Homily for the Vigil of Saint Benedict
July 10, 2009
Reading: Sirach 6.32-37
One of the key ways to learn
is to find a good mentor.
In science if there is an area
one wants to learn,
you go to the person's lab and work there for a few years.
In law, one goes and clerks at a law firm -
this is true in almost every field of study.
The learning is intense, personal, and formational.
This mode of learning is not meant to produce clones
but rather to give one a standing place, a view of the world,
a process for approaching life and learning.
There are certain things we learn best one-on-one.
Deep within the monastic tradition
there is a tradition of spiritual mentorship
that has its origin in the wisdom tradition in the Bible
and human experience.
When men and women started going out into the desert
to live in solitude, to deal with their false selves and demons,
they quickly discovered that they needed
to talk to someone, an abba or an amma,
about what they were experiencing.
This person is a companion,
someone to help with perspective and prudence,
who has seen enough that he or she knows
the different ways that issues will play themselves out.
The person has to know firsthand the spiritual practices of the tradition,
such as prayer, silence, lectio, centering prayer, manual labor,
and how sin and grace, and the Holy Spirit work.
She or he is another set of eyes and ears,
can see my blind spots, can locate my scotosis.
He or she is a source of fundamental affirmation and encouragement
when I want to give up on the journey,
when accedia is asserting itself.
This person knows my whole story as best as I can tell it -
That is why the tradition of radical honesty becomes so important.
Naming and owning my own story as best as I can
is a way for the true, graced self to emerge.
In many of the stories from the desert,
The amma or abba knows or suspects what
a person is struggling with
but insists that "it is you who must say it."
This amma or abba can help me find the path and get back on it,
This person holds me accountable for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
So the abba or amma can never be an accomplice.
To this day, someone working a program of recovery in AA
has a sponsor who is a regular support for sobriety.
Otherwise it is too easy for the spiritual and emotional components of recovery
to go into remission.
Within cenobitic life as described by Saint Benedict,
ammas and abbas seem less important
because of the crucial role of the community in our formation.
However, as oblates and as members of this community,
we know how easy it is to get into a rut,
to be comfortable with a set of spiritual and other habits
that don't necessarily serve us all that well.
Habits of thinking and feeling,
Habits of prayer.
Bad habits are hard to give up,
good habits are hard to develop.
We know all too well the truth of that delightful caution from Africa:
"Choose your ruts carefully-
you are going to be in them a long time."
We do well to heed the voice of wisdom,
to seek the counsel of the elders,
to wear a path to a spiritually wise person.
This is a powerful, Spirit-filled path
a way to live our vocation fully.
Abbot John Klassen, OSB
July 10, 2009
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