Memorial of Saint Benedict, abbot

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071112.cfm

Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
"Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'"

As we celebrate the Feast of Saint Benedict we should remember one of the paradoxes of church history: monks are very effective missionaries. Thomas Cahill, in his book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, tells the story of the educated, sophisticated monks who traveled from Ireland during the latter half of the first millennium. Saint Columban is perhaps the best remembered. At the ripe age of fifty he set out for the continent with a hardy group of men. They established several monasteries in France and Italy. Because he spoke the truth as he saw it, he was run out of several regions, only to set up another foundation somewhere else.

The Irish built schools where the illiterate aristocrats – we’d call them war lords or gangsters today – sent their sons to be educated. In the schools they learned to read and write and – at least as important – table manners, etiquette and deportment. Eventually, the Columban rule would be set aside in preference to Saint Benedict’s, but his influence survives to this day.

The students who flocked to the monasteries for learning also encountered Jesus Christ and his peaceful gospel. Evangelization – proclaiming 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand'"-- is not something that happens overnight. It doesn’t even happen in one or two generations. Try thousands of years! The gospel must sink into the stone foundations of the earth, and rise in magnificent cathedrals. Even those who believe they are irreligious experience the civilizing, Christian effects of the schools.

People think of monks and nuns as isolated, out-of-touch and apparently idle. More often they are well-read, very well connected and industrious. Where they settle they build and stay and influence their neighbors for hundreds of years.

They demonstrate peace by their manner of life. Indeed the monastery is a factory of peace. You might think it’s easy to withdraw to a life of solitude but try sitting next to an older person in the chapel, in the dining room, the study hall, and the workroom for fifty years – who continually sniffles, or itches and scratches, or smells of various noxious gases. Try to admire this Christian as better than yourself, as persona Christi. After a while you will cry, “With man it is impossible but not for God. With God all things are possible. Or at least you hope so.

For many centuries and, hopefully, until the end of time, the Church is warmed by the furnace of prayer we know as monasteries.

Saint Benedict, with his precious Rule, taught the world what it means to be Christian. And every Christian, whether he knows it or not, sits at his feet.