Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Recently in my reading I came across something that stayed with me: “Renunciation is not giving up the good things of this life but accepting that they go away.” In this view, renunciation is not about willpower but acceptance and surrender. The monk, who is characterized by renunciation, comes to be seen not as a spiritual athlete, but under the aspect of mourning.

Jesus speaks of worldly treasures that moth and decay can destroy. Pleasure, power, wealth, status, achievement, anything we can grow attached to fades away before long. Only the spiritual transformation brought about by grace endures. “The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of the Lord remains…”

Just as the eye is the “lamp” of the body the spirit is the lamp of the human person. It needs to be placed on the lampstand of the heart to give light to every facet of our experience, our memories, sensations and thoughts; and to all the dimensions of our daily lives, from the banal to the most exalted.

Essential to developing the life of the spirit is the sustained practice of stillness and silence. As our body grows still the turbulent swirl of passions, obsessions and memories emerges into view. As we attend and get close to these passing thoughts and impulses we grow in self-knowledge and become more grounded. With patience, in silence, we find that they settle and like Elijah we hear the “still, small voice” after the storm and crashing rocks.

As contemplative monks we need to practice and not merely talk about stillness and silence. When we do, all the different aspects of our lives fall into right perspective. It grows easier not to cling to what we can see is fading away. We see clearly there is in fact nothing to hold onto. While this may be alarming it can also bring a sense of exhilaration. All is grass  that withers and flowers that fade, but the word of grace God speaks through our conversion endures.