OBLATE RETREAT
DOUAI ABBEY
DECEMBER 2008
TALK II
THE CALL TO OBLATE LIFE
Introduction
Any consideration of the theme of vocation can be addressed from a number of different standpoints. What follows is a reflection on this theme, seen from three different perspectives: Vocation as a response to God’s invitation, Vocation as relationship to the monastic community and Vocation as relationship to the wider world. The second and third of these are consequences of the first, yet they must be seen as intimately linked to the first, otherwise they are without foundation or meaning.
“You did not choose me, no, I chose you”[1] - Vocation as a response to God’s Invitation
This short quotation from the Gospel of John is the foundation of every Christian calling. In the first place, it is not we who have chosen Christ. Christ has chosen us and we have responded to his call.
We are called first through Baptism. This call is to nothing less than fullness of life[2], a call to dwell in the love that exists in the relationship between the persons of the Blessed Trinity.[3] This call is followed by other invitations, each one bringing about a greater specificity in our response to God’s love for us. Whatever the specific call, all are called, first and foremost, to holiness of life.[4] True holiness comes about through union with God, for it is only when we are united with God that we are “whole” people, complete, as our Father wishes us to be. We are restless until we find our rest in Him.[5]
The vocational journey does not always present itself to us in the clearest way. We travel encumbered by the experiences of our lives, by our sins, by the pressures of our everyday lives. All these things can make it difficult for us to see our way. Our eyes are dimmed, our ears deafened and our hearts hardened. God’s voice is sometimes difficult to hear – our ears are simply not “tuned in” to the “still small voice”.[6] To really listen to God’s voice, it is necessary to look into the centre of our heart, where God speaks to us:
A vocation is an extremely mysterious reality. The call of God is not something extrinsic; it penetrates to the most intimate centre of the heart. We are what we are on account of this call.[7]
It is in discerning our vocation, in responding to the specificity of God’s call to us, that we find the person we are meant to be. It is in this action that we find out who we really are. It is in being the person we are called to be that we find the pearl of great price[8], that we are truly able to be builders of the Kingdom.
It is absolutely vital that we see Oblation in this context. Christ calls us to Oblation because, without it, we would not be the people we are meant to be. For those given this call, Oblation is, surely, not an optional extra – something that can be taken up or put down according to whim.
No, the offering of ourselves that is Oblation, is a response to Christ, calling to us from the very centre of our being. This offering must be freely given.[9] Christ does not tie our hand. He invites, we respond. He is calling us to be the people the Father wishes us to be and it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to recognise that – for us – Oblation is a vital part of our very being.
“A true offering and a true belonging”[10] – Vocation in relationship to a Monastic Community
Offere (to offer) is the Latin verb of which Oblatus is the past participle. Thus, the Oblate offers himself or herself to the monastery. In the earliest times, children were offered to the monastery by their parents.[11] This offering was a public act, made in the presence of witnesses. It resulted in the monastery taking up a responsibility for the child. Today, we may well look upon such a practice as, at best, unadvisable! Neither is it permissible today. However, that sense of relationship between Oblate and Monastery, so evident in the Rule is as real for today’s adult oblates as it was for the children in Benedict’s day.
Oblate statutes may speak, for instance, in the following terms:
“Oblation is a free act of self-offering to God, recognised by the Church, whereby individual Christians establish a bond of intimate union with a particular Benedictine community. The act of oblation is a true offering, and brings about a true belonging, though it is different in nature from that bond which unites a monk to his community and it does not bring about a change in the individual’s status in the Church.”[12]
The union between Oblate and Monastery is real and intimate and while the Oblate’s status in the Church does not change by virtue of oblation, Oblates are “Benedictine” since, like the members of the community to which they make their oblation, they accept the Rule as their guide.[13] Oblation is made out of a genuine desire to follow the Gospel in the spirit of the Rule. Moreover, this following of the Rule is pursued in the spirit of the community to which oblation is made.
These three elements are vital to true and effective oblate life: Gospel, Rule, Community. The life of the community, monks and oblates alike, is guided by the Rule for one purpose only – that all “may prefer nothing to the love of Christ”.[14] This is the love to which Christ calls us and, as Oblates, he calls us to Him as members of a Monastic family and through our following of the Rule.
The fact of Oblation to a particular monastic community enables the Oblate to share in the stability of the community. The monastery is the oblate’s spiritual home.[15] Unlike the sarabaites and gyrovags about whom Benedict warns us,[16] we follow Christ through our perseverance and fidelity to Gospel, Rule and Community. This way is not for everyone, but for those who are called to it.
