Posted on by Kurt Bodling

silence and humility

“The ninth step of humility is achieved when a monk, practicing silence, only speaks when asked a question, for, ‘In many words you shall not avoid sin’ (Prov. 10:15). And, ‘A talkative man shall not prosper upon the earth’ (Ps. 140:11).”

Saint Benedict. The Rule of St. Benedict. Translated, with introduction and notes by Anthony C. Meisel and M.L. del Mastro. NY : Doubleday, 1975, Chapter 7, page 60.

Note: Interesting to note that, while chapter 6 of the Rule is about Silence, St. Benedict includes this point about silence in chapter 7. Chapter 7 is on Humility.

There are so, so many times when it would have been better to bite our tongues and not say something that sprang to mind. Oh, yes, there absolutely are times when we should speak out, when we should call someone out, when we should ask hard questions, name names, and so on. Mostly in defense of someone else. But the way of humility sometimes is the way of silence. And humility doesn’t mean meekly accepting abuse.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

St. Benedict on silence

“Let us do as the prophet says: ‘I have said: I will keep my ways so that I will not offend with my tongue. I have guarded my speech. I have held my peace and humbled myself and was silent, even from speaking good things’ (Ps. 39:1-2). Here the prophet demonstrates that if we are not to speak of good things, for the sake of silence, it is even more vital that we should not speak of evil lest we sin, for we shall be punished for that as a sin. No matter how perfect the disciple, nor how good and pious his speech he rarely should be given permission to speak for: ‘In much speaking, you shall not escape sin’ (Prov. 10:19). The master should speak and teach, the disciple should quietly listen and learn. No matter what must be asked of a superior, it must be done with humility and reverent submission. We always condemn and ban all small talk and jokes; no disciple shall speak such things.”

Saint Benedict. The Rule of St. Benedict. Translated, with introduction and notes by Anthony C. Meisel and M.L. del Mastro. NY : Doubleday, 1975, page 56.

Note: This is the whole 6th chapter; but not the only thing Benedict says about Silence in his Rule. He would today have included some proscriptions about social media, I’m sure. Including, no doubt, blogs that quote the Rule.

His condemnation here of levity probably strikes us as too harsh. But haven’t you noticed that so much of what passes for comedy and joking is done at the expense of someone else? It can really hurt and isn’t necessarily assuaged with an “Oh, I was only joking.”

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the source and norm

“There is only one God, brethren, and we learn about him only from sacred Scripture. It is therefore our duty to become acquainted with what Scripture proclaims and to investigate its teachings thoroughly. We should believe them in the sense that the Father wills, thinking of the Son in the way the Father wills, and accepting the teaching he wills to give us with regard to the Holy Spirit. Sacred Scripture is God’s gift to us and it should be understood in the way that he intends: we should not do violence to it by interpreting it according to our own preconceived ideas.”

Hippolytus. “A treatise against the heresy of Noetus.” Quoted in the Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Readings for December 23 (Vol. 1, p. 370-371) and cited there as: Cap. 9-12: PG 10, 815-819

Note: Saint Hippolytus, who lived in the decades either side of the year 200, writes that people learn about God only from sacred Scripture. Which sounds to me like a sola Scriptura thought. He also here makes clear that interpreters need to get from the Bible what God intends us to get, and not what our preconceived ideas tell us is there.

Holy Scripture is, in other words, the source and norm for all our talk about God. Or it should be.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

seeing God

“By his own powers man cannot see God, yet God will be seen by men because He wills it. He will be seen by those He chooses, at the time He chooses, and in the way He chooses, for God can do all things. He was seen of old through the Spirit in prophecy; He is seen through the Son by our adoption as his children, and He will be seen in the kingdom of heaven in His own being as the Father. The Spirit prepares man to receive the Son of God, the Son leads him to the Father, and the Father, freeing him from change and decay, bestows the eternal life that comes to everyone from seeing God.

“As those who see light are in the light sharing its brilliance, so those who see God are in God sharing His glory, and that glory gives them life. To see God is to share in life.”

Saint Irenaeus. Adversus Haereses or Against Heresies. Quoted in Office of Readings for Wednesday of the Third Week in Advent, (vol. 1, p. 288) and cited there as: Lib 4, 20, 4-5: SC 100, 634-640.

Note: Seeing God isn’t usually physical seeing, just as knowing God isn’t intellectual knowing. But understand that God was seen, is seen, and will be seen.

Saint Irenaeus also makes an interesting flip by saying that the former was through the Spirit, the middle in the Son, and the latter in the Father. (I think we usually say of old through the creating Father, then in the incarnate Jesus, and ultimately in the Holy Spirit’s leading the Church. So I suppose we’re the ones making the flip.)

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

I could be wrong

“Now in individual cases, it may be that they say something that we find very hard to accept because of our own earnest convictions. Here we must rethink our own positions in the light of what authority has said and, if possible, try to see the reasons why authority has spoken as it did, the presumption being that they had good reasons to do it. However, it may be that with the best will in the world we cannot really convince ourselves that this is right. And if so, we are inevitably thrown into a position of dissent. But I think we must be modest about it and realize that our own opinion is not necessarily the last word. Maybe somebody is wiser than we are. And maybe the church has a wisdom from which we have to learn. So we shouldn’t constitute ourselves as a kind of alternate magisterium.”

Dulles, Avery Cardinal. “Reason, Faith and Theology.” Interviewer: James Martin, SJ.  America. 5 March 2001 issue. Viewed online 12 December 2015 at http://americamagazine.org/issue/338/article/reason-faith-and-theology

I’ve heard two phrases that everyone should have at the ready. One is “I could be wrong” (as above). And the other is “I guess I don’t see it that way.”

