Anyway, it was two weeks in heaven that he began St. Joseph. And then on Monday, our Holy Father sent Benedict. Two men who are in many ways similar to one another and in others very different. It's both Saint Joseph as well as Saint Benedict make it clear what the position of man is. I mean in the new order that our Lord Jesus Christ has instituted when he came on this earth. I mean the order of the Spirit, the order of the resurrection, that order which the Divine Agape has initiated already at the moment of the incarnation and later the Nativity of Christ.

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It was in the world of for that man was the will of man who decides over the existence and the development of the human race flesh and blood the law of the arrows but then when grace grace because of divine grace that love that comes from above enters into this world and the first chosen vessel of that brave is the woman there there she stands within a singular, unique dignity because, as it were, by nature she is pre-existent, or she prefigures that human being, elected human being, which is ready to receive, to accept that grace which descends from above.

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She is the incorporation, as it were, of our faith in the charity of God. Man's position, those who are moving the line of Paul and Adam, is really in this new order more difficult than that of the woman. The woman, it seems, has already, through her nature, A dignity which she does not lose, but which is transfigured and becomes much higher through the order of the divine charity. The idea of motherhood is fully developed in its deepest meaning, developed and shown in Our Lady as the Mother of God. The Mother of God. Now that dignity unique to the woman, female sex, the mother of God, that is of course not and can never be accorded to man.

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There is no father of God. But man has in his function, in his natural function, he has as the way to disappear. He has to be buried in some way. And that is the beautiful thing that we see both in Saint Joseph as well as in Saint Benedict, but in different ways. Saint Joseph was the foster father, foster father of Christ, Christ who is the Word of God, who is therefore the born teacher of mankind. And St. Joseph is the one who takes care in a humble, absolutely simple way of the earthly, daily earthly needs of the Word of God made flesh. He is not his father according to the blurb.

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nor is he his father as a teacher. But there, the child, 12 years old, in the temple, he is the teacher. He is the word of God. So also, this fatherhood, which is so deeply connected with man as the man, that he is the wise, that he is able, to give and to communicate not only the life of the body but especially the life of the body and wisdom that was and is really of course in our modern times these things have disintegrated in a just appalling way and the family of our family father in our modern society is no more the father according to the spirit.

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He is not the one who, through his advice, through his experience, through his wisdom, leads and brings up a younger generation, his sons. There are exceptional cases in which that really happens. But, of course, there were times in which that was the natural function and dignity of the father. Saint Joseph had to resign both. Saint Joseph was a simple man. He was guided, not by infused wisdom, but he was guided by the angels. He was, in fact, constantly perplexed. And from case to case, from decision to decision, he had to be guided by angels. a revelation by an advice that came from above, a simple one. But then, in that great humility, he offered what he had.

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And what he had was the craft that he had learned. And that humility of the craft that he put into the service of the earthly needs of the Savior Ned made Saint Joseph then the patron saint in the monastic life of the institution of the lay brothers. lay brothers see in St. Joseph. They are patron saints because that is considered their function in the monastery to serve in all of simplicity, in no way as teachers, but in every way just as those who learn the simplicity of their life. put to the disposal of the young of Christ their skill of their hands.

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Now St. Benedict is different. St. Benedict also enters fully into the order of divine charity. He is buried according to the flesh. When he throws himself into the Thorns to overcome and counteract the fire of his passion. Then he is reborn and the wounds of his body give him the means to which he receives the power of the risen Christ, the power of the resurrection, the spirit of holy virginity. Then Saint Benedict however develops in the course of his life into a spiritual father. He becomes a father of a monastic family through his teaching and through his life. And in that way, he also takes in his family, really, the place of the spiritual father, represents Christ as spiritual father, takes part, therefore, in the spiritual fatherhood that Christ has towards all men.

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And therefore, Saint Benedict then becomes, later in the course of monastic development or the patron of the choir monks, that means of those who then through their studies and through the priesthood enter in one way or the other also and take part in this spiritual fatherhood. And it is evident now that we, as this community, are in a very special position. For us, St. Benedict and St. Joseph belong together in some way. we are striving that they may come into a personal union in not every individual, but really, I would say, in every individual. Because that is one of the great points in our life, that we don't want to separate the intellect from the body.

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We don't want to separate the theological wisdom from that natural and humble wisdom in which we learn in a humble way to deal with the need bodily needs of man. For us, the contemplative life is not running away from these bodily needs, but the contemplative life embraces the whole realm of St. Joseph. Let us use these two pieces, St. Joseph and St. Benedictus, because we, the last past years and every new day, give us also a new I would just say a new example and a new taste of the difficulty of combining these two. It's a constant effort. But in human nature, we always tend either to stick to just one of the two and give up the other.

[10:59]

but the supernatural fullness, that new age that Christ has started, that in which all things find their head in the risen Savior, and I really mean all things find their head in the risen Savior, and that age in which we are admonished again and again to give thanks in all things, that really requires as an ingredient of the perfect life also the combination of these two missions of redeemed Adam, that of Saint Joseph and that of Saint Benedict. Father John. The nature of that first chapter we had started to treat that question is in this first chapter in which St.

