Evangelization is the process by which we teach men the way to God as taught by God, Himself. Since God’s ways are never man’s ways, the search for this knowledge could cause some distress. Well, not really. It can look complicated as found in the New Testament, but St. Benedict of Norcia, a saint Pope Benedict referred to as “my Patron since my election to the Petrine ministry”, simplified it. Sort of “How to go to heaven for dummies.”
St. Benedict had no intention of evangelizing Europe or saving Roman civilization. He was guiding simple peasants who wanted to seek God, by writing a summary of the New Testament with some explanations from the Fathers of the Church on what are the commandments of Christ and how to put those commandments into a way of life that leads to union with God. He wrote the “Rule” intending it to be a way of life for the “male peasants he was guiding.” Thus his monasteries for men. Evangelization begins with oneself seeking God. Only after you have found God can you show Him to others.
When these men became fervent in their faith, their families, wives, sons and daughters wanted to follow. So St. Benedict gathered them in small towns at the borders beside but outside his monasteries. As the young men progressed in their spiritual life he would allow them to enter the monastery proper; and in the case of the young women, he placed them in their own monasteries, similar to that of St. Scholastica.
The families living at the border towns of the monasteries followed,also, the Rule of St. Benedict in their own homes. And note the wisdom of this arrangement. This was the beginnings of a miniature Catholic Church…many Christian homes united by one way of life based on the New Testament and Fathers of the Church. We could almost see the Catholic Church existing and expanding, living one, holy, Catholic and an apostolic life. The brilliant arrangement and the continuous expansion would eventually become Christian Europe. Our Holy Father, Benedict XVI is praying the same thing would happen today.
Let us look at Monte Cassino, one of St. Benedict’s more popular monastery. The monks were within the monastery walls living according to the Gospel. We also know St. Scholastica, Benedict’s twin sister, was living with other women within a monastery. The question was: what was the way of life of the families with their sons and daughters in the border towns of the monasteries?
St. Benedict was not ignorant of the Tradition of the Catholic Church. His Rule was for monasteries exclusively for men or exclusively for women. It was applicable for those living as a family, too. But the Rule had no provision for several entire families living in community. Benedict did not have to write a separate Rule because there was the Long Rule of St. Basil for the purpose. In Chapter 73 he reminds us that the monastic community could grow to a point where there will be many families who would want to live together as a monastic community. There must be provisions for sons and daughters. St. Basil had disciplinary rules for these.
While St. Benedict’s Rule is for individuals living together, it is also for a family Christianizing its home. The Rule of St. Basil is for several or many entire families living together the Gospel. Both Rules are essentially the same. The slight difference is that St. Basil made disciplinary rules for entire families.
Like the writings of all the Fathers of the Church, the Rules of Sts. Benedict and Basil were for evangelization…to make good Christians of men and women. All the Rules of the founders of religious orders were for the same purpose; to be holy. This was the classical way of evangelization. Today. Benedict’s monasticism has not been tried and found wanting. It was found difficult and never tried again, as Gilbert Chesterton would say. It is fitting that our present Holy Father is bent on trying it….. for just one last time? (Picture above is St. Benedict with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the child Jesus by L. Giordano.)