Advent 2018 Dear Friends of St. Anselm’s, As we near the end of another year, we want to extend our Christmas greetings to all of our wide circle of friends, both those who have known us for decades and those who may have come into contact with the for the first time this year. These include our devoted , the faculty and staff of the abbey school, our students and their parents, as well as our alumni, and all those who come to share in our liturgical prayer and perhaps spend a few days in retreat as guests of the abbey. As is so very evident from the newspapers and television, there are today many stark divisions in both our country and our church. At times the level of discourse gives the impression that those speaking or writing do not even want to hear what those holding other positions have to say. Part of the Benedictine ethos that we strive to pass on to the students in our school teaches a very different approach, for in the third of his Rule St Benedict writes that whenever anything important is to be decided in the , all the are to gather to give their advice and that in doing so they are “to express their opinions with all humility, and not presume to defend their own views obstinately.” Would that everyone would take this instruction to heart! We are most grateful for all the various kinds of support and encouragement that you give us, and we wish you every blessing for this Christmas season and throughout the New Year. The Monks of St. Anselm’s Abbey The Chronicler’s Column

On June 4, just two days after our school’s com- of five major religious traditions about one or another mencement ceremony, we held the fifth annual abbey form of meditative practice common in their particu- symposium in the monastery’s community room lar traditions. The five speakers were Mr D.C. Rao, (“calefactory”). Drawing on a phrase used at the pre- author of the book Understanding Hinduism; Mr Allen vious year’s symposium by Christophe Leider, a cantor at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, Church, Virginia; Bhante Jayasara, a residing when he spoke of the need to listen to others “with at the Bhavana Society in High View, West Virginia; the ear of the heart,” we focused the 2018 symposium Mr Greg Robison, an of our abbey and for- on the theme of meditation as a preeminent way to mer head of the John Main Center at Georgetown do such listening, whether to God’s inspirations or University; and Imam Zia Makhdoom, vice chair- to the often-unspoken needs of others. Wishing the person of the Fairfax County Clergy and Leadership Council. At the end of the program in mid-afternoon, a number of those who attended expressed their gratitude for what in some cases was described as a transformative experience. Less than a week later, on Sunday, June 10, we were honored to have Bishop Barry Knestout of the Richmond as main celebrant of our com- munity , during which he ordained Br Samuel Springuel to the diaconate. When a young priest at St Bartholomew several decades ago, he had taught Samuel, then in the fifth grade, how to serve mass, and now he kindly accepted our invita- tion to be the ordaining prelate for this further step in Br Samuel’s path to priestly ordination. Many of ’s relatives were able to attend the service The 2018 symposium meeting in the calefactory and enjoy refreshments in the Fort Augustus Room at St Anselm's Abbey after mass. symposium to be practical and not simply infor- Shortly before the beginning of the new school year mational, the thirty invited participants spent the we had our annual retreat, with conferences being morning actually meditating under the guidance given this time by Fr Michael Peterson, osb, of St of Mrs Kerrith McKechnie, who has been teaching John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. He had pre- meditation at her center in the Shenandoah Valley for viously been a monk of Blue Cloud Abbey in South many years. After midday prayer and a catered lunch, Dakota, but when that community closed about five we then heard short presentations by representatives years ago, Fr Michael transferred to the nearest other

3 monastery in the northern plains. His talks, which year. Fr Michael Hall continues to serve as contained many pieces of practical advice based on of the monastery and as chaplain in our school. He his own years of living in two different has recovered well from knee surgery, which kept and observing the inspiring (or occasionally idio- him from being very active in the school during the syncratic) behavior of his confreres, were very well 2017-2018 academic year, and so is again teaching received by our monks. a full load of classes in the two departments of so- Not long after the end of the retreat, we wel- cial studies and religion. He also continues to lead a comed four laymen who will be living with us for monthly gathering of adults who wish to learn more the coming months as part of a new venture, an in- about