In the Prologue of his Rule, St Benedict describes the genuine enthusiasm for holiness that is the exact opposite of dutiful discipline, grim obedience or calculating commitment. Not that he soft pedals on discipline, obedience or commitment. But what he is after is faithful discipline, glad obedience and a generous self-giving in commitment. Here is how Benedict describes the ideal spiritual disposition of the monk, and indeed of anyone who is seeking to follow faithfully after Christ.
We shall run
on the paths of God's commandments,
our hearts overflowing
with the inexpressible delight
of love. (Prologue.49)
So that is the ideal. Like all aspirational goals there is the risk they will be diminished, diluted, reduced by what we call realism, and that most limiting of criteria for those who aim high, practicality. Yet Benedict is the most sane, practical, sensible and pragmatic of spiritual teachers. The Rule is replete with the mundane and the daily, the ordinary and the routine, because it is in the daily routine of relationships and work, of feeding and cleaning, of housekeeping and caretaking, that worship, study and prayer are to be pursued.
"We shall run", with eagerness, energy and enthusiasm on the paths of God. And the heart, centre of thought and emotion, engine of motive and conscience, the heart will overflow with the delight of love. The spirituality of love is complex and mysterious. Those made in the image of God, and drawn into union with Christ, are made for fellowship with God who is love, an eternal communion of self-giving grace, overflowing, creative, and purposeful. The 'inexpressible delight of love' is the reflecting in our human existence, our daily behaviour, our growing character of precisely that eternal love of the Triune God.That is neither simple nor instant; but it is the ideal to which we look, with longing and delight, and with a realism not determined by our limitations, but by grace unspeakable, sufficient alight with the fires of divine Love.
These brief words in Benedict's Prologue become a daily reminder - this is what we are made for, redeemed for, called towards, and not in our own strength but by the grace and mercy and love of God.
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