(19) If only, If only

"...is there a sense in which we speak of Benedict and his rule as
offering an orientation for Europe's future...does the Holy Rule still
provide a beacon for common life...If there is a civilisation to be
saved, what are the dimensions of the Rule that point us towards
the essentials that have to be preserved and nourished?

"I shall outline three aspects of the Rule which are of cardinal
importance...(i) what the Rule has to say about the use and the
meaning of time, (ii) what the Rule has to say about obedience,
and (iii) what the Rule has to say about participation."

"[Time]...Benedict describes a carefully structured day, a rhythm
incorporating labour, study and prayer...labour is not everything;
the monastery is an environment in which human beings grow
mentally and spiritually...where they need time for reflection.

"The self that is brought into the light in study and prayer is a self
that lives in a material world where crises and limitations call for
response...Authenic culture needs rhythms of activity and retrieval,
recovery of the self...Culture has to be more than the round of
producing and being entertained. It must be the context in which
humanity is allowed to grow.

"about Lectio, the goal [Benedict] presumes is that of self-
knowledge, humility and growth in holiness: the dimension of
study in the monastic life is not about developing intellectual skills
for their own sake, but a way of advancing in understanding of
oneself as made in God's image...

"A civilised life structured around the vision of the Rule is one in
which economics is not allowed to set itself up as a set of activities
whose goals and norms have no connection with anything other
than production and exchange.

"The environmental question, with all its current urgency, is not
just one of survival; it is about our capacity to understand the world
in which we live as more than a storehouse of useful raw material
for us. It is about how we learn to see the world that indeed--in
some sense 'belongs to us.'

"[Obedience]...the abbot has to listen and attend with intense
concentration to the specific requirements and gifts of the
individual members of the community. [Obedience also involves]
a sort of obedience to every brother.

"[As for the greater, outside community...the Rule applies in that]
the scope of your involvement in the community's life that defines
your standing, [is] not any external criterion such as wealth or
social status or education, or even chronological area...no-one's
voice in the community is automatically dismissed or minimized.

"Benedictine obedience...is an equally unambiguous refusal of
any sort of competitive struggle for the dominance of one individual
or group...Authority is the negotiating of a variety of gifts in order to
sustain a society in which all are at work for the sake of each other's
flourishing.

"[Participation]...The monastery both demands from each a positive
and distinctive share in sustaining its life...This cannot be a community
in which some live at the expense of others...Participation in the common
life is also assurance that you will not suffer alone or ignored."
[Excerpts from a presentation by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, in 2006.]

Comment: "If only, if only!" The world goes on, passing-by that special
wisdom that comes along periodically--whether the wisdom of St.
Benedict or other great voices that have graced this planet. Still some
of us, like Rowan Williams, dare to hope against hope.