[12:06]

Benedict speaks about the various kinds of lusts and in which he also mentions then the mythical form of life, but then at the end he says, now let us then turn to the cortissimum genus of the Cenobites. And the question which you will find solved in a different way by various commentators is, is there in this chapter, can there be found or felt, sensed, I would say, sensed a certain predilection of saint benedict or a certain judging on his part that really the vita communis the cenobitical life is the more perfect life is the one that has to be preferred to the aramidical life

[13:16]

Is it his opinion or is his attitude that he makes a kind of polite gesture towards the rabbinical life and pays a certain lip service to the prevailing idea in his time that the life of the hermit is really the most perfect form of the religious life? That was the question which we asked ourselves. And I mentioned to you this little article just published by Monk of Clairvaux, which referred to the sermons of Leo the Great as a source for this idea of the acius fraterna, in the context of the Quadracetima of Lent, in which St.

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Leo preaching to the people tells them that this is a public action of the Church and all the public action has to be preferred to anything private. And therefore you all must enter now into this campaign of the Lenten season, because that is what the Church as Church does. And in fact, the fact that you do this in common is for all of you, St. Leo, I say again, preaching to the ordinary Christian, is for all of you, for each individual, a great support, moral support, and is also a source of special merit, because in what you do, you do in obedience to the universal authority of the Church. And therefore, the Arches Fraterna is the thing Now, this monk tries to show, or wants to at least suggest, the idea that if St.

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Benedict is inspired here by the sermons of St. Leo, probably he also shares the sentiments of St. Leo, and therefore he looks kind of askance at the hermitical ideal, but he doesn't dare to speak his mind openly and frankly because of the prevailing opinions of his age. Now, I don't think that that is a right interpretation at all. That it may very well be that St. Benedict has taken this expression, arces fraterna, from the sermons of Leo the Great. It's certainly also an absolute fact that Saint Benedict has a high opinion of the synoptic life of the public or common life because of its educational power, forming power, schooling power,

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for the individual, there's no doubt. But that is evident. Then Benedict says in the first chapter of his rule, he says that the hermitical life is only for those who, after long training in the arces paterna, then set out for the individual battle. And then at the end he says, now, Our intention is to institute a school of the divine service. Therefore, as St. Benedict clearly says, has already declared in the prologue, that a rule, naturally, is there as an instrument for the schooling of the beginners. That therefore, for the old, for the perfect ones, For those who go out for the single battle, or for the, I would say, solitary battle, there is no rule and there is no school of divine service for them, because they are the perfectee.

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And as the perfectee, they don't fight under a rule. A rule is an instrument, is a school for a commune. The hermit, the individual, does not receive a rule. The perfect, the solitary, the hermit, is for that matter guided by the Holy Spirit alone and not by a common rule. That's absolutely evident. So to my mind, the fact that St. Benedict at the end says, now let us turn to the fortissimo genus, has nothing to do and he has not in mind the hermits as a genus of the monks. For who to legislate? There is nothing to legislate when you come to the hermits. But there is something to legislate when you come to the other kinds of the monastic life. The Sarabites to die away, who go out two or three in groups, you know, and so on.

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They have this and that idea of how to come to perfection. And then among these, certainly the Cenobites are the most strong and wholesome kind. And therefore I write and I turn to them and I write my rule for them. But to write a rule for the Hermits is a priori out. It would be nonsense. Now that is also the doctrine, the teaching of St. Thomas. in that famous question there, in the question 188, where in the last article, no, not the last, the eighth article, he speaks about the rank, the hierarchical order between the synoptical and the solitary life. And that article is really of great value, I think, for us, It preserves exactly, at least essentially, the teaching, traditional teaching, of the monastic fathers about the nature of the solitary life and the root for its preeminence.

[20:07]

And that is what I'm so anxious about, you know, that that idea is really kept, that there is a distinction And that this makes a great difference for a community life which is still open, or let us say, directed towards the eremitical life. And thus, or let us put it this way, does not exclude the eremitical life as its very blossoming. That is, to my mind, what St. Benedict has in mind. And that is what gives to his rule a very special character. And to my mind, many prescriptions of the rule can be understood only as long as we keep in mind that Saint Benedict wants to direct and train people for perfection.

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Rich perfection in its ideal and absolute status is really rich in the hermetical life. The very fact that that remains open and remains the ideal projects itself then into the preparation. Your preparation depends on your fitness. If the fitness is, at least as I say, ideal, I don't say for every individual, ideally remains the end that will have its great effect on the preparation which leads to it. Now, St. Thomas, in his article, explains what is the essence of perfection. I mean, what is, or let us put it this way, what is the essence of the solitary life, of the hermetical The medical life must be because it's solitary.