how Benedictine spirituality can enhance their tentional lay community for young men seeking to own lives as lay persons. They regularly meet on discern God’s will for their lives. One of them, David the first Friday of the month during the school year Campeau, had already spent a couple of months here for mass in our church, a simple breakfast, and an as he took some summer courses to help prepare for a hour or so spent discussing material from one or an- program in biotechnology and ethics at the John Paul other of the many books being published about the II Institute on the campus of the University Rule of St Benedict and its ongoing relevance today. of America. David completed his undergraduate ed- Fr Michael has also long been active in doing paro- ucation at MIT this past spring. The next member to chial work on weekends, but as the parish of Holy arrive was Yasha Borodetsky, a native of Latvia who Redeemer in College Park, MD now has enough resi- had already studied for a number of years in Graz, dent priests to cover their liturgical needs, Fr Michael Austria before coming to the United States for further has retired from that regular weekend service after training in musical performance. He is enrolled in a several decades. doctoral program in the School of Music at the nearby As many of you know, our former , University of Maryland in College Park. The other Aidan Shea, has been hampered by poor health in re- two members of the lay community are both study- cent years, but he continues to have a regular stream ing theology at the Dominican House of Studies, just of visitors, including one couple who annually visit across Michigan Avenue from the CUA campus. One from New Hampshire, and he has five devoted care of them, Kirk Boyle, has an undergraduate degree givers who take turns seeing that he has around-the- from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign clock care. Service and a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Even though our resident scripture scholar, Law School, while Andrew Schulman completed Fr Joseph Jensen, no longer teaches at Catholic his undergraduate studies at St John’s College in University, he continues sharing with others his Annapolis, Maryland and Santa Fe, New Mexico, profound knowledge of the Bible, especially the with some further studies at Amherst College and Old Testament, by holding classes for some of our the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. Our Fr oblates after mass on the second and fourth Sunday Philip Simo is the director of this program and meets of each month. As you will see, for this issue of our weekly with the four men for discussion on any mat- newsletter he has again contributed a thoughtful ters of common concern. article on one of the prophets of ancient Israel. As usual, this column also offers brief accounts of When not tending our vegetable garden, hear- the various activities of our monks during the past ing confessions at the Shrine of the , or offering mass every Friday evening For the first time in many years,Fr Paul McKane is for those in the charismatic renewal movement, Fr again finding a place in this column. In recent years Christopher Wyvill may be found doing any of nu- he was serving as pastor of St Mark’s parish in Belt, merous tasks that draw on his ability and experience Montana, during which time his immediate superior as a handyman. As a way to keep his mind active, Fr was Bishop Michael Warfel of the Great Falls-Billings Christopher has regularly been sitting in on a course diocese. With advancing years, Fr Paul retired from in our school; in recent years it has been Spanish, but the pastorate this summer, so now that the bishop this year he decided to audit the introductory course is no longer his superior, we will again be includ- for an even more challenging language, Arabic. ing news about him in this annual column. Over the As president of our school, Fr Peter Weigand years, he came to be widely recognized as an excel- spends much of every summer, as well as some peri- lent homilist in that part of our country, and he made ods during the school year, visiting alumni in all parts many friends among the rancher families in his par- of the country, from the far Northwest (Seattle and ish. He is now residing in Great Falls (Montana, not Portland) to the southeast (Florida and Louisiana). Virginia!), where he has at times offered mass for the Details of these trips may be found in some of our Poor Clare and Ursuline sisters in that city, oth- school publications. He is now in his fifth decade of erwise spending much time in study and meditation. teaching earth science to our younger students, while As librarian, director of oblates, resident iconog- upper-classmen benefit from his courses in anthro- rapher, and spiritual director for several persons, pology and Native American studies. As regards the monastery in particular, Fr Peter continues to keep our