I have been doing a lot of thinking in the past about what I
have discovered is actually a thing – the Benedict Option, a term perhaps first
coined by Rod Dreher, In essence it is
the idea that Christians need to follow the lead of St. Benedict of Nursia and
find ways of living in community that will foster the growth and development of
a deeper Christian character and culture.
It comes out of the conviction that we are facing a culture that is
increasingly hostile to the exercise robust, orthodox Christian belief and
practice.
At the same time, much of the Church is becoming ever more
accommodating to the culture. In our
efforts to reach out and attract people to Christian faith, we have
soft-peddled much of the doctrine of the Church that is Unattractive to the
convictions of the Zeitgeist.
St. Benedict saw a pagan culture hostile to Christian belief
and practice and did two things. He,
with a community of others, withdrew to live their life of prayer, teaching and
devotion that fostered the growth of Christian virtue. And he and that community served the pagan
culture around them in acts of charity and mercy.
Withdraw to grow in virtue as a community and engage in
works of charity (in the Latin caritas
sense of that word). This is a much more
radical expression of Christian faith than what we have understood to be Church
in the West in the past 50 or more years.
It is radical because this kind of community necessarily means giving up
some of our autonomy. And radical
autonomy is just one of the aspects of the current culture that has infected
the church.
Let me think about that autonomy in the sense of making
career decisions. As an autonomous
secularist I think about a job offer and decide if I want to take it. As a Christian I “prayerfully consider” the
option and then make my decision. I am
wondering, in practice, what is the difference between the secularist and the Christian
in the above example. One is impious and
one pious but each reaches his own conclusion autonomously because, after all,
what job I take is nobody’s business but my own. That may be true for the secularist but it is
not for the Christian. Are you
uncomfortable yet? I am.
A number of months ago I was in that very situation. A job offer came to me unexpectedly. I wasn’t
even looking for a job. I “prayerfully
considered” it but I also did something else.
I sought the counsel and direction of the community to which I am
subject. In conversation with close
brothers and sisters in the faith as well as with my Bishop and the council of
Canons of our diocese of which I am part, I looked for discernment.
Now here is what was remarkable about this. First,
I freely gave myself to this process of discernment and (I think) was quite
willing to be subject to any direction that might come out of this. Part of the reason for this is that these are
people I trust (one definition of community, if you think about it) but another
part is because I am subject to the Church.
Second, no one took this as an opportunity to tell me what
to do or to get me to follow his or her agenda.
(It in not always only the Lord who “has a wonderful plan for my
life.) This was a process of mutual
submission out of reverence for Christ.
The truth is, as a servant of Christ, what job I take is, in fact, the
business of people other than me.
I am not here proposing some sick authoritarian Church
community organization that has more to do with controlling people than seeing
them fulfilling God’s purpose for them in their generation. There is plenty of that. That is authority and submission enforced. I am talking about something freely
chosen. I was under no obligation to seek
the counsel of any of these people. I
would certainly be under the obligation to inform my Bishop of any decision I
had taken. Informing and seeking
direction are two very different things.
We all of us knew that, in the end, I was responsible for my
decision, that whatever counsel or direction given I would do the choosing and
reap the fruit, good or bad, of that decision.
That never goes away. We all
remain accountable for our individual decisions. But as Christians we discern decisions in
community – not decisions as to what socks to wear today, but the big ones.
What I am proposing for radical community of discernment and
for growth in virtue is open to abuses of power and authority. And it will always be because we are
sinners. But the “nobody’s business but
my own” Christian model, where church community means shaking hands at coffee
hour* has not produced the kind of Christian character which is needed for
Christians today. And it isn’t going to.
*This may be a simplistic and even uncharitable depiction of
the Church in North America but as a whole I think we are shallow believers who
are unlikely to remain constant in the faith if it gets uncomfortable. Please note I use the pronoun “we”. I take myself to be part of this failure.
