(As a welcome respite from my words, here
is an article from my own Benedictine tradition, by Fr Laurence Freeman,
written for “Tablet”.)
In the
dry heavy heat of a Tuscan afternoon the bus drops off retreatants, from several
continents. They now have to walk carefully down a steep path toward the guest
house and monastery. The path is a
parable, made of narrow, ancient terracotta bricks, many crumbling, missing or
replaced with new ones. . . Even as they watch their step down the beaten path
they see the views over the wooded valleys and breathe in the pungent scent of
ginestra. They are also worried about their bags, wondering what their rooms
and food will be like. But they are already forgetting London, Houston, Singapore
and Geneva and, to their surprise they have already begun to feel at home. They
have arrived.
I have
seen this for 25 years now, the reactions of those coming for the first time to
the annual silent Christian meditation retreat at Monte Oliveto Maggiore, the
mother-house of the Olivetan Benedictine congregation. The sheer physical
beauty of the place, just south of Siena, is disturbing at first, like being
introduced to a very beautiful person. The peaceful is-ness, the
self-confidence of the place and the at-homeness of the white habited monks who
live here becomes more amazing as you get used to it. There are not many places
in the modern world where there is such a combined sense of stability, harmony
and hospitality. Your first thought might be that it is so much of a home to
someone else that you are condemned to being an outsider. But it proves to be
one of those rare places with the grace of making everyone feel at home
–meaning you feel you can let go, be yourself, remember who you are.
In an
age of religious fundamentalism it is enlightening to find a deeply religious
environment, which welcomes people of diverse views and cultures. That does not
immediately pounce on differences or apply labels of approval or exclusion.
That does not harshly judge and condemn or acquit in the name of Christ or
Allah or Yahweh. I guess it is this, the friendship of the body with the mind
in an environment of natural beauty, the wondrous friendship found in
contemplation with strangers, the being together in a living stream of
tradition that has not been dammed and gone stagnant, that makes people feel at
home.
God, as
Aelred of Rievaulx bravely said, is not only love. God is friendship, with
oneself, others and the environment. Those who are not in friendship can know
nothing of God - even, and especially, in the most heartless certainty of the
religious fundamentalist that they are defending God against his enemies. The
anxious homelessness that characterizes our fragmented society, however, has
engendered a contemplative homing instinct even deeper than fundamentalism. In
a place like this, the homing instinct for God intensifies among human warmth,
tolerance, hospitality and gentle religion. It is part of the spiritual search
of our time to long for such a feeling of connexion and mutual trust, for a
religion that nurtures community rather than division. And perhaps it is this
inclusive, catholic sense of being at home with difference that is the meaning
of the real presence.
When
Bernardo Tolomei, a rich Sienese nobleman came here to seek God 700 years ago
he was abandoning a comfortable home for what was then a dangerous wilderness.
He lived in prayerful solitude and when companions joined him, adopted the Rule
of St Benedict. St Catherine of Siena, a Joan Chittister of her day, berated
him, as she lambasted bishops and clergy for their lukewarmness, for accepting
too many monks from wealthy families, and he obediently widened his vocation
base. . . .When plague struck Siena he left his new contemplative home and returned
to care for the dying in his old city where he too soon fell sick and died. The
cycle of his journey shows that the peaceful sense of being at home is not
restricted to one place and that the more you let go of it the more you are at
home. If you really are at home with the self in God you will find yourself at
home, in peace and compassion, everywhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment