Imagine that there is nothing else in front of your eyes – as though you were not among mankind – because you are seeing nothing else but God, for God is the entire reason for your way of life. John the Solitary
indicates that the sole purpose for the monastic vocation is to seek God above all. In the monastery or hermitage, the monk must not waste time or energy seeking human approval. Only God’s approval matters. Saint Benedict measures the advances a monk makes in his spiritual quest by the level of detachment from earthly approvals, popularity, contests, and especially by the degree of the monk’s self-surrender into the Father’s loving hands. For Saint Benedict, to seek God alone means to abandon one’s former life completely and to entrust oneself to the Father’s will as Jesus did. While Jesus was making his entrance into our world, he uttered: “Behold, I come to do your will.” During his earthly days he prayed daily, humbly: “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.”
There is a certain pedagogy in Benedict’s Rule. He wishes to show the monk that, just as Jesus lived for God alone, the monk must act likewise in his daily monastic search. After all, the disciple is no greater than the master. This implies that the example of the master defines the path the disciple must follow. All authentic monastic life is thoroughly theocentric. Just as Jesus committed his life radically to God alone, even to the point of death on the cross, so must the monk commit himself to a life of full communion with God in all times and in all places. Prayer is the monk’s daily tool in his search for fullness of life with God. The Holy Spirit, through continual prayer, guides the heart of the monk towards the living waters of God’s love. Only when we begin to love God as he really is, above all things, do we discover the true joy that can replenish all the desires of the human heart. No other but God can fully satisfy the human Heart.
Blessings of the Daily
