In the name of God, the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen!
“My soul has a desire and longing to enter the courts of the Lord: with my whole being I sing for joy to the living God”.[1]
When the soul has a desire for the house of the Lord, it could mean one of two things. From a traditional point of view, the psalm ties the presence of God to the temple. So, from the onset, the psalmist might be saying he longs for the presence of God and may only find God in the temple. Of course, that might not be the case today. But there was a time when temple/church became the central point to have an intimate relationship with God. The psalmist believed the temple to be a place he could re-establish his relationship with God. His appreciation for God’s house is not simply because it is beautiful. His soul longs for God’s presence, and even faints when denied the privilege of meeting with God among His people.
On the other hand, longing for the house of the Lord could also mean he just needed a place to feel safe. As the psalmist goes on to say, one day spent in your Temple is better than a thousand anywhere else; I would rather stand at the gate of the house of my God than live in the homes of the wicked. [2] Some scholars suggest that this psalm could have been written before or after the Babylonian exile. [3] Which makes me think the psalmist’s desire to stand at the gate of the temple is simple a desire for safety or security. Clearly, he wants a different environment from what he is used to.
So where do you foster your intimate relationship with God? Where do you feel more at peace and free to live out your Christian life? Where do you find security?
Many people have interpreted these questions differently and responded in ways that spoke to them and their spirituality. One of those people was a young man from Egypt, named Anthony.
When he was about 20 years old, his parents died and left him with the care of his sister and a great fortune. One day he went to church, as was his custom, and heard the gospel passage that changed his life. The gospel passage read was Mark 10: 17- 21, Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man. The words that touched the heart of the young Anthony were, “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”[4] The young man from Egypt heard those words and applied them in his life. He gave away some of his family’s assets to his neighbours, sold the remaining property, and donated the funds to the poor. He then left to live alone in a desert, placing his sister with a group of nuns.[5] A twenty-year-old young man left his family’s fortune to seek the intimate relationship with God in the desert. Something that might sound strange, but still possible, in our day.
Many Christians throughout history were moved by the story of Anthony and by the same verse of Mark 10:21. Some people responded to the two scenarios and started to live apart, away from towns and villages and into the desert to seek the intimate relationship with God. Today we know those people as the Desert Mothers and Fathers. They started what we call the monastic movement. Although the monastic movement started with the Hermits (that is, those who live by themselves), it later evolved into a Cenobitic kind of monasticism (i.e. those who live in a community under a Rule). More like the believers when they returned to Jerusalem after the Ascension. The Bible says:
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.[6]
Today we have the religious brothers and sisters, sometimes known as monks and nuns, who try to imitate that teaching from the book of Acts. These are people who dedicate their lives to the life of prayer and service. Within them, we find both contemplative and apostolic approaches. We have brothers and sisters (also called active/apostolic religious) who dedicate their lives to working with people in need and we have others (a.k.a. contemplative) who dedicate their lives entirely to prayer. Sometimes, you find them living in separate places with one focus (either contemplative or apostolic), and, at other times, you find them living in the same community. But these are people who voluntarily left their homes to live their Christian calling in its fullness with other Christians. Every day they meet together in prayer.
This is the basis of our life as monks, as well. We try to live a common life guided by the principles drawn from the Rule of St Benedict and the Rule of our Order.
The one thing that binds all the monks and nuns together is the life of prayer and the focus on Christ. As religious brothers, we allow prayer to disturb our day. The psalmist elsewhere says: “Seven times each day I thank you for your righteous judgements”.[7] In our community, we try to follow that idea by praying together six times a day. Nonetheless, we aspire to the idea of making prayer the centre of our life. We too, like the psalmist, long for the house of the Lord and every day we go to the chapel just to be in the presence of God as a community.
We longed for something we could not explain but that could draw us closer to God and for a place where we could freely live our Christian calling and the religious life provided that space for us. And how wonderful it is to be around people who understand your vocation and what a privilege to have a structured time for prayer.
We all know that as Christians we are the body of Christ. If I were to liken the religious life to a part of a body, I would think of us as a little (pinky) toe. These little toes are almost never seen, and, let’s admit it, they are not very attractive; but they serve an important function and role, helping the body to walk straight and smooth and providing some much-needed balance to move forward. We, as monks and nuns, are a small part of the body of Christ, and sometimes our life is not attractive, and nobody wants to understand us. We often get the question, “So what do you do”, and our answer is always that we pray. “But what else do you do”, well we pray more. People do not want to grasp the fact that prayer is the priority of our life. We are not that appealing to many people, but we are an important part of the body none the less. Our life of prayer sustains the whole body of Christ.
Now I am not suggesting that you should become monks or nuns, but, to quote Prof. John de Gruchy, “The Christian vision of society and the human being is an alternative to what is becoming dominant in the world.” Our spirituality needs to shape how we respond to the reality of the world in which we live. “If our spirituality does not help us to live in a countercultural way, that is to say, the way of the gospel,” then something needs to happen to resist the dominating culture. “It can only be resisted by a counter-spirituality,” says Prof. De Gruchy. [8] As monks we try to model that life of counter-spirituality to what the world has become. We are still human though and are very much part of this world.
As Christians, we need to lead lives of counter-spirituality, says Prof. De Gruchy. But where do we draw courage to advance that kind of life? What environment/space gives you an opportunity to express that counter-spirituality?
What I know is that we are all looking for some sense of depth. Although our approaches to the quest may differ, we are seeking to be awake to the presence of the Divine in this earthly world. And we realise we cannot do this alone. So, we go to places where this longing and yearning can be fulfilled. For the psalmist, the temple was that place. What about you? Do you think you are in the right environment that can enhance your relationship with God? Are you surrounded by people who not only support you but share your desires? Are you in the right space?
[1] Psalm 84:2
[2] Psalm 84:10
[3] Dunn, James D. G.; Rogerson, John William (2003). Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible.
[4] Mark 10:21
[5] See https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2015/01/17/100216-venerable-and-god-bearing-father-anthony-the-great
[6] Acts 2:44-47
[7] Psalm 119:164
[8] See Re-Thinking Christian Spirituality in Times of Uncertainty, by Prof: John de Gruchy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4De1qy5yQ&t=1189s