Every night at Compline, we reflect on a short passage from the Rule to remind us of what we are striving to live, and to listen to what the Lord may have to say to us. We offer here our own personal and anonymous reflections, contributed to by the whole community. We hope that, by sharing in our spiritual life, you will be able to explore further your own.
Running towards the Kingdom of God
“We will never arrive unless we run to the Kingdom by doing good deeds”. Benedict returns to the theme of urgency, of running. A few lines back, he had encouraged his hearers to “run while you have the light of life”. God has made an offer – long life and good days – we would be foolish to turn that offer down, foolish not to accept it gladly and eagerly. And Benedict then starts to “flesh out” what that idea of running with good works actually means. He takes some verses from Ps.14 (15) and starts to set out the Lord’s teaching. And crucially, Benedict starts with what might seem very ordinary things – acting without sin, dealing fairly, speaking the truth, avoiding gossip, respecting the men and women around us. Benedict says himself that he is writing a “little Rule for beginners” – and so he starts at the beginning. There is nothing here about the heights of contemplative prayer, or mystic union or spiritual heroism. Rather, from the very outset, the Rule is grounded on that greatest commandment of Jesus in the Gospel: to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbour as yourself.
In the background to Benedict’s idea of running may be two things. In the first place, on the morning of the Resurrection, John tells us that Peter and John run to the empty tomb when the news of Jesus’ resurrection first breaks. For them, the empty tomb is a matter of life and death – quite literally. They run, they see and they believe – and from then on they are changed. They have seen Jesus’ promise fulfilled, and after that they really never stop running, running to tell what they have heard and seen.
Paul too uses the image of “running the race” several times in his letters, most particularly in 1 Cor. 9:24ff. Our running is not to be aimless, but focussed on “winning the prize”, on entering the Kingdom. Earthly athletes train and compete for a perishable prize, an “earthly wreath”. For us, the prize is so much greater, the promise of a share in God’s eternal blessedness, and that makes all the training and discipline worthwhile.
Benedict picks up this imagery of “training” and “discipline” in his comments about the “evil one”, the Devil. In biblical tradition, the Devil is the accuser, the tempter, the one who offers false and easy ways to attain a desired goal – just as he did in the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, where he offers the “easy path” to knowledge. Benedict warns us that – in reality – there are no shortcuts, no easy paths. The way to life will need training, will need discipline. Perhaps to modern ears, such talk of a “Devil” seems a little out-moded, old-fashioned. But we are all only too well aware of temptation, all too well aware of our own ability to seek the easy way, to get what we want without too much effort. And Benedict says we should dash those temptations “against Christ” before they grow strong. Again, he is using a biblical image – that Christ was the Rock that followed the people of Israel in the desert, the rock from which water poured forth for them (cf. 1 Cor.10:4 & Ex. 17:6 / Num. 20:11). Perhaps it is easier for us to think of that image in a different way. If Christ is the rock on which we stand, if Christ is the measure of our life, then perhaps it is good for us to look at him whenever we are tempted, to look at the example of his life, to look at the pattern of his death. Everything he did was done in love, a love which calls forth love from us – and it is that love above all which will, in the end, help us resist temptation.
Find last week's reflection here.