Saint Benedict was not the first monk ever. One could even say he came relatively late in the history of the monastic movement. When did this movement begin? One could trace its origins to the third century with monks like Anthony of Egypt or a hermit whose name was Paul. However, according to John Cassian, who wrote around 415, the first monastic community was the primitive church: a group of faithful gathered around the apostles, putting their possessions in common and building a communion in charity. Today’s Gospel seems to suggest it is possible to go even further back in time. In Jesus going up on the mountain and sitting down to preach and teach while his disciples gather round him, we are given a perfect image of what St Benedict famously called a “school of the service of the Lord” – his own quasi definition of a monastery.
On the mount… It was noted in the Middle Ages that Benedictines loved mountains, while their reformed cousins the Cistercians preferred valleys. It seems to be true even at Quarr with the old Cistercian house down near the brook and our Benedictine house on top of a hill – not quite a mountain, I agree. The mountain is the place where God reveals Himself. He draws people to Himself. A Benedictine monastery is, at least symbolically, a high place or a ‘mount’ where Christ opens His heart and His mind to loving disciples. By proclaiming the Beatitudes on the mount, Jesus shares the secret of His own Heart, of His own Blessedness.
In the school of the service of the Lord, you learn the way toward happiness in God, toward beatitude. The first step is to become ‘poor in spirit’. This is what St Benedict calls humility. A monk is a man who tries to learn humility of heart – that is to say, to be a disciple of the One who is “gentle and lowly of heart.” Monks have to be meek, merciful and peacemakers, too, if they want to build a community bound together by God’s charity. Out of thirst for righteousness, they follow the balanced path of the Rule with its characteristic moderation.
Traditionally, monks loved the beatitudes of those who mourn and of the pure of heart. Monks mourn not because they are depressed and have a pessimistic view of things – on the contrary, they abound in joyful hope and are full of gratitude and admiration for God’s work. But they mourn theirs and the world’s sins which led Jesus to be crucified. Hence, they foster a ‘holy sadness’ made of humble repentance which never despairs of God’s mercy.
At the same time, they do not cease to purify their hearts because they feel drawn to partake already as much as possible in the beautiful promise linked with this beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Monks live in faith with an intense desire to see the Face of God. They long to be given to meet with the Father of lights who dwells an unapproachable light, and to gaze at the glory of His light on the face of Christ and of their brethren. Yes, a monastery is a place where you learn to see God who is always coming to you thirsting for your love from the depths of your own heart and in the gift of the brother who is meeting you right now.
The monastery would not be a mount of the Beatitudes if monks were not given at time some experience of the last beatitude: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” Here at Quarr, we know that without religious persecution in France, this monastery would simply not exist. The mount of the Beatitudes and the mount of Calvary are one in Christ’s mystery. The monk, as every Christian, receives his own participation in the mystery of Christ’s suffering. St Benedict teaches that “we shall share by patience in the sufferings of Christ.”
By speaking of patience, St Benedict takes us down from the mountains of spiritual ambition – always a possible danger – to the daily realities of human life, with their joys and their struggles; for he knows that it is precisely there that love is possible, love is true, love is already eternal. Yes, it is possible to learn to love and to be loved. This is what the school founded by St Benedict – and by Jesus on the mount – is about.