Community and Stability

“How good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.” (Psalm 133)

“Because we are not yet ready for solitude; and because if one of us falls he will have others to lift him up and thus, brother aiding brother, will be built up on high like a strong, fortified city.” Isaac of Stella, Cistercian abbot (12th century).

Once the monk has given his ‘Yes’ to the Lord’s invitation to a life in which God is preferred before all else, he finds in the monastery a setting in which everything is structured to enkindle remembrance of God: for forgetfulness of God is perhaps the human being’s primary sin. This fosters an awareness of Christ’s presence, the deep, abiding sense of His delightful companionship and His will to continue the work of the Father in us. The deep joy and peace experienced are the fruits of this friendship which overflows into the communal life he shares with his brothers. This is the expressed will of our Lord who prayed on the night before he died:

“With me in them and you in me, may they be so perfected in unity that the world will recognise that it was you who sent me and that you have loved them as you have loved me.” (Jn. 17:23)

The graces we desire for each other flow from the Trinity who dwells in the midst of our community generating a truly Christian society.

While silence is intrinsic to the monastic life, so also is that communication without which friendship cannot grow. Because we monks have learned to live with being alone as an expression of our availability and love for God, likewise it is because we love Christ that we strive to truly love our neighbour. The difficult aspects of living in community are an important part of the monastic journey. Failures in love will always cause frustration and pain; Gospel forgiveness and the acceptance of others with their individual personalities are a constant challenge. This demands great generosity and self-renunciation. Maturity shows itself above all in deepening our dependence on God which is at the heart of the monastic commitment. This involves not prim-arily thinking about one’s own needs, problems, sins or fears. It is about the healing of the eyes of the heart so that they may see God. It involves penance which has a communal dimension; it passes by way of the living, human community where love is put to the test and purified. On our journey towards the life of the Risen Christ, every trial, fear and failure can be overcome if only we remain receptive and responsive to the grace of God. Not letting the sun go down on our anger is one way we Cistercians try to protect the bond of peace between us, remembering that St. Benedict counsels us not to make a false peace. (RB.4). St. Benedict reminds his monks of the pledge they make to one another in the very words of the Lord’s prayer: Forgive us as we forgive. (RB.13)

Restlessness is part of the human condition, especially today with so much emphasis on activism. The pilgrim monk, on his search for God within the monastic environs, strives especially to avoid aimless wandering. There is a danger that contemplative monks can get lost in the midst of the many preoccupations which make up monastic life. By keeping in mind that God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves and that our journey is made mainly in the heart, we strive to pray while talking, walking, resting, working, meditating and resting. The promise of stability by which we commit ourselves to a particular community for the rest of our days arises out of the discovery that we have at last found our home in God’s family, the household of faith.

This does not mean that a monk stays in the monastery for the sake of remaining anchored in one physical place. He remains in the midst of the monastic community to which he engages himself in a life-long commitment. To be a monk is to be a brother among brothers in a living, human community. As we live this new life of inward union with God together, we realise the need to grow in patience which strengthens us to face the trials through which we grow into the maturity of Christ. Forgiveness, born of friendship in Christ, mutual support and a common vision, enables us to rise above the faults and failings which inevitably accompany community living.

The monastic virtue of stability also has a salvific function: suffering and death are never
the end for the Christian. Christ endures them in us and they share in the redemptive value
of His sufferings. We read in the Prologue of the Rule of Benedict:

“As we go forward in our life and faith we shall, with hearts enlarged and unspeakable sweetness of love, run in the way of God’s commandments. So that never departing from His guidance, but persevering in His teaching until death, we may by patience share in the sufferings of Christ.”