cloister courtyard truly beautiful, with many different kinds of plants that vary according to the season. Plentiful rain this year made this important and very traditional monastic task somewhat easier. After nearly seven years of serving as chaplain at nearby Providence Hospital, changes at that hospi- tal and the resultant down-sizing led Fr Philip Simo to retire from there. As noted earlier in this column, Fr Philip is now in charge of our intentional lay com- munity; he also regularly offers mass for the sisters at Seton High School and is chaplain at the Jeanne Jugan Home, a nursing home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. His own mother lived there until her death earlier this year. Fr Philip, along with Fr Fr Boniface addresses monastic oblates in the abbey church Gabriel, represented our community at a special con- ference at Buckfast Abbey in England in late October, Fr Boniface von Nell wears various hats. He and which concluded with a celebration of that monas- our oblate Lorraine Ramsdell study under the direc- tery’s millennium, monks having first settled at that tion of an expert teacher of iconography in western site in Devonshire in the year 1018. Pennsylvania several times a year, one of the results

5 being the icon that graces our annual Christmas card. and likewise provides daily readings for Vespers each Fr Boniface spends much time carefully preparing evening. In the school he teaches Spanish to transfer conferences for the monthly oblate meetings, and students who were not enrolled here for the first year he also attended a special gathering of mid-Atlantic or two of instruction in that language. oblates at the monastery of the Benedictine Sisters The important and challenging position of voca- in Bristow, Virginia during this 150th anniversary tion director is held by Br Ignacio González, who is of the founding of that community in Richmond in touch with several men who have shown an inter- shortly after the Civil War. est in monastic life. He is also continuing his studies Fr Gabriel Myers continues to work in the busi- in theology at the Dominican House of Studies and ness office and on abbey music. He enjoys pastoral during the summer took part in an intensive Latin opportunities in the house and at various parishes. program at Belmont College in North Carolina. On Good Friday, he gave the reflections on the seven Likewise continuing theology studies is Br Samuel last words of Jesus at St Matthew's Cathedral. He Springuel, whose ordination as was men- found this a thrilling opportunity as each word, like a tioned earlier in this column. He is pursuing his jewel, shines with meaning, and is absolutely unique. studies in the School of Theology and Religious Perhaps his favorite story was that of Wade, the Studies at the Catholic University of America. At the medic in the World War II movie, Saving Private Ryan. abbey itself, he makes use of his practical skills in On a rare night of comfort for his military unit, after such areas as making the candles we use for sanctu- a hot supper served by nuns in a church, he shares a ary lamps and using a chain saw to cut up the wood bittersweet childhood memory of his mother. Soon of trees that have fallen down on the property. after, he is hit by a bullet. Cradled in his grieving The writer of this column, Abbot James Wiseman, comrades' arms, he dies, crying “Mama.” In that mo- teaches one of the religion courses available to seniors ment his brother-soldiers give a mother's love and in our school as an elective. Although he no longer thus the scene points to the third word: “This is your does nearly as much scholarly writing as when he son; this is your mother.” was on the theology faculty at CUA for 27 years prior A regular contributor of our newsletter is Br to his election as abbot in 2011, he did have a book Dunstan Robidoux, who for this issue offers his re- published this fall by the Peeters publishing house in flections on trips he has made to Korea in recent years Louvain, Belgium, on the theme of love in the major at the invitation of a professor at Sogang University treatise of the important medieval mystic Jan van in . Here at St Anselm’s, Br Dunstan is our Ruusbroec. Although the text, and even the title of the sacristan and supervises the Lonergan Institute, work (Ruusbroec’s Mystical Vision in Die gheestelike headquartered in one part of the monastery. A family brulocht Seen in the Light of minne) uses many terms whom he has helped in various ways over the years from the Middle Dutch language, these are all accom- invited him to accompany them on a trip to Rome in panied with his own English translation, so to use the late October. adjective nowadays beloved by publishers, the work Br Matthew Nylund continues his excellent and is certainly “accessible” to the general reader should careful work as one of the co-editors of this newsletter any of you be interested in some bedtime reading.