The way of humility is paved with phrases like these, not with clinchers, or closers, or zingers, not with shutting down the opposition, or winning at any cost.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

just talk together, already

“First of all, we have to listen to one another and sit down and talk together in a civil spirit. I regret the way in which some go off in a sectarian way within the church and make their own little home in one wing or the other and become either liberal Catholic reformist types or truly adamant conservatives. Then they just tend to shoot across at one another from their trenches. This is not a healthy thing within the church. We have to cultivate the spirit of unity among Catholics and to try to understand one another’s point of view and learn from one another. This would be my hope.”

Avery Cardinal Dulles. “Reason, Faith and Theology.” Interviewer: James Martin, SJ.  America. 5 March 2001 issue. Viewed online 12 December 2015 at http://americamagazine.org/issue/338/article/reason-faith-and-theology

Note: There has to be a better way to live together, says Cardinal Dulles, than in constant sniping, argument, and disagreement. Especially within the Church. You’d think this would be obvious to people whose Leader once prayed to His heavenly Father “that they may be one, as we are one.”

On the other hand, if your first move is to define the other folk out of the Church because they think/say/do something you think they shouldn’t, then I guess you feel like you aren’t violating the Savior’s prayer intention. Not a smart strategy. And you’ll have further to go to get to the point I want to see: cultivating the spirit of unity among all Christians (and not just the Catholics).

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

the point of writing

“Those of us who are scholars ought not to leave our desks or stop writing our books, but we need to recognize very vividly and urgently the greater whole of which our writing is just a part. If our research, writing, and teaching, do not directly help the poor, we had better make sure that what we do is part of the compassionate, merciful and just work of the Church. But what the scholar, in the disciplined and quiet work of mind and heart, is to do, is the topic for another post.”

Clooney, Francis X. “Compassion and Dialogue Shall Embrace” America Magazine 27 November 2015 < no page number as this was found online >

Note: Whether you’re writing the ‘book to end all books’ or putting together a Sunday School lesson or researching a blog post for your friends to read, it all involves study. And here the point is that if your study (verb) doesn’t take you beyond your study (noun), then it’s both short-sighted and less than it should be.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

engage in dialog

“Good Catholics embrace dialogue; it is only our latter-day cafeteria Catholics who think they can omit dialogue from their theology, piety and practice.”

Clooney, Francis X. “Compassion and Dialogue Shall Embrace” America Magazine 27 November 2015 < no page number as it was found online >

Catholics, yes. But also Lutherans. And, really, everyone. Without dialogue what we’re left with is stony-faced, rigid wall-building, or a simmering misunderstanding set to boil over at the slightest provocation. Let’s not omit dialogue.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

study as a spiritual discipline

“Before all else, our study should aim principally and ardently at this that we might be able to be useful to the souls of our neighbors. By study the brethren consider in their heart the manifold wisdom of God and prepare themselves for the doctrinal service of the Church and of all mankind. It is all the more fitting that they should devote themselves to study, because from the tradition of the Order they are called to cultivate mankind’s inclination toward truth.

“The brethren should contemplate and study divine revelation of which Sacred Scripture and Tradition constitute a single sacred deposit, and from the perennial instructional value of its overall plan, they should learn to discover the many paths of gospel truth, even in created things, in human works and institutions, as well as in different religions.

“The brethren should study attentively the writings of the Fathers of the Church and distinguished witnesses of Christian thought who, with the help of different cultures and the wisdom of the philosophers, labored to understand the word of God more fully. Following their thinking, the brethren should respectfully listen to the living tradition of the Church, seek dialogue with the learned, and open their mind to contemporary discoveries and problems.

“Continuous study nourishes contemplation, encourages fulfillment of the counsels with shining fidelity, constitutes a form of asceticism by its own perseverance and difficulty, and, as an essential element of our whole life, it is an excellent religious observance.”

extracted from: “Study as an Essential Part of Religious Life for Friars” from a web page published by the Dominicans of the Province of Saint Joseph, one of four provinces in the United States. Viewed online at https://opeast.org/about/our-way-of-life/study/ on 6 December 2022.

Note: The Dominicans in many ways seem to embody the spiritual discipline of study. They dig into the sources. They serve the fruit of their study to the Church and the world. These days I’m especially resonating to the thought that “Continuous study nourishes contemplation, [and] constitutes a form of asceticism by its own perseverance and difficulty….”

What are you studying these days? Is it for the good of those around you as well as for your own good?

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

creation care among Christians

Quote:
“So what might we take away from the document? I would suggest several things. First, Francis provides a way of engaging those who do not share our beliefs in a post-Christian world. Second, the document provides some helpful lines of direction toward a more robust theology of creation and its use within the church. Finally, Francis encourages us to expand our horizons and embrace a comprehensive vision of the world. He challenges the church to take a global perspective in which a practical commitment to human beings and the environment take priority over a commitment to nationalities, ideologies, economic theories, and politics.”

Charles P. Arand, “Tending Our Common Home: Reflections on Laudato Si’.” Concordia Journal Fall 2015, vol. 41, no. 4, page 308.

Note:
LCMS seminary prof Charles Arand highlights things that Lutherans can pick up from Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’. I’m not sure, however, whether any Lutherans really have taken up the 2015 encyclical. I certainly don’t see a lot of Lutheran focus on the issues of creation care. We do talk a lot about “life issues” but I just can’t say that I’ve seen much that uses the phrase to include preservation and enrichment of all life on earth. And, yes, I’m talking about the scourge of climate change.