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Therefore, it has a meaning only if the individual which lives this life is self-sufficient. Self-sufficient, and that means perfect. That is the meaning of perfection. Perfection is self-sufficiency. That is, of course, a common principle, you know, a philosophical principle. God, the absolute perfection, is self-sufficiency. Therefore, the solitary life has only a meaning if that self-sufficiency is there. And then, of course, now comes the question, how do we reach the self-sufficiency? And there, St. Thomas said, in two ways. Either the self-sufficiency is given immediately, infused by grace, as, for example, in somebody like St.

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John the Baptist, St. John the Baptist, that fullness was infused, and therefore he left for the desert without any, for that matter, preparation. That is, I mean, that's the example he, you see, it also brings the other example, as for example, St. Anthony. St. Anthony, also St. Benedict, for that matter. Therefore, St. Thomas takes and accepts the possibility that somebody, through the intervention of divine grace, has the immediate vocation and is immediately ready for the heretical life. That possibility certainly is there. But then, in the course of the article, it also explains that that is, of course, a great exception. And then it is a great risk. And that's the sure way is, and that's the other way how one reaches perfection, and that is through schooling.

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But this schooling naturally is a matter of a school. That means it's a social matter. Nobody learns by himself. Whether he wants to learn, he has to enter into a school. and here the monastic, the social life. Therefore, the monastic life, synoptic life, as in the teaching, or according to the teaching of St. Thomas, then these two functions, the individual needs schooling, preparation for the hermitical life in two ways, in one way, through teaching. That means through illumination, the teaching and maturing of the cognoscitive faculties of the mind to prepare the mind for contemplation. And the other one is the ordering of the heart, of the emotions, the emotional life.

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And in those two ways, the regular or the community life take over and guide the rock and prepare him for the purely contemplative solitary life. In one way he is instructed by the teaching, and instead in the other way he is purified in his emotions through the social life of the commune. And in that way is made able then to become self-sufficient and to enter the solitary life. Then, of course, the question comes, now what about the objections against the solitary life? The first standard objection is that two are always more than one. But of course, that's again a principle not so expressed in Holy Scripture.

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Naturally, it's bad for man to be alone. Therefore, to be two or three is more than to be one. That said, Thomas answers, yes, as far as the preparation goes, that is true. As far as the status of perfection goes, it is not true. The second, then, objection is that the objection of charity. That this charity is an ease at the same breath. Again, St. Thomas says, as preparation, as cleanliness and perfection, the preparation, the training of the soul. for the perfection of charity must go through the active works of charity, must go through the means of the brethren. But the perfection of charity is the law of God for his own sake.

[27:45]

That's, of course, the famous question in controversy between what we call today the active life and the contemplative life. Naturally, the solitary life is life of perfection, is contemplative life in that sense that it is strictly the love of God for his own sake. Strictly, therefore, the love of God for his own sake. And this love of God for his own sake, where it is perfect, does never separate anyone who has it from the whole body of the church. Never. There is that true, what the sayings of the fathers have. He is the monk, he's away, separated from everybody, and still closer to everybody than anybody else. So the other one, the third one, is the question about obedience.

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Obedience is a necessary virtue. Again, St. Thomas answers, yes, obedience in the status and as preparation, absolutely true. It's the instrument for the renouncement of the self-will. But this school of obedience leads to the state again of perfection. And in that state of perfection, we solitary, we hermit, obeys the inner law of the spirit. And he is not, for that matter, subject to an external authority of another father but it's the spirit that takes over and that is here in st thomas so interesting he has exactly the same teaching as cashel has the tradition of teaching that which also is evident in the first chapter of Saint Benedict the solitary life does not have a rule or an habit for that matter therefore is not subject to an external rule but is subject only to the internal rule of the Holy Spirit then the other thing the other objection is yes but

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the church as a whole would profit so much if the solitary the perfect the monk would not withdraw that is the other standard objection which is here in the articles the fourth objection to which again St. Thomas answers with the words of St. Augustine, that those who live in this way as perfecting, not as dilettantes, but as perfecting the solitary life, mean and have a tremendous meaning indeed for the entire church through their very being, not through their actual contact with this or that one, but through their very being. They are an instrument in the hands of God, and they are a means and mediator in which the grace of God is, in a very specific and efficacious way, called down upon the Church as a whole.

[31:09]

And also the very fact that people know that the church has solitaries, that means those who are worthy and cannot be seen according to the body still has a tremendous spiritual influence on the other members of the church. even if they only know that they exist without having a real, let us say, experimental contact with them. And then the fifth objection is, yes, but the solitary life, is that not really, let us say, much more a life which is modeled on the a scheme or the pattern of the wild beast. And there, St. Thomas answers and says, yes, that is absolutely true. I mean, true and it's false, you know, but one can become a solitary for two reasons, either because one is a beast, that means one has never learned to live together with other people in a human way,

[32:24]

And while it shuns the effort or runs away from it, you know, that is the, it says in that way, man can be a solitary protosevician. Because for the lack of real, of real, what can I say, of real coaching, protosevician, he has never entered really into the field of human living, as human living. Or one can be a solitaire against opto-perfectionem. Therefore, he says, solitaire, one is a solitaire, he's either a beast or a god. Then let us do this.

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