"But as we advance in the religious life and faith, we shall run the way of God’s commandments with expanded hearts and unspeakable sweetness of love; so that never departing from His guidance and persevering in the monastery in His doctrine till death, we may by patience share in the sufferings of Christ, and be found worthy to be coheirs with Him of His kingdom."
Here we conclude the Preamble of the Rule as read over the course of an entire week.
The jist of what we have read is that the conversion of life requires the humility to obey your superior (and your spiritual inheritance), the fortitude to endure correction, and the hope in believing that you are worth saving. That is the short of it.
Of the three, the latter part is not well-known in the monastic order of life because it potentially smacks of pride. Then again, it is not we ourselves who are saying it so much as Jesus Christ who reveals the will of His Father that all might be called to share in His redemption ("many are called, few are chosen" strongly implies the divine will that all be potentially saved even if that outcome won't come to pass.).
In this sense, all austerity, mortification of the will, and the breaking of vice's deathgrip on the novice's weakened nature anticipates the peace of Christ that comes to each of His true companions who abandon themselves to His infinite merits.
This is not perfection on our part but His own-- as only God is truly good and perfect-- but it is a reorientation of the will on our part in cooperation with the Holy Ghost towards authentic conversion each and every day. We endeavor truly to keep His grace and to want however defectively yet sincerely to remain in His light.
Sincerity in the face of His truth, goodness, and beauty is all that is required. If maintained, all else will work itself out.
Add comment
Comments