Benedict speaks of monks undertaking particular observances to mark Lent for themselves. What is the purpose? It is that we have this joy of spiritual longing. That Lent is really a time of freeing ourselves and opening ourselves more and more to the fullness of Easter.
We can answer these questions with stock phrases and words we always use, but what is the real meaning of your life? What is the thing that really gives your life push-meaning and satisfaction? What are you really longing for from the deep depths of your heart? What do you really want? We can say, God, union with God, happiness, peace, friendship, and intimacy. Really getting down to it, though, what is the thing that we really want? That is what Benedict is talking about here. To really get in touch with what we are longing for.
Benedict sees Lent (and the whole Christian Church sees it) as fully entering into the Paschal mystery. It is a dying to the false self, dying to all our sins. It is the dying to all the junk and nonsense that fill our lives and living to the reality of who we are as men who have been baptized into Christ. We are men called to share the fullness of the divine joy-the divine life. That is why God made us. Through baptism, God has brought us to that level of being able to share the fullness of divine life.
Benedict says at the beginning: “The life of a monk ought to be a continuous Lent. Since few, however, have the strength for this, we urge the entire community during these days of Lent to keep its manner of life most pure” [3]. And he comes up with the idea of doing some particular thing that is a hook on which everything hangs. Each day, do some little thing that says, This is a special time. It is a time that we are keeping before us to find out what we really want. Where this is going? What we are looking for? What is our deepest being crying out for? It is a time to cut through some of the stuff which we have been grabbing at to try to find some fulfillment, some happiness, some meaning. We realize that any and all has its meaning only to the extent that it is a means of coming to what we really want and what we are really made for.
This is part two of a talk given on the Rule of Saint Benedict by Abbot M. Basil Pennington, OCSO; Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery. Sunday, February 4, 2001
© Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery, 2006
