As I finish my final month of sabbatical in a Benedictine monastery, I\u2019ll continue reflecting on their threefold vow of obedience, stability, and conversion of life. Last time we considered obedience. Today we\u2019ll consider \u201cstability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Benedictine monks vow to stay in the monastery that they enter, unless obedience sends them elsewhere. Historically, monks were sometimes sent out as missionaries, or to be abbot of another monastery. But normally their promise to God includes a definitive choice that this monastery is going to be their spiritual and physical home for the rest of their life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other religious communities, like the Missionaries of Charity or the Jesuits, are mobile by their very nature. They expect to be moved many times during the course of their life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hyper-mobile spirituality of some orders and the\nultra-stable spirituality of the Benedictines each have their place in the life\nof the Church. The frequent call to be moved is a reminder that \u201chere we have\nno lasting city\u201d (Hebrews 13:14). It is a share in the mission of Jesus, who\nhad \u201cno place to lay his head\u201d (Matthew 8:20). It prevents stagnation. On the opposite side, fruitful growth can\nonly happen with patience and perseverance, through ongoing relational\nconnection. Even when serious reforms are needed \u2013 especially when serious\nreforms are needed \u2013 it takes a stable and patient commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We live in the FOMO age in which people young and old spend\nmuch of their day avoiding solid commitments as they restlessly \u201cconnect\u201d\nthrough social media. We live in an age in which people quite easily move from\njob to job, state to state, or marriage to marriage. Even when such moves are\ngood and necessary, they are incredibly challenging for all concerned. Benedictine\nstability deserves our attention!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can begin by naming what stability is not. It is not easy living with a resistance to change. Every virtue has its shadow side. A week ago, I had Mass and coffee with a neighboring community of Benedictine Sisters. One of them wisely suggested that a great temptation in Benedictine life is comfort. Comfort kills. When we settle into an easy life, we will find ourselves unhappy and stuck.\u00a0 Comfortable living does not bring joy or delight. We can only experience joy if we are also open to risk or loss, to sorrow or death. There is no joy without vulnerability. Healthy relationships only survive and thrive when there is a willingness to make mistakes and repair the damage, to engage in difficult experiences, to work through healthy conflict, to admit truthfully what is not working well, and to move forward into the unknown with a trust that God will bring new life and fruitfulness. The Benedictine vow is threefold \u2013 including conversion of life. Stability without conversion brings death and decay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The true invitation of stability is an invitation to be fully present and engaged \u2013 with God; with others; and with one\u2019s own body, mind, and spirit. It is direct spiritual combat against acedia<\/em>, sometimes called \u201csloth,\u201d which is not what most people think it is! Too often acedia <\/em>is viewed as \u201claziness\u201d \u2013 which is to be combatted by discipline and hard work. As a recovering workaholic, I can personally testify that we can numb ourselves with lesser labors just as much as with any other drug! No, acedia<\/em>, the noonday devil, is the siren call that pulls us away from being truly present, to stop feeling what we are feeling, to disconnect from our people and our environment, to hide and isolate. Yes, it can come in the form of \u201clazy\u201d escapes, but the noonday devil does not discriminate in his tactics. He simply wants to lure us away from drinking in the present moment in all its fullness \u2013 and all the better if he does so without our even noticing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s restless FOMO culture is a prime example of acedia<\/em> at work. FOMO (\u201cfear of missing out\u201d) paralyzes millions each day, keeping them glued to their smartphones while sapping their capacity to be truly present, to notice, to receive, to savor goodness, to mature, to give, and to bear fruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even in the early months of social media and smartphones, I remember vividly a New York Times<\/strong><\/a><\/em> article in 2008<\/strong><\/a>, highlighting the experiment of an MIT professor with his economics students. They played a simple computer game, in which they clicked on one of three doors. Behind each door were real cash prizes. But clicking on one door caused the others to shrink, and eventually, to disappear forever. Instead of finding the door of greatest value and clicking on it repeatedly, the majority of students \u201ckept their options open,\u201d terrified of committing to one thing only. FOMO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both FOMO and comfort are enemies of authentic stability. On the one side are those who are afraid to commit, even when the pearl of great price is at hand. On the other side are those who would keep clicking on the same door even when it is no longer paying out – indeed, even when it is depleting them! Isn’t it interesting that 1,500+ years of Benedictine history also included sweeping and successful missionary efforts? Stable living in one monastery was the norm, but when those stable monks planted a foundation elsewhere for the sake of spreading the Gospel, their new monasteries often became hubs of faith, culture, and civilization. Evangelization takes much patience and time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Benedict begins his Rule<\/em> with some sage commentary on these attitudes of the human heart. He discusses different \u201ckinds of monks.\u201d There are solitary \u201chermits\u201d (as he once was), and there are \u201ccenobites\u201d \u2013 those who live in a stable community life. Then there are the \u201csarabaites.\u201d Rather than surrendering themselves in obedience and allowing a community to correct them, they build up a self-made rule and a self-given salvation. \u201cTheir law is what they like to do, whatever strikes their fancy \u2026 Anything they believe in and choose, they call holy; anything they dislike, they consider forbidden.\u201d Sound familiar? It is the attitude of so many towards religion today \u2013 picking and choosing for themselves that which is good, true, and beautiful rather than allowing themselves to be changed by the living God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, Benedict discusses the \u201cGyrovagues,\u201d who refuse to settle down and tend to drift from monastery to monastery, region to region. They become \u201cslaves of their own wills and gross appetites\u201d and \u201care in every way worse than the Sarabaites.\u201d At that point Benedict effectively says he should move on, because he has nothing nice to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our age that over-exalts being open-minded and keeping options open, the words of G.K. Chesterton come to mind: \u201cMerely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.\u201d Benedictines understand that. They find the pearl of great price, and they commit to spending the rest of their life steadily pursing it in conversion of life. I\u2019ll consider that third and final dimension next time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As I finish my final month of sabbatical in a Benedictine monastery, I\u2019ll continue reflecting on their threefold vow of obedience, stability, and conversion of life. Last time we considered obedience. Today we\u2019ll consider \u201cstability.\u201d Benedictine monks vow to stay in the monastery that they enter, unless obedience sends them elsewhere. Historically, monks were sometimes … <\/p>\n