Our Benedictine brother from St. Vincent was out again yesterday to give a conference to the community. His theme is the title above. The twins he is referring to are Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica, a timely reflection as February 10 is the Feast of Saint Scholastica. We hope you enjoy the following extracts as much as we enjoyed his conference.
Again and again the saints of old have witnessed to the intimacy necessary for a spiritual life. Without spousal spirituality, monastic life is impossible. We nun and monks cannot be people near to the Lord God unless we respond to the call to loneliness, the summons to intimacy. Indeed, loneliness is the cost we pay for love...
The beautiful tradition of the twins speaks to the need man has for companionship. We cannot know ourselves without the recognition of another human being. From the closeness of the twins, Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica, in the womb of their mother, we have an icon of the mystery of deep prayer. In the womb of our Blessed Mother, in the garden of the New Eve the Holy Spirit encircles our bodies and dances with our souls. In this holy shrine of tenderness, we recognize the presence of another who is made in the same image and likeness, who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Such a companion is not wooed, is not sought, is not pursued. Indeed, from before birth we have the awareness of companionship and of self. We know that Someone is near and we are not alone. This earliest awareness of the self and the other makes a permanent impression and a life long memory. We cannot know who we are without reference to the other who is so close. The gift of companionship within the womb creates in our heart the confidence upon which we can build a life and the goal toward which our life tends. Such is the holy teaching at the origins of the monastic movement and our personal appropriation of solitude and communion...
Loneliness is most often the result of selfishness, however there is another experience of loneliness that comes from love. When we fall in love it's unbearable not to be near the beloved. We are constantly preoccupied with the memories of the beloved. It is difficult to pay attention to anything or anyone else. The beloved becomes a seal on our hearts. We keep the beloved close to the center of our being, to the place deep within whence come our commitment and our dreams. Indeed, we cannot think about anything whatever without including a thought of the beloved. The beloved is a seal on our hearts. The beloved is also a seal on our arms. It is with all our strength that we love; we can move mountains for the beloved. Indeed, nothing will get in the way of our reunion with the beloved. Such devotion is as stern as death, as relentless as the nether world; a blazing fir is its flames. Nothing is more intense than love -- not dying, not hell, not even hellfire... The last thing Saint Scholastica or her brother can imagine is for someone to try and purchase love. No one could buy tenderness and affection, and anyone who tries is severely ridiculed. Such is the love that binds the hearts and arms of those who have given themselves completely to "The One who first loved them." Beyond all words, this love. It cannot ever be sung, such love. That which binds the lover and the beloved is stronger than the connection between twins from the womb to the tomb...
Only if the suffering of loneliness touches our hearts do we find our union with Christ, the friend of sinners, the lover of the lonely. Intimacy is forged out of our deepest longing, our long lasting emptiness, our painful purifying darkness. Here and only here do we come to know how loved we are, how cherished we are by the God who is love. Indeed, God cannot love us more than He does at this very moment; God will not love us less no matter how we respond or fail to respond to his love; God loves us without regret; God loves us without hesitation; God loves us eternally. Such love summons us out of our loneliness and to intimacy. Indeed, we are loved in our darkest moments by the one who suffered abandonment as he abandoned himself upon the altar of the cross...
Saint Scholastica was attentive to her approaching death, and she wanted to give her brother this opportunity to share the good things of heaven before she died. Brother and sister both are looking forward to the eternal banquet, but before they arrive at their heavenly home they share in the food that wisdom supplies us on the journey. Both of the twins needed to learn that the Lord's ways are not our ways. In the Eucharist we too need to taste and see that the Lord is good, good beyond our wildest expectations all along the journey and even at our destination...
