“There is a real danger that we miss the essential. What do we want to live and what do we
actually live?” These words are from the
Abbot General’s conference on the theme of ‘increasing fragility’ given at our
recent General Chapter (9/14/2014). It
seems to me that in the ordinariness of each day it is easy for us to ‘miss the
essential’, the essence of the monastic path, which is based on the gospel. To reflect, then, on what we desire to live
paralleled with an honest reflection on what we actually live offers a healthy
and challenging review of our community life together.
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| Sr Kathy (left) in committee meeting at General Chapter of OCSO, Assisi 2014 |
Such honest reflection I think points to where we need
conversion as a community: in our relations with one another, in how we meet
the demands of work, of our collective poverty, of our increased
fragility. On the other hand, such
reflection also calls us to assess and acknowledge our strengths, the gifts,
and the beauty God has bestowed upon us and on this place. We can ask ourselves such questions as: are we a community of gratitude or one of
complainers? Are we a community that is
graced with resiliency, ready to begin anew everyday? Remember the desert story: ‘It was said of
Abba Poeman that everyday he made a new beginning’. Are we truly open to conversion and
change? Are we ready to have our hearts
broken open so that Christ’s love, the love embodied in the gospel way can
expand and deepen amongst us? Are we
really committed to become more Christ-like in all that we are and all that we
do?
Dom Eamon, at the end of his conference, used the image from
the jargon of the computer world of ‘default setting’. I think it is an apt image as we review our
individual and community lives. Where do
we default in our inner lives: into
hopelessness and despair, into murmuring and complaining, into harsh criticism,
or into gratitude, hope, compassion, into ‘the joy of the gospel’ (to quote the
title of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation)?
It is important to ‘notice’…to let each silent breath we take to help us
feel, sense, or perceive what are the predominant movements or what is the
tenor or mood in our inner lives. When
we notice that we default into the negative…or into fear or anxiety…what do we
do? Do we engage it or do we pray,
hanging on to our ‘mustard seed of faith’?
Do we use the spiritual tools we have available to importune the grace
of God to shift this default setting, a setting, which can be so normal, so
commonplace because it has ruled us for such a long, long time? This negative default setting could also be
called our ‘old tapes’, our tapes that re-wind and re-wind with their stale
tonality and same old verbiage…perhaps we could also call this negative default
the onslaught of thoughts that Sr. Suzanne spoke about in her talk several
weeks ago…and so God reminds us that, ‘my thoughts are not your thoughts…’ And God’s thoughts, the small still voice of
the Spirit, will always be there speaking wisdom, breathing forth a healing
word, the Incarnate Word, the Word of Life, the Word, which is our salvation.
Dom Eamon takes this pithy text from 1 Thessalonians as a
default: “Be joyful always, pray
continuously, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you
in Christ Jesus” (1Thess 5:16-18). Imagine that the reality of these words would
become our default: what we would return to over and over…imagine our
consciousness defaulting into joy, prayer, giving thanks. Is this not the medicine we need individually
and as a community? If we are truly
faithful to our vocation then our lives are to be gospel based, Jesus based. And this means first of all to notice…simply
notice where we default. And this will
point to what we need to do to re-find ourselves, to re-root ourselves in our
quest to become more and more like the Incarnate One who is the fullness of
God’s love.
The default effect: the
option that a chooser receives if she or he does nothing… let us then
choose ‘life’, let us take on the mind and heart of Christ.
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