that I need to seek to do or be…but rather in living in humble submission to God and others holy is what we become in the process. There is no piety or religious practice that will make me holy in isolation.  Relationships are required; right relationships with God and others. And as such it is a way of life a path that we will walk on always.

Having spent a good deal of time yesterday pondering this idea, I awoke in the middle of the night with this scripture in mind:  “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21   Isn’t that what holiness is all about…living as Christ lived, dying to self…living in Christ’s strength, dying to any pridefullness that seeks its own way.

May God continue to work in me and in you the grace of right relationships, that others may some day truly call us holy.   BLESSINGS AND JOY, THE CELTIC MONK 
P.S. I’ll have more to share about Philippians 1:21 soon!