I went “home” to St. Meinrad this past weekend. St. Meinrad is a Benedictine Archabbey in Southern Indiana, about two hours away from where I live. I went to school there as my “retirement plan,” graduating three years ago. It is a thriving oasis of faith, hope, joy, hospitality, and sanity that was exactly what I needed. I needed it as I paused between summer family projects and writing projects for fall. I needed it as I process continued bad news about sexual abuse scandals in the US church. I found peace, wonderful liturgy, passionate, yet sensible homilies about the crisis, and the omnipresent Benedictine hospitality. It was a blessed three days.
St. Benedict
St. Benedict lived in a time more chaotic than ours. He lived during the fall of Rome, 480-547 AD. In the midst of political chaos when many surely must have wondered how the Church could survive when the political state of Rome did not, Benedict went into the hills to first of all figure out how he should live in such chaos. As he encountered Christ in prayer and formed his standards for living, a community of local men formed around him. The community became the genesis of medieval monasticism—the way God preserved the best of the ancient world through several centuries of turmoil.
As Benedict and his communities formed, Benedict wrote a “rule” for them to live by. The Rule of St. Benedict remains today as a standard of lived faith, civility, and sanity. At the core of St. Benedict’s Rule is the concept that EVERY DAY we give ourselves up to be formed by Christ. Every day is a day for metanoia.
Metanoia
When I was a student at St. Meinrad I studied metanoia. The concept of that word is important for understanding today’s Gospel.
(You might note that the Gospel readings this week have moved back to the beginning of Jesus’ active ministry in Luke. Last week we were in Matthew 25. We began this week with Luke 4.)
In Jesus’ time, there was widespread expectation within Jewish culture that the Messiah would come when there was a foundation of “enough” righteous people. This level of righteousness was the repentance that John the Baptist taught. This repentance was metanoia.
Metanoia had 4 parts:
- To turn away from sin and turn toward God,
- To then encounter God, who would create conversion of heart,
- To offer reparation/penance/personal atonement for sin which had been done
- To live in a new way, a way in conformity with God’s standards
Some of the study I did said that this was why Jesus went to John to be baptized: he was publicly committing himself to be part of the metanoia process.
His own ministry started out with words similar to John’s: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
Peter’s Metanoia
John’s disciples, including Peter, Andrew, James, and John, were also seeking to be part of the “holy foundation” that would be enough for God to send the Messiah. Realizing that helps us understand why Andrew used the words, “We have found the Messiah” after he had spent an afternoon with Jesus.
Perhaps Peter had been following his brother, but was not quite convinced. In today’s reading Jesus is using Peter’s boat as a handy pulpit, but Peter and family are still fishing for a living. They are straddling two worlds: fishing by night “Master, we have worked hard all night and caught nothing,” and seeking the Messiah by day.
Until that time, maybe they had just encountered Jesus, the man. But then Jesus told him to put out into deep water. He did. “When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.”
Then came the moment of metanoia—Peter realized he had encountered God and he turned. “He fell at the knees of Jesus and said, ‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.’”
Jesus saw his change of heart. He said to him, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
And Peter, Andrew, James, and John began a new life. “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.”
Metanoia from Catholic Culture to Catholic Life
Sometimes we as Catholics have a hard time with the concept of conversion/metanoia. We received grace in our souls as infants. We have the Real Presence of Christ. We have grace at meals, holy water, “offer it up,” saints as friends, and the Blessed Virgin as our confidant and guide. We have a Catholic culture.
Catholic culture grew up in the Middle Ages AROUND the monasteries. Catholic culture is good.
But Catholic culture does not save us. Jesus Christ saves us. As Paul said it today in the first reading, “all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.”
Do we belong to Christ? Have we encountered Him? If you have encountered Christ—once, twice, a hundred times, you know that EVERY ENCOUNTER changes you. EVERY ENCOUNTER leads to some metanoia. It might be tiny—a thought from a homily that causes you to be more patient with your children, a hearing of the Word that gives new light to the meaning of a parable, a time of prayer when the peace of Christ fills you, so you amaze yourself as you respond to an old temptation in a new way.
Or it may be major. Like the invitations from the news to examine how well we measure up to what our faith teaches. Bishops, yes. Priests, yes. But also you and me.
Part 3 of the Catechism: Life in Christ
When was the last time you started reading Part 3 of the catechism that gives standards for behavior? When I did that seven years ago I went through a BIG metanoia. There were things in there labeled as “grave matter” that I had been doing. I had confessed them to more than one priest. NONE of them told me, “Mary, when you do that you risk destroying God’s love in your soul. You must stop and God must replant his love within you–through conversion and confession.” Now, true, I had not done them with full knowledge of their wrong, but they were acts that our church teaches are serious matters to God. (See CCC 1854-1858) Finally, a confessor told me of their seriousness. I read to find out he told me truth. I stopped. My logic did not see what I had done as seriously wrong, but I did not want to face Jesus someday and have him say, “Mary, your pride told you to trust your conscience instead of my church. Depart from me.” I did not, do not, want to seriously offend God.
Maybe scandals can be a wake-up call for all of us: Read the catechism. Examine ourselves. What is our pride telling us is “not so very bad?” Do we go to mass EVERY Sunday? EVERY Holy Day? Do we live our marriages with commitment for life to each other and with openness to children by using natural means of child spacing, rather than contra-conception? Do we consider the needs of the poor when we make choices about how we live? All of those things can be grave matter. Have we set our own standards of sin and teaching about sin so we can avoid the “full knowledge” that means we have to give up a sin or accept that we have turned away from God?
Applications Today
Pope Pius XII said in 1946, “Perhaps the greatest sin of the 20th century is that we have begun to lose the sense of sin.”
Yes, perhaps even more so in the 21st century.
When Peter said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” and had a metanoia, Jesus did not turn from him. Quite the opposite. He began to walk and talk and live in his company. He claimed him as disciple. Jesus can claim us, too.
Five hundred years later, St. Benedict began a metanoia movement that created Christian order in a world in chaos. His rule begins: “Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from a father who loves you; welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice. The labor of obedience will bring you back to him from whom you had drifted through the sloth of disobedience. This message of mine is for you, then, if you are ready to give up your own will, once and for all, and armed with the strong and noble weapons of obedience to do battle for the true King, Christ the Lord.” (Rule of St. Benedict, prologue 1-3)
Perhaps bad news can lead us to the Good News of life-saving metanoia—ALL of us. St. Benedict’s rule and way of life looks very good to me today. I want and need a standard. How about you?
Prayer:
“Lord, give me metanoia today. Show me where I need to repent. Show all of us. Let us encounter you and receive the great gift of your metanoia, of conversion. Give us your clear standards, Lord, and a new life of living them as your disciples.” Amen.