James Wiseman, osb History of the Benedictine Medal-Cross

While it may be that I am simply noticing them more often now that I am a Benedictine, it seems to me that the Medal of St Benedict (particularly the Cross of St Benedict, which appears on the reverse of the medal) is increasing in popularity. At the same time, however, many of the people I talk to, even those who have adopted the medal for their personal devo- tions, do not seem to be familiar, except in a vague way, with the history and symbolism of the medal. Of course, that applied to me as well, so when the oc- casion to turn idle curiosity into a paper for one of my seminary classes arose, I jumped at the opportunity and happily immersed myself in digging up infor- mation about the Medal-Cross of St Benedict. Some of this information was fairly easy to find. The book written by Abbot Prosper Guéranger on the topic, for The reverse of the Jubilee Medal of St Benedict. instance, has been translated into English, digitized, Image credit: St Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, KS, https:// and made available online. Other resources, how- benedictinemonks.net/2014/02/17/medal-of-st-benedict/ ever, were harder to track down, and I made full use of Catholic University’s library facilities in order to Cross of St Benedict itself, I will look at some of the get hold of them. Since not everyone has the time or earlier connections between St Benedict and the cross resources to engage in this sort of hunt, I’ve decided which may account for why such a devotional object to turn the fruits of my own research into a series of would have developed in the first place. articles for our newsletter and thereby to share the in- The first associations between St Benedict and the formation with a wider community. While a series of cross are made in our primary source for the life of articles of this sort cannot be an exhaustive treatment St Benedict, the second dialogue of St Gregory the of the subject, I hope it may plant a small seed of in- Great.1 This dialogue was written in the late sixth terest among St Anselm’s community and friends. century, shortly after Benedict’s death (St Gregory The exact origin of the Cross of St Benedict is lost in claims to have gathered his information from four of the mists of time. Several images depicting the cross Benedict’s disciples who knew St Benedict person- were inscribed on walls in the Abbey of Metten, and ally). In it St Benedict uses the sign of the cross explic- a manuscript dating to 1415 and found in that ab- itly in the performance of at least two of his miracles, bey’s library three centuries later, gives crucial infor- mation about how to interpret the letters found on 1 For a recent translation of this dialogue, see Terrence the cross. This discovery will be discussed below, G. Kardong, The Life of St. Benedict by Gregory the Great: but before turning to the documented history of the Translation and Commentary (The Liturgical Press, 2009).

7 and some readers of the dialogue have interpreted This legend concerns an incident in the childhood of other less clear passages to be references to the self- St Leo IX in which he was poisoned by a toad same sign. Of these, perhaps the most famous is the which bit him on the face while he was asleep. As a attempt to poison St Benedict by the first community result of the bite, Bruno (as St Leo was then called) over which he was abbot. In this incident, St Benedict developed a painful swelling in his face which so shatters the poisoned cup by making the sign of the laid him low that his life was feared for at one point. cross over it. We see in the Dialogue that use of the However, at the nadir of his sickness, Bruno had a sign of the cross was an important part of the spir- vision of a monk carrying a staff surmounted by a itual heritage attributed to Benedict even in the first cross and bearing a pendant. This pendant bore on it few decades after his death. the same prayers which are represented on modern In the ninth-century Life of St Maurus, Maurus, a medals by the letters on the reverse: CSSML NDSMD child oblate and of Benedict, regularly in- VRSNSMV SMQLIVB.3 These prayers enabled Bruno vokes the holy cross when performing miracles. to recognize the monk as St Benedict, so we are there- Further, in the performance of a few of these mira- fore able to say that this way of depicting St Benedict cles, St Maurus invokes not only the holy cross but was already in common usage (at least in Toul, where also the name (or merits) of St Benedict as the power Bruno was raised) by the early 1000s. by which the miracle is to be carried out. As with the Stepping out of the realm of legends and into that Dialogue, this