Over the years many people have come to the Abbey wishing to become Oblates. But if you asked them why you often will not get the same answer. Some come because they are inspired by the faith and discipline of the monks they see at the Abbey. Some would say they wish some association with the Abbey. Others would say they are seeking “something” and find it by living their life by following the Rule. Perhaps, also, it is a “sign of the times.” People are looking for stability in a time of uncertainty, looking for a simpler life.
Underlying everything there is one word — looking. What they are looking for even they could not tell you. We become Oblate Novices because we are looking and have not yet found. We become Oblates because we have found but are still learning and adhere to the Rule to help us in our journey to find.
But this looking or seeking is not unique to our generation. The early monastics also moved to the desert seeking. Cowan pondered this question with a Coptic hermit, Lazarus, in the desert of Egypt and there conclusions are worth quoting:
“The sense of alienation that humankind feels when confronted by a lack of meaning in life (Antony) likened to the ‘great wound.’ To heal such a wound it was important for a person to return to the … law of oneness, which (Antony) called the law of promise,… Clearly the great wound represented a loss of perception on the part of humankind as to the true nature of being — that of attaining to what he called ‘a knowledge of one’s eternal substance. . . .'”
There is a loss of rootedness “… not caused by accident or fate, nor did it stem solely from negligence or superficiality in the way we live. Rather, such a loss sprang from the spirit of our age. We have become victims of a desire to clutch at things, a desire to plan and calculate, to organize and automate. (Antony) saw our love of efficiency as one reason for uprootedness and our loss of self. In the process, we had lost the ability to reach toward the heavens and so converse with the spirit. . . .”
“Lazarus had spelled out the reason that people like me wander about the world. We are on the lookout for anything that might give meaning to our lives. …This is what Lazarus stood for: a return to an ancient spirituality in order to affirm his relationship with the spirit.”
Each person who becomes an Oblate must ask the same question. What is it I seek? The real question is not what, but Who. And then the next question, How does following the Rule help me to find the Risen Lord in my own life? Only He can give meaning and purpose to our lives. Only He can guide us in an age where nothing seems constant. But there is one thing that does remain constant — the Scripture and specifically the Gospel. No matter whether Catholic or Lutheran, Methodist or Baptist, all Christians are one in the message of the Gospel; the Good News of the Risen Christ.
As we prepare for the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost let us pray that the Spirit that Jesus promised will come and allay the spirit of the modern age and heal the “great wound” in each of us. May Our Lord Jesus Christ reveal the “true nature of being” to each one of us and may the Holy Spirit grant to each of us the graces to be the being we are each called to be in this life.
