St. Benedict of Nursia is believed to have been born in the year 480. In the sixth century he wrote his Rule for monastic life, which became a foundational work which remains influential and formative for monastic life today. In the fourth chapter of this Rule, St. Benedict writes: “Prefer nothing to the love of Christ”.
This singular pursuit of Christ beckons to all the baptized as we begin our Advent journey.
In today’s Gospel (Luke 10: 21-24) “Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” and spoke of his relationship with the Father and how he wishes to share this with all of us. He goes on to speak with his disciples: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
I saw recently where the Oxford English Dictionary chose ‘brain rot’ as the Word of the Year. The same dictionary defines brain rot (sometimes collapsed to brainrot) as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.”
This cultural reality is one demonstration of why the ‘true north’ of the human spirit is for God – and for the Christian – is for Christ. Advent is a good time for taking inventory of the pursuits of my own heart which have led to dead ends and to rediscover what (Who) gives true life – Jesus Christ.
In his book Disarming Beauty, Julian Carron uses a story of a child in Disneyland to further illustrate this point. He writes:
If two parents bring their child to Disneyland, we can easily imagine that the child will be amazed by all of the attractions with which he can have fun. If we are attentive to his reactions, one after another, we will also be struck by the fascination that reality is able to provoke in him. Everything is perceived as positive. But if, by chance, the child is separated from his parents and gets lost in the middle of the crowd, everything changes. The reality is the same as before, but the perception of it has changed. Radically. He doesn’t feel it to be friendly, but threatening, hostile. And only when he finds his parents can the true perception of reality be restored.
page 198
Yesterday after a reception a woman came up to me and with deep conviction told me: “Please, tell all the people to invite Jesus into their lives as their Lord and Savior”. She shared she did not know the beauty of knowing Christ personally until she was in her thirties, and how it changed her life. We do receive the Lord into our lives through the Sacraments, through listening to God’s Word, through selfless acts of charity, and there is so much more to experience once we become convinced of God’s love and the gift of salvation that is ours through Jesus Christ!
This Advent, let us truly prefer nothing to the love of Christ!
Peace!
7