SUMMARY. Importance of the end in the human life. -- I. " To seek God", the end of the Monastic Life. II. To seek God in all things. III. To seek Him only. IV. Precious fruits of this search. V. How Christ Jesus is the perfect Model of this seeking after God. HEN we examine the Rule of St. Benedict, we see W very clearly that he presents it only as an abridge ment of Christianity, and a means of practising the Christian Life in its fulness and perfection. We find the great Patriarch declaring from the first lines. of the Prologue of his Rule, that he only addresses those who wish to return to God under Christ's leadership. And in ending the monastic code he declares that he proposes the accomplishment of this rule to whomsoever, through the help of Christ, hasteneth to the heavenly country: Quisquis ergo ad patriam caelestem festinas, hanc... regulam descriptam, adjuvante Christo, perfice1. To his mind, the Rule is but a simple and very safe guide for leading to God. In writing it, St. Benedict does not wish to institute anything beyond or beside the Christian life: he does not assign to his monks any special work as a particular end to be pursued; the end is, as he says, to seek God": Si revera quaerit Deum2. This is what he requires, before all, of those who come to knock at the door of the monastery to be there received as monks; in this disposition he resumes all the others; it gives, as it were, the key to all his teaching, and determines the mode of life he wishes to see led by his sons. This is the end that he proposes, and this is why we ought always to have this end before our eyes, to examine it frequently, and above all only to act in view of it. You know that every man, as a free and reasonable creature, acts from some deliberate motive. Let us imagine ourselves in a great city like London. At certain hours of the day the streets are thronged with people; it is like a moving army. It is the ebb and flow of a human sea. Men are coming and going, elbowing their way, passing to and fro, 1. Holy Rule ch. LXXIII. — 2. Ibid. ch. LVIII. Christ, the Ideal of the Monk. 1 almost Each one and all this rapidly for time is money, without exchanging any signs among themselves. of these innumerable beings is independent of the others, and has his own particular end in view. Quid quaerunt? What are they seeking, these thousands and thousands of men who are hurrying in the City? Why are they in such haste ? Some are in search of pleasure, others pursue honours; these are urged on by the fever of ambition, those by the thirst of gold; the greater number are in quest of daily bread. From time, to time, a lady goes to visit the poor; a Sister of Charity seeks Jesus Christ in the person of the sick; unnoticed, a priest passes by, the pyx hidden upon his breast, as he carries the Viaticum to the dying... But out of this immense crowd pursuing created things, only a very small number are working for God alone. And yet the influence of the motive is predominant in the value of our actions. See these two men who are embarking together for a far-off destination. Both leave country, friends, family; landing on a foreign shore, they penetrate into the interior of the country; exposed to the same dangers, they cross the same rivers and the same mountains; the sacrifices they impose upon themselves are the same. But the one is a merchant urged on by the greed of gold, the other is an apostle seeking souls. And this is why, although the human eye can scarcely discern the difference, an abyss which God alone can measure separates the lives of these two men ; this abyss has been created by the motive. Give a cup of water to a beggar, a coin to a poor man; if you do so in the name of Jesus Christ, that is to say from a supernatural motive of grace, and because in this poor man you see Christ Who said: As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me1," your action is pleasing to God; and this cup of water, which is nothing, this small coin, will not remain without a reward. But pour out handfuls of gold into the hand of this poor man in order to pervert him on this account alone, your action becomes abominable. Thus then, the motive from which we act, the end that we pursue, and that is as it were to direct our whole life, is for us of capital importance. Never forget this truth: a man is worth that which he seeks, that to which he is attached. Are you seeking God? are you tending towards Him with all the fervour of your soul? However little removed you may be from nothingness by your condition of creature, you raise yourself, because you 1. I Matth. xxv, 40. unite yourself to the infinitely perfect Being. Are you seeking the creature? gold, pleasures, honours, satisfaction of pride, that is to say yourself under all these forms? Then, however great you may be in the sight of men, you are just worth as much this creature, you lower yourself to its level, and the baser it is, the more you debase yourself. A poor Sister of Charity, a simple Lay Brother, who, seeking God spend their lives in humble and obscure labours in order to accomplish the Divine will, are incomparably greater in the sight of God - Whose judgment alone matters, for He is eternal than a man who has heaped up riches, or is surrounded with honours, or lives only for pleasures. Yes, a man is worth what he seeks. This is why St. Benedict, who shows us the adepts of the cenobitical life as "the most strong race", coenobitarum foriissimum genus1, requires so supernatural and perfect a motive from one who wishes to embrace this career: the motive and ambition of possessing God, si revera Deum quaerit 2. But, you may say, what is it to what means are we to find Him? in such a way that we may find. seek God? ” And by For it is needful to seek the whole programme; to find God and remain habitually united to Him by the bonds of faith and love, in this lies all perfection. Let us see what it is to seek God; let us consider the conditions of this seeking; we shall next see the fruits that it brings to whomsoever applies himself to it. We shall have pointed out at the same time, with the end that we pursue, the path that will lead us to perfection and beatitude. For if we truly seek God, nothing will prevent us from finding Him, and, in Him, we shall possess all good. We must seek God. I. Is But is God in some place where He must be sought? He not everywhere? Assuredly, as we know, God is in every being by His Presence, by His Power, and by His Essence. In God the operation is not separated from the active virtue whence it is derived, and the power is identical with the essence. In every being, God operates by sustaining it in existence 3. In this manner God is in every creature, for all exist and continue to exist only by an effect of the Divine action that 1. Holy Rule, ch. 1. — 2. Ibid. ch. LVIII. 3. S. Thomas, II Sentent. Dist. XXXVII, q. I, a. 2. |