story, regardless of its veracity, provides of documentary evidence, the earliest known manu- evidence of the association between St Benedict and script which connects St Benedict, the cross, and the the holy cross at this early date (just a few hundred prayers that the letters on the cross stand for comes years after Benedict’s death, or even fewer if we give from the Abbey of Metten in Bavaria. An evangeliary credence to Odo’s claim to be “correcting” and “re- discovered there in 1720 and dating to 1415 contains phrasing” an “ancient” manuscript). several images, including one of St Benedict with a The first legend, which not only connects staff surmounted by a cross and having a pendant at- St Benedict with the cross but also mentions the tached. Inscribed on the staff and the pendant are the prayers which the letters on the cross stand for, is prayers associated with the Cross of St Benedict (see recounted by Mabillon in his Acts of the Holy Order figure). The discovery of this manuscript occurred of St Benedict: The Sixth Benedictine Century (1000 to during a search of the monastery’s library which had 1100) and is credited to the Archdeacon Wibert.2 been prompted by a curious incident in 1647. During a witch trial in nearby Natternburg in that year, the 2 Joannes Mabillon and Theodericus Ruinart, Acta Sanctorum witches testified that their magic was unable toaf- Ordinis S. Benedicti in Sæculorum Classes Distributa, vol. fect the Abbey of Metten. This was attributed to sev- Sæculum Sextum, quod est ab anno Christi M ad MC, Pars eral crosses, accompanied by letters, found inscribed Secunda (Protat, 1733) is in Latin and my grasp of that on the abbey’s walls. At the time, no one knew what language is insufficient for fluid reading. Fortunately, the details of Mabillon’s account of this legend are given in these letters meant. It was only after the above-men- English in Guéranger. The same basic legend also appears in tioned manuscript was discovered that their mean- a publication from the French abbey of -Benoît de Port- ing was finally understood. It seems likely, then, that Valais (La Médaille de Saint Benoît) and one by Fr Bernardine this representation of St Benedict was sufficiently Patterson, osb (“The Medal of Saint Benedict”), though without credit to Mabillon. My account freely blends from all of these sources for the sake of brevity and clarity. 3 I will discuss the meaning of these letters in a later article. well known at some point in the years surrounding 1415 that the artist who inscribed the cross on the walls of Metten felt that the initial letters were suf- ficient to represent these prayers. During the- inter vening years, however, their meaning had been lost, leaving the 1647 monks scratching their heads.4 Inspired by the happenings at Metten, medals began to be struck which represented the cross with the accompanying letters. In fact, this process was begun even before the meaning of those letters was understood: the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul have always had as part of their habit a medal bearing this cross attached to a rosary. Additionally, a pamphlet describing the medal also appeared in Germany in 1664 and was excerpted and translated into English in 1669 (though the medal described therein splits the letters between the obverse and the reverse). The popularity of the medal, however, was promoted in German-speaking lands after the dis- covery of the manuscript. In aid of this effort, in 1741 Abbot Benno Loebel of Břevno (Prague) submitted a petition to the for approval of the medal, a petition granted by the Congregation of Indulgences in December of that year and confirmed by Pope Benedict XIV in March of 1742. Over the centuries, the form of the Medal-Cross of St Benedict has varied considerably. The version which is widely recognized today as “the” medal of St Benedict was designed by the monks of St Martin’s Archabbey (Hohenzollern) as the “Centenary Medal” or “Jubilee Medal,” to be struck (in 1880) under the authority of the abbot of Monte Cassino in honor of the 1400th anniversary of the birth of St Benedict. In Earliest known image of St Benedict with cross and prayers, my next article I will take a closer look at the details appearing in Metten manuscript dated to 1415. Reproduced of this medal and the rich iconography on it. in A. J. Corbierre, Numismatique Bénédictine: Histoire Scientifique et Liturgique des Croix et des Médailles de amuel pringuel osb Saint Benoît, Patriarche des Moines d’Occident, D’après S S , des Documents Inédits (Rome, 1904) 4 Guéranger suggests that this is due to the religious and political upheavals which took place in Germany in the 16th- century Protestant .

