December 18

Chapter 63 pt. 1

The Rule of St. Benedict December 18

I experienced the system of community ranking at St. Gregory's Abbey during my two weeks there in July of 2011.  What Sr. Joan points out, that the effect of such a ranking is egalitarian given the class system outside the monastery, seemed to ring true.  The places in choir and the seats in the refectory were the only two applications of the ranking that I experienced as a member of the Summer Vocation Program.  I remember an immediate sense of comfort in knowing that my seats were assigned, that I didn't need to jockey for position.  As other vocationers left, I went from the 9th position, to the 6th, to the 3rd, which had the effect in me of deepening my sense of belonging at the monastery rather than any feelings of superiority over those in lower positions.

While the structures within which we live seem at times indestructible, they will all pass away: nation/states, ecclesiological institutions, the villages we inhabit, our very families.  This is the other message of the Advent season.  Nothing on earth lasts forever.  Live in light of life's eternal purpose, then, so that the Day of the Lord will find us awake and that Christ's coming will be received with welcome by our free and open hearts, unencumbered by wealth or power or prestige.

Our Father Benedict's system of community ranking is intended to prepare the way of the Lord by setting up a structure that tears down all other structures. One is unable to keep hold of the positions one has inherited or earned outside the community.  There is only the date of entry--the time at which one's intention to be conformed to the likeness of Christ was formally taken up.  The new structure is not indestructible either.  It will also pass away, like countless raided and burned monasteries throughout history.  But a Benedictine learns to live in light of eternity rather than only in light of the temporal.

Br. Chad 2012