Today we celebrate the feast of St. Benedict who really put into practice Jesus’ call in today’s Gospel to abandon everything and center our lives on him. Benedict is the founder of monasticism in the Western church. He wrote a simple rule of life for communities of monks in the 500s. The monasteries that followed his rule were basically lay communities with emphasis on prayer, conversion, hospitality, and work. After the fall of the Roman empire all of Europe entered into a time of chaos and the Dark Ages. During that dark time, the Benedictine monasteries spread north from Italy. They became centers of life during civil chaos. They provided culture, education, libraries, charity, invention, science, and infirmaries. But most of all they were centers of evangelization. Eventually all of Europe is evangelized and converted to faith in Jesus basically due to the presence of these communities of monks. The witness of their communal lives centered on Christ produced a new form among all the people around them in Europe.
It seems that growth in our Christian faith has always taken place in small communities. That is where and how we are best at staying true to the Gospel call, we as a Church give our best testimony of life and we evangelize best.
The simple Christian values of putting God before all things and people in our lives are for all Christians, not just monks. Today we can ask ourselves if the life and example of our families and our local parish community through prayer, conversion, hospitality, and work are so attractive that we are bringing those around us to know and love Jesus.
And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters
or father or mother or children or lands
for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more,
and will inherit eternal life.
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