The small voice of silence points to the Lamb of God who carried away the sin of man when without opening his mouth he was led to the slaughter to die for those who were God's enemies. There is in the life of St. Benedict a lovely episode which holds its significance parallel to Elias' vision on Mount Horeb. which had brought the harsh advocate of God's wrath and judgment to a deeper realization of divine mercy. St. Benedict had become the father of a large monastic family on the top of Monte Cassino. The burden of responsibility was weighing heavily on his shoulders. As abbot, he wanted to be what his title indicated. He wanted to teach not only through words but also through his example.

[01:02]

His sister Scholastica lived at the foot of Monte Cassino in a small convent of nuns. Only once a year the strict abbot would leave his monastery to visit his sister. One can easily guess how much spiritual profit she derived from these conversations and how eagerly she expected them and how fast they passed. This year she knew that the bridegroom was knocking at the door of her soul, that the day was imminent on which she was going to be called from this earthly exile into the hall where the king's son was celebrating his wedding feast. She knew this would be their last visit, and in the wise simplicity of the dove she directed the conversation to the joys of the heavenly life. Faster than ever did this earthly time pass. Probably it was already a little late when her brother rose in haste to get back to his monastery at the appointed hour.

[02:09]

But St. Scholastica knew that this was the hour of love rather than that of the law, that the last wish of a sister's heart had greater weight in the eyes of God than the letter of the rule. she asked him to stay, and when he sternly refused, she appeared from her brother's sense of duty to a Heavenly Father's infinite love. And so intimate was her union with the mystery of God's will at this moment, that before she raised her face from that pouring out of her inmost heart to God, a sudden cloud burst, made it impossible for St. Benedict, to leave, indicating to him that the will of God was in the entreaties of his sister rather than in the commandment of the rule. Since then, the monks of St.

[03:11]

Benedict do not cease to praise his sister, because at this moment she was more powerful with God because she loved more. This incident showed St. Benedict that higher, and the zeal for the observance of the law, which lived in him as a soldier of Christ and as a leader of his monks, stood in the eyes of God that compassionate understanding for the needs of the heart, which only charity is able to teach. The patriarch of the monks learned that in all dealings with souls, the justice of the father must be made full by the love of the mother. This was the gift he received from his sister in return for the rule he had taught her. The prayer of St. Scholastica was the small voice of silence which opened to St. Bennig the abyss of God's heart.

[04:13]

Like Elias, he rose beyond the realm of fear into the chaste liberty of love. Now only is the story of his conversion told completely. Whoever wants to save his soul certainly has to renounce the indifference, the frivolity, the prompts of the world. He cannot serve two lords. He has to turn away from Satan, and he has to set his face toward Christ. Like a skilled athlete, he will also have to conquer his flesh in the power of the Spirit. but the turning away from the world and from the flesh is not enough if it does not lead to charity, which is the fullness of the law. What I mean by charity is clear from the example of Elias on Mount Horeb and of St. Benedict's last conversion from the letter to the Spirit, from fear to love, under the guidance of his sister.

[05:16]

It is the entering into the peace of God, the realization that the Heavenly Father has turned with his whole heart to the child of his adoption. At the essence of God is love, and his infinite love for us is our life, the source to which we constantly return to be renewed in our inmost heart and to begin again when our fallen nature had failed. The conversion from the world to God is a withdrawal, a renouncement in the spirit of a holy fear, and in compunction of heart. The conquest of the flesh is a victory, won in the strength which flows into our hearts from the risen Lord. But the most important step in our spiritual life is our entering into the peace which springs from the constant remembrance of the Father's infinite love for those whom He has adopted as His children through the cross of His Son.

[06:22]

It is this peace which radiated from the face of our Holy Father Benedict and which represents the deepest yearning of his disciples. The 21st of March describes it to us. The man of the Lord Benedict was of a peaceful face, adorned with angelic virtues, and such clarity radiated from him that even while he was still here on earth, He seemed already to dwell in heaven. You see, my dear brethren in Christ, his various conversions did not leave St. Benedict a cripple or a prisoner. He left the world, it is true, but he found God in the silent depth of his soul. He inflicted wounds upon his flesh, but by that his spirit was freed. And when he realized that the tears of his sister were more powerful with God than his own sense of duty, he entered into that peace which nobody could ever take away from him.

[07:30]

If you follow in the footsteps of St. Benedict, renouncing the world and its pomps, conquering the desires of the flesh and surrendering completely to God's love for you, you will enter into the same peace. The road of the monastic life is narrow in the beginning, but don't be afraid that this narrowness will ever cripple you. On the contrary, it will make you free. If the gates were broad, you would carry with you all the luggage loaded with the junk which you thought was so vital to you when you were in the world, your ambitions, your sensitivities, the props of your self-respect, the things you owe to yourself, your lovable faults, the idols of your pet ideas, your self-sufficiency, your self-assurance, and whatnot.

[08:42]

All these things contribute to swell you up, but you cannot enter through the narrow gate of obedience as long as you are swollen. Drink the bitter chalice of humility. It takes away the swelling. Do you lose anything by that? You lose your pride, but your pride is only the wind which blows you up beyond the God-given proportions of your true measure. For the sake of God's truth, have the courage to see yourself reduced to solid graveness. Then you can be put as a stone into the temple of His glory. Such a process is not a deformation of your God-given self, but its liberation.

[09:47]

The chains are being broken, which kept you for so long a prisoner of your vanity. You enter into the freedom of the children of God. The joys of heaven are yours. Only when you begin to withdraw again and keep for yourself what you had given already, then the joy will fade and you will become sour. It would be really a poor life not to be able to have the world and yet to be without God, to be dead to this world and yet to be lacking all spiritual joy. then you have lost on both sides, with God and with the world. But to serve God freely and joyfully with your whole heart, what a glorious life that is!

[10:54]

To embrace the delight and the love of Christ with a pure and sincere heart, what a joy that is! To leave love For true love, how lovable that is. How free you are, how young you are, how beautiful you are. Because you have ceased to be yours, because you are God's. And this is what it means.

[11:26]

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