. . . (St. John) Newman asks the question: What does faith have to do with life? It is a very pointed question for the situation of modern humanity, which tends to see religion, faith, the practice of faith as an aspect of life, an accessory to the many other parts of our lives.
But Newman believed this could not be so. If God is God, if Christ is Christ, our response to faith must permeate every aspect of our being, even the most ordinary. It seems to
me that if Benedictine spirituality can be defined, it is in this insight. It is wisdom distilled from the daily.
In this context then, there is certainly a Christian way to pray and worship. There is a Christian way to study and work. There is also a Christian way (even a Benedictine way) to eat, to clean the floor, to brush one’s teeth, to talk, to laugh, to read, to write, to cry, to drive, etc.
In life, then, everything must be explored, turned over in our minds, brought to prayer, considered and reconsidered to be authentic to the God for whom we are seeking. Newman remarks: Nothing will be lost and everything gained by exploring everything. All of us, even those of us most advanced in the life of discipleship, glimpse the truth only dimly as in a mirror. We are ever in the process of getting to know God by more perfectly recognizing his complete and utter dominion over every aspect of our being.
In all of this, the presence of the community is essential as a corrective, for resources, for conversation, for encouragement and growth. Indeed, we must recognize in those around us the very voice, the person of God. “I say that Christ, the sinless Son of God, might be living now in the world as our next door neighbor, and perhaps we not find it out. And this is a thought that should be dwelt on.”
Fr. Denis Robinson, OSB
St. Meinrad Benedictine Oblate, Winter, 2009
