Friday, July 11, 2014 (Benedict of Nursia)

Friday, July 11, 2014

Romans 10:1-13

“Ora et Labora”

What does it mean to work out our salvation in the context of a vocation? Everyone of us is called to something, truly. You and I have a purpose here, we have wrestled with those questions of life; should I take that job? Do I ask that person on a date?  What courses should I take in school? Am I ready to have kids? These are all questions of vocation, questions and episodes of life which can seem totally unrelated in the moment, only to suddenly make sense in our lives. What is it that helps these seemingly isolated experiences make sense? How do we understand them, and what does latin, a monk, and Romans have to do with it? Its about listening.

Benedict of Nursia, whom we commemorate today, is the patron of many and the father of western monasticism. His vision for monastic life is filled with grace and flexibility to the human condition. He sought to develop communities of men to wrestle and work out their individual paths of salvation within a ruled way of life which called them to live a limited life. Living within limits allowed these men to encounter their greatest freedom; a counter cultural idea! But think about it. When we were kids and our parents put limits on how far we could play from the house, we still played with wreckles abandon within the limits because we trusted them. This is the same with monastics. They play with wreckless abandon within the limits of their rule because that is where they meet God; that is where they work out their salvation. But what does all this mean? When our lives are called, indeed drawn into the worlds greatest need, we respond with our gifts and abilities (good and bad) which allow us to make a difference. This sweet spot is vocation and for some of us that is in the church, for some in an office, or being a parents, or, or, or… the possibilities are endless. God calls to us in the depths of our deepest desires and gives us the graces we need in our daily lives to move ourselves past our exclusionary excuses and into the freedom of Gods promise in our lives. This is our freedom.

Paul reminds the Romans about this quest for God, this desire for salvation, and our deepest need to continue the work of turning our hearts into God on a daily basis.  Indeed he’s speaking directly to our hearts. Righteousness is not being right and pious over others, rather it is returning and turning within ourselves towards God and receiving the grace of admitting before others that we are imperfect and wounded people in need of redemption. This is our greatest strength. This is our greatest wisdom, in knowing our limitations and living within them we are given the grace to free our lives to transform the world into the visible face of God’s kingdom. This depends on an interconnected relationship between work and prayer, a synergy between our spiritual and secular selves. God did not come into the world to live in a sanitized and small way. God came into our world to live in our mess, to smell like us, breath like us, be like us, struggle like us, die like us. This gives us the Grace to encounter what Benedict set out for his brothers, Ora et Labora, to work and pray; pray and work. Together the world is possible. Separate and the world becomes dim and challenging.

Let us embrace the possible, embrace it fully. Do it. Do it now. Do it. Do it. God is waiting for us. God is with us. God is waiting for us to embrace him with everything we are, everything we have, everything we want. Embrace God today with your labour and your prayer, your Ora et Labora, because in our total offering of ourselves we will find Gods greatest promise of salvation. 

- Alex Wilson

[Originally from Vancouver, Alex is a seminarian at Trinity College in Toronto, and Co-Head of the Faculty of Divinity for the 2014/2015 school year]