Benedict Spans the Centuries

(This is the "Pastor's Reflection" column from the Parish Bulletin of Good Shepherd, July 11,2010.)

Today, July 11, is the feast day of St. Benedict of Nursia, who lived from 480 to 547 AD. What relevance does a sixth-century monk have for today?

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope in 2005, he took the name Benedict, breaking a 90-year cycle of Piuses, Johns and Pauls. He readily explained his choice of name, acknowledging the importance of two great Benedicts, one of the distant past, the other more recent.

The more recent was Benedict XV, a tiny, frail and sadly ignored man whose relatively brief papacy spanned World War I and its aftermath (1914-1922). He worked tirelessly for peace and reconciliation among the "Great Powers" of Europe, and was the first to propose a workable and just peace plan, which was completely ignored and even ridiculed. Had Benedict been taken seriously by the "Victors," who were bent on imposing punitive and destructive sanctions on Germany and greedily dividing up the Middle Eastern remnants of the dying Ottoman Empire, there's a strong likelihood that Hitler could never have risen to power and that the Middle East conflicts of today would not have arisen. He deserves a lot more attention than anyone has given him.

The earlier Benedict brought the eastern tradition of monasticism to the West. In the fourth century, when Christians were no longer "illegal" and persecuted, and Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, many felt that the true spirit of following Christ in His suffering was compromised. To be a Christian no longer meant living under a cloud of social suspicion and under the risk of persecution, torture and death. Now Christianity became a means of social prestige and even political advantage. Many in the eastern Mediterranean lands, seeking a life more in conformity with Christ, fled to the deserts of Egypt, Syria, or Central Turkey. They either lived alone as hermits or banded together in small groups which came to be known as monasteries. Whenever people live together there have to be some rules to guide their behavior and their relationships or else conflict and division will inevitably destroy the community. Some of the eastern "Fathers," such as John Cassian and Basil, compiled rules that were widely used.

Similar groups of holy men and women developed in the West also, and most of them owe a debt to Benedict, at Monte Cassino in Italy, for compiling the rule that was most widely used. Although he never intended to found a "religious order," which is a more modern kind of institution, communities using this rule came to be known as Benedictines, and there were later offshoots, such as the Cistercians, Carthusians, Camaldolese, and so on.

Benedict had a twin sister, Scholastica, who also founded a community of women religious.

The influence of Benedict was so great that he was later designated the patron of Europe, which is especially relevant today when the European Union refuses even to acknowledge its Christian heritage in its constitution.

If you'd like to read more, Wikipedia has brief but excellent biographies of both of these wonderful Benedicts.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XV and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_of_Nursia.

Don't forget that tomorrow, Monday, I'll begin my six-week program of talks on our Christian history and heritage. The first session will simply explore our beginnings, in Scripture and the Church of the first centuries. It will be from 7:00 to 9:00 PM in the Good Shepherd Room of the Parish Center. Hope to see you there.

Blessings and peace. I love you.

Fr. Tom Welbers