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Homily for the Solemnity of St Benedict, 11th July 2026
The three readings we have just heard can serve as a good introduction to the Spirit of St Benedict and his Rule.
The book of Proverbs articulates the transmission of wisdom from an experienced master to younger disciples. Christian wisdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit which no human endeavour can produce. Nevertheless, it is normally received as the fruit of a spiritual discipline which includes handing on a spiritual tradition. Because the disciple humbles himself and lets himself be taught by a spiritual father, he prepares himself for God’s gift. He chooses for himself the best conditions for “acquiring the Holy Spirit” – according to a leitmotiv of Russian monasticism. St Benedict creates a school of the divine service. He invites those who want to be disciples of the Holy Spirit speaking in the Church to receive guidance, encouragement and sometimes correction from an abbot acting as the spiritual father of a community of brethren. Our Holy Father St Benedict himself is the most perfect instantiation of this spiritual fatherhood which for more than 15 centuries has proved a wellspring of spiritual wisdom for the Church and the world wherever Benedictine life has been authentically lived out.
St Paul speaking to the Colossians gives a complete picture of Christian life with its main components: a community gathered in the name of Christ and aiming at fraternal charity; a heart of mercy and peace; a prominent place given to the Word of God, read in lectio divina and proclaimed in the liturgy; a life of praise and unceasing prayer in the Spirit; a consecration of all the realities of human life, words and deeds, actions and spaces, by directing them to Christ and through Him to the Father. I don’t know if one could say that Paul is describing the Church as a monastery, but it is certain that St Benedict is thinking of the monastery as a living portion of the Body of Christ, the Church. In a sense, this is a utopia, an ideal never fully attained except in rare cases, and this usually for a limited time. Most monasteries are struggling, more or less successfully, at being places of full Christian life. To use a word dear to the monastic movement, monks are in a constant process of conversion. They take, again and again, the direction shown to them by the Rule and the Bible. Their journey is an active, resolute and humble turning to God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the only one able to lead them to the perfection they are aiming at.
When monks are faithful in being disciples and foster a constant movement of conversion, the monastery can become a place of Christian happiness where the Beatitudes become somehow visible. It helps me to think of the Beatitudes as some magnificent glass-windows – say, the roses of Notre Dame – through which light become visible. One can find in a meek man, a peacemaker, someone merciful or thirsting for righteousness, even in a certain form of mourning and in the unique witness of martyrdom, a ray of divine light made visible. One can glimpse strength in weakness and grace shining through human limitations. This can be linked with the first beatitude of the “poor in spirit”. These have renounced using their achievements to their own profit and glory. They give glory to God. They give thanks to God. They magnify the Lord working in them and through them.
Such is the promise of monastic life according to St Benedict: if you humble yourself and become a disciple; if you strive at living to the full the Christian life which the Word of God teaches you and which the Sacraments communicate to you; if you do this, day in day out, for a few decades of a short human life, you will radiate to the world the light of the Gospel, you will be, in Christ and by the grace of His Spirit, “salt of the earth” and “light of the world” to the glory of the Father and the monastery will be a heart of peace for the world.
May the Lord in His mercy grant this – and much more – to our community, to our Friends and to all who join us today in celebrating our Holy Father St Benedict. Amen.