Tip to Father Mark @ Vultus Christi.Read his post Men Who Hold Their Gaze Directly Towards God where Fr Mark does a very good job of helping us grasp the missing pieces to why Saint Benedict is so important to us right now. Yes we are living in very fragile and even frightening times where the life and light of God is all but snuffed out for a vast number of people. And what is it exactly that 'connects' one (Saint) Benedict to another Benedict (XVI)? In his blog post Father Mark provides us with some stepping stones to wonder through these ponderings.
One of the main focus of our blog here at The Four Mass'keteers is the thought of René Girard and mimetic theory. I found that Father Mark homed in on an important aspect to seeking God:
People come to monasteries in search of a place where there is evidence of a divine inbreaking: traces of the Kingdom of Heaven, glimmers of the glory of God shining on the Face of Christ.One of our many gifts from Pope Benedict XVI is his prayerful gaze toward God and his declaration of the Year of the Priest that will help many more with this task of keeping their gaze directly toward God.
Those Who Seek God
More often than not the search for God begins with a search for those who seek God. It has always been thus in the life of the Church in both East and West. The faithful come to monasteries looking for fathers and mothers for their souls. People seek out monks and nuns hoping to see on their faces a reflection of the brightness of God. By virtue of monastic profession, we are called to hold our faces directly toward God. "For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor 4:6).
In this ever darkening world where we commoners find our families and work places shuffled in to we will need the ever-radiant light illumined by those who are steadfast in their gaze toward God. And we must remember that we are called to share in that light by carrying our cross with those who are walking beside us - ever mindful of where our gaze is focused.
1 comment:
Really fine, Aramis. As a father who grieves an elder son who has rejected nearly all that I hold dearest to me - faith in the Blessed Trinity and the Church as the highest and best in the human cosmos - I read the words about St Benedict with a heavy heart.
In fact, I think Spengler's Not Yet captures our world fittingly, too.
Fathers, as Our Lord told us, must sometimes simply scan the horizon and wait for prodigals to come to themselves and trudge back home.
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