2. Then, one's neighbor as oneself.
3. Then not to murder.
4. Not to commit adultery.
5. Not to steal.
6. Not to covet.
7. Not to bear false witness.
8. To honor all (1 Peter 2:17).
9. And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
10. To deny oneself in order to follow Christ.
11. To chastise the body.
12. Not to become attached to pleasures.
13. To love fasting.
14. To relieve the poor.
15. To clothe the naked.
16. To visit the sick.
17. To bury the dead.
18. To help in trouble.
19. To console the sorrowing.
20. To become a stranger to the world's ways.
21. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ. *************************************************
For the next couple of reflections we are going to get a lesson on the definition of good works. In Latin they are Opera Bono. There is much in this rule to consider, enough to break the reflection into three parts
Part 1
The first two are obvious. They are to love the Lord with all we have and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. In truth, we fully lived out these two precepts, the remainder of the list are really just window dressing or reminders of things to consider as we contemplate Opera Bono.
We next encounter a line of things to avoid taken from the Old Testament 10 Commandments. This is not a list for someone with a shrinking attitude toward service. There are some real whoppers just in the first 21. To honor all? It was one thing to grudgingly love someone who irritates you but to honor them? Ugh. We are not to be attached to pleasures. What does this mean? Pleasures like a good cup of coffee or a bite of Tillamook Moose Tracks Ice Cream? How about watching a movie or eating a good rib-eye steak grilled to perfection. Just what is meant here?
We continue. To chastise the body. Come again? We have to beyond avoiding pleasures and this as well? How about visit the sick. Who really likes to be around sick people? And as for burying the dead. There are people who do that kind of thing. Not me. Never have but I guess I best not say I never will. Another shoe is no doubt going to drop at some point.
I don't mind the concept of feeding and clothing those in need. I can hand off money and old clothes as well as anyone. To help in trouble and to console the sorrowing aren't really that difficult. Are they? What if I cannot chose to any of those things according my time frame and or desires? Then it will get tough. Really tough.
Part 2
Finally we get to 20 and 21. These two stop me cold.
So cold, in fact that I did not finish my comments on this section when I first danced with this chapter in January. What stopped me? I suppose the idea of becoming a stranger to the ways of the world puzzled me because from the moment we begin to venture out into the world beyond the grasp of mother's hand, we are expected to learn the ways of society, culture, church, community which are all part of the world. To enter into the the life of a monastery, we have to put all that we know about the world aside, actually to it all behind and to learn only what we need to know about living by the rule and to enter into the community of God.
Who the Broncos selected in the draft, what the mayor said about trimming trees along the boulevard, what my neighbors planted in their garden, what the British parliament is doing about Brexit are no longer important. What is important is if the beans we planted are popping up as they should, will enough rain fall today or will we need to water, or how my neighbor is recovering well from her surgery. I can bring her soup if she is hungry. I can't stop the crises at the border. I can feed the birds that visit my yard but I can't stop one single abortion today or, more importantly, turn around the despair of a pregnant women so she will find a better a choice than to end the life within her. I can pray for all such women and I do.
To live a consecrated life within the walls of a monastery makes it easier, I think, to become a stranger to all that is outside. To live in the world and have to engage the variety of people I do during the course of the day makes being a stranger difficult. In fact, I suspect we have to become very specific about ways which we should follow and which we should not. The people I encounter are my responsibility. God has called us to love one another and love by its nature builds togetherness which results in familiarity, the opposite of strangeness.
There are some, no, many ways of the world to which I would like to become a stranger and there is no doubt those ways like to have me be a stranger.
Part 3
Number 21 is the most striking of the lot. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ says it all. Everything else we do, or do not do, supports or detracts from this goal. The love of Christ is the highest summit, the deepest abyss and the farthest point of our travels in search of a life in him. Nothing else matters, or, for most of us, should matter. We struggle with this, we stumble and fall, slip and slide forward and back but also side to side. Sometimes we feel we are getting to the point where we can say we prefer nothing to that love but then cock crows and we realize we have been deceiving ourselves. Like Peter, we know our pride and ego have betrayed and instead of being humble we are humiliated. I prefer nothing else to his love but how difficult is to focus to the point of the exclusion of all else on that love.
In the crazy chaos of life, our preference must not be made but once but we need to make a choice everyday, not just once a day, but every time we are exposed to an alternative to that love and this happens every moment of our wakefulness.
As I write this, my attention drifts out the window before me and I watch the magpies jump from branch to branch in the tree in front of me. They pop down to the the feeder which has been emptied of peanuts earlier in the day. Still they check over and over again. Once magpie, a large male has perched on branch directly in front of me and is staring in at me, cocking his head first left and then right over and over again. I know he sees me. He knows I see him. He wants more peanuts but they have given all they will get in one day.
The love is Christ is not like this little drama. I have been given everything I need not just for now at this moment but for my entire life. My gifts to the birds are not like that at all. The big male, whom I call Ringo, is hoping for something more from me. He will be disappointed just I will be disappointed if I place my hopes in the things of the world. The peanuts I offer are just a small part of what Ringo needs to consume in day. Somedays I don't feed them at all. Nothing of this world can replace the gifts of love from the God, our creator, Christ, our savior which come to us in the soft winds of the Holy Spirit.
Ringo, frustrated with me, chatters at me, scolding me and flies off. I turn my attention back to the love of Christ though which I have the capacity to engage in his creation. This is one of the gifts of choosing to prefer nothing but the love of Christ
Number 21 is the most striking of the lot. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ says it all. Everything else we do, or do not do, supports or detracts from this goal. The love of Christ is the highest summit, the deepest abyss and the farthest point of our travels in search of a life in him. Nothing else matters, or, for most of us, should matter. We struggle with this, we stumble and fall, slip and slide forward and back but also side to side. Sometimes we feel we are getting to the point where we can say we prefer nothing to that love but then cock crows and we realize we have been deceiving ourselves. Like Peter, we know our pride and ego have betrayed and instead of being humble we are humiliated. I prefer nothing else to his love but how difficult is to focus to the point of the exclusion of all else on that love.
In the crazy chaos of life, our preference must not be made but once but we need to make a choice everyday, not just once a day, but every time we are exposed to an alternative to that love and this happens every moment of our wakefulness.
As I write this, my attention drifts out the window before me and I watch the magpies jump from branch to branch in the tree in front of me. They pop down to the the feeder which has been emptied of peanuts earlier in the day. Still they check over and over again. Once magpie, a large male has perched on branch directly in front of me and is staring in at me, cocking his head first left and then right over and over again. I know he sees me. He knows I see him. He wants more peanuts but they have given all they will get in one day.
The love is Christ is not like this little drama. I have been given everything I need not just for now at this moment but for my entire life. My gifts to the birds are not like that at all. The big male, whom I call Ringo, is hoping for something more from me. He will be disappointed just I will be disappointed if I place my hopes in the things of the world. The peanuts I offer are just a small part of what Ringo needs to consume in day. Somedays I don't feed them at all. Nothing of this world can replace the gifts of love from the God, our creator, Christ, our savior which come to us in the soft winds of the Holy Spirit.
Ringo, frustrated with me, chatters at me, scolding me and flies off. I turn my attention back to the love of Christ though which I have the capacity to engage in his creation. This is one of the gifts of choosing to prefer nothing but the love of Christ
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