Oblates do not change their status in the Church – they continue to be married, single, ordained, religious – but the Rule does demand of them a certain “conversion of life”. The Rule demands a continual striving in those Gospel values highlighted by St. Benedict: humility, simplicity of life, hospitality, obedience, the value of human work – all grounded in the Church’s liturgy, in prayer, in recollection, in openness to the gift of silence and in Lectio Divina.
Each of these values is intrinsic to the Gospel and, therefore, to the life of every Christian. The Oblate, however, is called by Christ to be a complete human being through the living out of the Rule – each within their own particular state in life. For the Oblate, this is the path to new life; it is the only way to live.
Oblation should not only benefit the Oblate. The presence of oblates as a monastic presence beyond the enclosure, as it were, should benefit the community of oblation. The oblate prays for the community, just as the community prays for the Oblate.[17] Oblates will often bring skills and support to the community that may be valuable.[18] It is important that oblates do not lose sight of this aspect of their relationship to the monastery, despite the demands of their particular state in life.
All are to be welcomed as if they were Christ”[19] – Vocation as relationship to the wider world
Making reference to Matthew’s Gospel,[20] St. Benedict lays down the principle for the welcome of guests to the monastery. In the Gospel passage itself, Jesus makes the service of others the measure of our readiness for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Oblation does, therefore, call us to service through a monastic presence in the world beyond the enclosure. This does not mean that oblates should see themselves as some kind of “active arm” of a contemplative community. That would be both a misunderstanding of the oblate vocation and an abuse of their relationship to the monastery.
It is to Christ that we witness, but through a particular mode of expression inspired by the Rule and the way in which it is lived out in the community to which oblation is made.
Oblates witness to Christ through their obedience to the needs of others, through their offering of themselves in the service of those most in need. When Oblates serve the society in which they live, they should do so in the same spirit of openness and welcome that is called forth from the monastic community itself.
The stability of the monastic community finds expression in the life of the oblate in perseverance and continued witness in the society in which the oblate lives and works. Such perseverance should be marked by a care for justice[21] and the sharing of the world’s resources.[22]
The life of any monastic, and therefore the life of the Oblate, has, in the last analysis, only one aim: conformity to Christ. The more the Oblate is trained in the “school of the Lord’s service”[23], the more the Oblate grows in the likeness of Christ, the more effective will be the witness to Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.[24] In this regard, the Oblate’s life of prayer, both personal and liturgical, and fidelity to Lectio Divina are absolutely vital. They are not optional extras, but the foundation, the heart, of witness to the wider world. Without them, witness to Christ will become weaker and at risk of becoming self-centred and proud. For the Oblate, then, prayer in union with the monastic community, must always be at the centre – not only of what is done, but of who the Oblate is.
Conclusion
The Oblate is called by Christ to the act of self-offering to a particular monastic community for one reason: it is the means through which the individual will become the person he or she is meant to be. Oblation has everything to do with our very identity as children of God and co-heirs with Christ. It is about who we really are.
The heart of Oblation is relationship: relationship to the monastic community and the different ways in which that is expressed; relationship to the wider world in witness to the Gospel that is guided and inspired by the Rule and the life of the Monastic Community. These relationships must call the Oblate ever more closer to the person of Christ, for nothing is to be preferred to His love.[25]
[1] Jn.15:16.
[2] Jn. 10:10.
[3] Mt. 28:19: see also Jn. 3:5.
[4] “…all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love”, LG, n.40.
[5]St. Augustine, Confessions, Book 1:1.
[6] 1 Kings 19:13.
[7] A CARTHUSIAN, The Call of Silent Love, London, DLT, 1995, p.21.
[8] Mt. 13:46.
[9]Statutes of the Benedictine Oblates of Pluscarden Abbey, Pluscarden Abbey, 2004, n.1. (hereafter referred to as Statutes) These Statutes are based on those produced by the monasteries of Italy and approved for use by the Holy See in 1975.
[10]ibid, n.1.
[11]RB. 59.
[12]Statutes, n.1. cf. CIC, 303, 304, 677§2.
[13]Statutes, nn.2, 22, cf. RB 3.
[14]RB 4.
[15]Statutes, n. 14.
[16]RB 1.
[17]Statues, n. 16.
[18]Statutes, n.15.
[19]RB 53.
[20]Mt. 25:36.
[21]RB 34.
[22]RB 33.
[23]RB, Prologue.
[24]Jn. 14:6
[25]RB 4.