The last time together we went to you and interpreted this nice sermon of St. Augustine on Martha and Mary and we could see from it that St. Augustine, the most outstanding representatives of the Christian tradition, really, agreed in that way with the old idea of the contemplative life and the privacy, so to speak, of the contemplative life. We also found among the ancients, the Greek philosophers, Plato in the first place, saying that the contemplative life owes its nobility and its excellence to the fact that it transcends the changeableness of this physical life.

[01:17]

It reaches the unchangeable the uncomputable light of the ideas and descends from the multiple to the simple. And that also he sees that in Mary. She has chosen the part that will not be taken away from her. still there has a great change has taken place and that is the fact that the object of our contemplation the Christian contemplation is first of all is the world made flesh and this fact has its deep repercussions on the Christian idea of the contemplative life.

[02:20]

Mary concentrates on that fact, that the Word has been made flesh. In principio era verbo, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. And therefore to her sitting at the feet of our Lord and listening to his words was the anticipation, the realization of the soul's thirst for the incommutable, the unchangeable, the eternal, satisfied by the word, by the word of God, by the second person of the divine Trinity. But then we see that Martha's service is also concerned with the Word, but more with the Word insofar as the Word is made flesh, appeared among us, and became one of us, obedient unto death and died for us.

[03:37]

So Martha's service, the Word made flesh, The world enlists earthly necessities freely taken on by its infinite charity to mankind. And by this very fact the active life takes on a different value, a different aspect. By the very fact that the world has been made flesh, Our active life becomes a service of that word which is here, one of us, among us. And which has taken on the necessities and needs of this earthly life. So that Martha's work too is good. And all misunderstanding or all kind of dualism and opposition between the material and the spiritual and a splitting of the human nature and so on as the danger is in the platonic scheme has been overcome, has been taken away.

[04:54]

However, we could see that The active life, which now in the service of the word made flesh, has become an integral part, a preparation for the contemplative life. And this active life, of course, also has and takes on, in order to be a preparation of the contemplative life, certain characteristics. And the characteristics that St. Augustine mentions are two. One is modestia in temperando, and the other is misericordia in erogando. Modestia in temperando, misericordia in erogando. So this active life, let us say that life of active service that Martha represents to us,

[05:56]

hairs and ears characterized with these two notes. Modestia in temperando is ricordia in erudito. What does that mean? Modestia in temperando. That means that the active service, that means the work which is done in the service of the Word made flesh, has and needs a certain measure. Now, this measure is of many kinds. I think I briefly explained one measure. I don't know if that is the right word, measure there. Modesty, I don't know what kind of word one would use in English to express it. Masshaltung would be in German a wonderful word.

[07:06]

The temporary, you know, I mean, the keeping it in the right balance. Maybe one could call it balance. Balance is one thing which is necessary for the world. and to which alone the work can become a preparation for the contemplative life. See, we have to face that necessity. The work is, as certainly it is in the idea of St. Augustine, the Christian idea, not an enemy of contemplation, but a preparation for contemplation. Still then, the work has to be of a certain kind, because the work really can become an enemy of contemplation. And that is if the work, let us say, takes over. The work has, as we have seen that in years past, the work has what we call its own law.

[08:15]

And that's, let us say, law, the inner law of the work, Of course, that tendency to take over and in that way to crowd out, let us say, the queers, quiet. For work in order to be a preparation for a contemplative life, that has to be avoided, modestia in temperando. The work is, especially as it is done now, in our, within our fallen nature. The work is noisy, the work is demanding, the work is always pressing, it's always urgent, there's always something to do. That is the inner, that's the impatience which is inherent in the work. as it is done here on this earth where we have to work, as Holy Scripture says, in the sweat of our brows.

[09:20]

And that sweat of our brows consists in that inner urgency, the necessity of work. And therefore, modestia in temperamento, that has to be avoided, that sting has to be taken out. And therefore, St. Benedict in his rule again and again comes to that point that solatia should be given especially to those who are the exponents of the rush and the pressure of work as for example the procurator and others the kitchen work is especially singled out by St. Benedict certainly not without reason others could be added laundry all these things which farm work in itself, too, which have in themselves that urgency, necessity. And therefore, there it should be and must be the rule for the monastic life that ne contristetur, that the brother should not be saddened, because that is the curse of work, that it may take over and become a burden

[10:38]

which then snuffs out the fervor of the spirit, the liberty and freedom and generosity of response, and men become slaves. That's one thing. But there is also another, which is, let's say, on the same line, and it seems to me also belongs to that modestia in temperando, that the work and also presents itself easily as something absolutely indispensable, something that can never be interrupted, something that man should never put out of his hands. And there, too, the monastic life, more than any other life, has to consider that work in order to become a preparation for the contemplative life and not an enemy of the contemplative life.

[11:55]

has to be interrupted, interrupted by the quiet and calm of the Sunday and of the feast day. And then we have to see that, too, in all its importance for the monastic life, that the six days of work end in the seventh day. And that seventh day is really the day through which the six days of work are consecrated. The seventh day when man rests, rests in the rest of God, that means when he not only for the sake of relaxation and not only to take a breathing space so that afterwards he may start with even greater fury to speak his word, but that inner agree, that inner amen, alleluia, to God.

[13:05]

kingdom taking over, God's grace taking over, and man then, as it were, giving God the space, the room, where he may show his glory, where he may show his power. That's the meaning of the Sunday, and also of the feast day. And therefore the modestia in temperando also includes this, that element, not only, and that's the danger in monastic life too, that the law of work may be, may be heard, so to speak, by a Sunday or feast day. One may say, oh my, here in the monastic schedule, we always have a Sunday, then there's the feast day, and here feast day, and here feast day. And all that takes away.

[14:08]

Now I think there is a very important part, if we understand it right, that there is a day, God's day, of feasting, I mean of a feast. And that feast is an anticipation then of That contemplation, the value of which really consists in this, that God takes over completely. So that on a feast day, we say amen, alleluia to the one who beyond and far above all our little work and efforts fills us with that tranquility which in him is really highest activity that sabbath of the divine rest that saint augustine was always signed for which he closed the beautiful series of his books on the city of god

[15:19]

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