As we celebrate St. Benedict the Abbot, patron of Europe, this coming week (July 11), we remember how he managed both to escape “the world” and, at the same time, to radically transform it.
In 2017 Rod Dreher wrote The Bene dict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation. In the book, Dreher argues that Christians should retreat from mainstream society, which is falling into a post-modern barbarism, and develop their own, albeit small, counterculture. Like St. Benedict in the 6th century, when one is surrounded by evil, one may retreat to a mountain and reestablish civilization in exile.
Of course, Benedict tried to live a life of solitude but found that monks and others came to him for advice and direc tion. Under constant pressure, he realized that he would have to become an Abbot and take on the responsibility of leading other monks. With his desire to escape the problems of society, Benedict must have been sensitive to how “they pull me back in” as Al Pacino says in The Godfather: Part 3. Indeed, the monks would later try to poison him they needed a lot of help! Still, Benedict would go on to write a rule of life that would guide countless communities of monks and become a foundational document for western civilization.
Benedict helped to trans form the society he sought to flee. Now, in a world with nuclear weapons and other global problems, can we really hope to escape? Won’t the world and its problems just follow us to our mountain retreat? The Germanic tribes, the “barbarians” that crushed the Roman Empire and ushered in so much of the violence in Benedict’s time, were ultimately converted to Catholi cism and peace, in part, thanks to the very monasteries that Benedict and his successors founded. It seems that Benedict’s best option was to evangelize, and, in spite of his initial in tentions, he did.
Father Oscar is in Venezuela and is safe and having a good time. We ask for the continued prayers for his journey and his return to San Pablo Church.
Blessings,
Fr. Daniel Martin
Visiting Priest