July 11, 2005
As Saint Benedict’s feast day comes around this year, there is no doubt that he is getting a little more attention these days due to our new Pope Benedict XVI. There was a flurry of theories as to why he would take this name, but it is clearly evident in a number of his published works, including Salt of the Earth (Ignatius Press), that our beloved pontiff has always had a great love for Saint Benedict’s spirituality and an appreciation for his role in handing on the faith in Europe.
I find it surprising that Saint Benedict began his monasteries right next door to Assisi, where Saint Francis began his (dis)order (!) 700 years later. It seems that their personalities were quite different, although we really don’t know much about Saint Benedict’s personal history. In fact, he was virtually unknown during his lifetime outside of the two small monasteries that he oversaw. However, the Lord was able to use him with his humble but fiery zeal for prayer to influence all of Western monasticism and European history in a major way. The spiritual wisdom and insightful balance of the Rule that he wrote for his two humble monasteries was so inspired that it eventually became the guide for almost all of the monasteries. These monks were truly the “salt of the earth”, or at least the salt of the European continent, as they preserved the Christian faith and culture during very dark and unstable times.
If one looks through the lens of faith, Europe is once again in dark and unstable times. The horrible effects of terrorism are minor compared with the effects of the erosion and hostility toward the Christian faith. A barrister from England was telling me recently how quickly religious rights for Christians are being taken away as English law is superceded by European Union law. From his perspective, it looks like the proverbial snowball rolling downhill.
In the face of this, we may see the Church preserved by small groups of persecuted Catholics in Europe, as Pope Benedict was predicting many years ago. In the U.S., there is still at least a recognizable Christian majority, even though standards of morality often differ from the Gospel. When I was living at our friary in England, it was very pleasantly surprising to me when I would visit back in the States and hear someone say “God bless you” in public or any other public display of faith. We have something here to offer our brothers and sisters in Europe. Most importantly, we must offer what Saint Benedict offered – an ongoing prayer for the growth of Christian faith, hope, and charity throughout the world.
Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR
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