Pope Benedict XVI and Don Giussani were, in some way, nurtured spiritually in Sacro Speco, Subiaco, the cave where St. Benedict stayed after running away from paganized Rome. In an address on “Europe in the crisis of culture” in Subiaco, which Giussani frequented with the young, then Cardinal Ratzinger noted the wisdom of St. Benedict in being able to present the entire Gospel in an easy and simple form for beginners in the spiritual life, “To put nothing to the love of Christ.”
Caves have a symbolic meaning in Christianity. When Christ decided to become man, he was born in a cave. And it was there that the shepherd and Magi found Him. It symbolized a way of life completely different from the ways of the world. This was the definition of “metanoia” or conversion given by Pope Benedict XVI in his “The New Evangelization.” There was nothing new really. He just showed how to do it right!
Isn’t this the aim of the World’s Youth Day and of every Catholic? In Cologne, where reportedly the relics of the Magi are, the motto is “We have come to worship Him.” We must first know the way to seek God through the Catechism, we must actually seek Him through obedience to the commands of Christ learned from the Gospel and summarized by St. Benedict, and hopefully find and worship Him.
When the Israelites left Egypt with its fleshpots and went to the desert, it was in order to worship God. The shepherds were out of the city, in the fields watching their flocks. St. Benedict, also, felt he had to leave his studies in the city and go to a cave in order to worship God. Abraham had to leave the city of Ur and dwell for a while in the desert. Is it any wonder why caves and deserts which Christ, Himself, frequented were important places for the first Christians… and are now being pointed to us by Pope Benedict XVI?
Well, the caves and deserts (and forests and boats) were the symbols of the monastic life. It is the place where we find Christ, the place were the Israelites found God. It is the place where we can come to worship Him. But we must first “flee the world” and find where the child dwells… in the cave of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Monasticism, from the beginning, was for laymen. The Holy Family during the 30 years of hidden life was the model of monasteries. The desire to be away from men to be alone with God is inherent in man. St. Augustine said it is better to talk with God than to talk with men. Monks were described as laymen who were seriously seeking God. Converts are never at ease with mediocrity because there is within them that desire to do more, which St. John Chrysostom described as “the call of the desert.”
The monastic life is a way of life by which we seek God, find God and worship God. Seminaries and convents were established for this same purpose and patterned after the first monasteries. Except that they were established when the Church has become lax and effeminate, and thus failed in their purpose of making its inhabitants search, find and worship Christ. This is why St. Vincent de Paul tried to restore monastic life by establishing seminaries for the diocesan clergy. It was an attempt during his times to prevent the present problems we are now facinf with some priests.
The journey or pilgrimage to Cologne, Germany, must be symbolic of the monastic life … a fleeing from the “cities”, to search, find and worship God in Cologne. And if each delegate live the monastic life “in spirit”, as exemplified in the rule for beginners written by St. Benedict, by fleeing the world to go to the “cave” of Cologne, who knows, they might just find Christ and worship Him. And hopefully, like the Magi go back to their cities living a completely different way of life (conversion) and proclaiming with great joy what they saw…a child in a cave.