9 Lecturing in Korea: Memories and Reflections Over Twelve Years

As I try to write about these matters, I must admit consciousness to the faculty of the Department of that I begin with some trepidation. To what degree Religious Studies at Sogang, a Jesuit-run university am I writing as an ignorant, arrogant Westerner? located in the middle of the capital city of Seoul. I As Aquinas argues: “What is received is received was also scheduled to lecture on Lonergan’s notion after the manner of the receiver.” More specifically, of judgment: “Lonergan on Truth.” Although it was in terms of our understanding: “What is known is not given at that time, I was able to present this lec- known after the manner of the knower.” As Edmund ture some years later. Burke once wrote, in going to any kind of strange, In any case, to recount how things went, I arrived at foreign place, we find that things do not seem to be the huge modern airport at Incheon and walked into quite right. Things may not seem to be very rational, the public reception area, where a young man was even if it should be the case that, in fact, other ways holding up a large colored photograph of me stand- of living and behaving are often more intelligible and ing on a bridge crossing the river Inn in Innsbruck. reasonable than what we have known in the context He and his companion put me into a car and we of our own lives. According to Jordan Peterson, the headed toward Seoul, a long drive. They talked to following precept presents itself as a healthy correc- each other in Korean, so I was unable to understand tive: “Never forget that the other person whom you what they were saying. Eventually we came to a are meeting has an insight and an understanding of magnificent hotel, the Royal Hotel of Seoul. After I things which you yourself do not have.” checked in, a bellhop in full dress uniform took my To speak about my memories of Korea, let me re- luggage and escorted me to my room using an el- call what it was like to go there for the first time, in evator whose walls were of polished green marble April 2007. First memories, in their novelty, tend to edged with a bit of gold leaf. I settled into my room be more salient. They function as a subsequent point and found the bathroom filled with multiple gadgets of departure. More than ten years ago, I was invited and conveniences that were entirely unknown to me. to by Dr Chae Young Kim to give a se- This made me afraid to touch almost anything, so I ries of lectures. He had obtained generous grants relied on only the most basic, primitive devices: the from Sogang University and from the Korean gov- water faucets and the toilet water lever. To my joy, ernment to cover all my expenses, so the trip cost the hotel was almost directly across the street from the abbey nothing. I was to give a talk about aesthet- the Catholic cathedral, so I was able to go to mass ics at a luncheon that was being celebrated to mark each morning. Someone told me that I could walk the opening of a special art exhibition: a collection of about the streets at any time of day and night and no fine paintings rendered by a middle-aged Buddhist one would try to hurt me there in Myeongdong, the whom I subsequently met. I was later to give Korean version of Times Square. a lecture on Lonergan’s understanding of artistic On the first full day, after no sleep on the flight from D.C., my lecture on aesthetics “bombed” and student had killed many persons. As we talked my Chae Young had to take over, speaking in Korean to hosts found out that I was from Canada and a wave summarize my efforts and round things out. Things of relief palpably swept the car. seemed to be going much better when I addressed On my last night, Chae Young treated me to a gen- the religious studies faculty. Then, to my surprise, uine Korean meal that out of politeness I felt I had to a Korean professor who had been educated in eat, but the next morning I was so ill that I was shak- Germany gave a learned refutation of all my major ing uncontrollably and at first feared that I would points! I was supposed to respond but, as Chae not even be able to leave for the airport. Eventually Young translated into English the professor’s points I forced myself onto the plane. During the flight to for me, I was still not sure I grasped what the objec- Washington, as I was already very near the floor in tions were. Fortunately, a woman who was not one my weakened state, I was allowed to lie prone by an of the professors spoke up in my defense. exit in my Benedictine habit, thereby passively wit- I was next taken to a convent of Benedictine sisters nessing to my Catholic faith! and was asked to speak to them with practically no A number of subsequent visits took place in later time to prepare what I was to say. Chae Young ex- years, usually with other invited scholars: Fr Louis plained to them as best he could what I was talking Roy, Fr Louis Madey, Kieran Dickinson, Fr Linus about. He and I were then taken to visit the nuns’ Kpalap, Dr David Fleischacker, and Roland Krismer, Montessori school. To my embarrassment, the fac- although more recently I have gone alone. For this ulty lined up within the atrium entrance and gave current year Chae Young had organized a conference me profound bows, so I tried to respond in kind. On dedicated to understanding the contributions made our way to this school, when passing through the by Mrs Phyllis Wallbank, mbe for improving the city center in the rain, a woman ran after me and ways and means of Montessori education that she gave me a fine umbrella as a gift, for she had noticed had absorbed years ago through her friendship with that I had no protection. Koreans, total strangers, Dr Maria Montessori. At age 99, Phyllis is probably will often stop you on the street and give you gifts: the last person alive who knew Dr Montessori in her books, fine rosaries, and cold or warm drinks. adult years, having worked with her and spent time Toward the end of my visit, I was asked to give two with her at her home in Holland. lengthy lectures that would summarize Lonergan’s I conclude this article with some reflections magnum opus, an 800-page work titled Insight: A about the religious scene in South Korea and, much Study of Human Understanding. After spending most more briefly, about Korean society in general. First, of the day attempting to prepare a summary, I was some basic figures: Catholics make up about 8% picked up in the late afternoon by an older Korean of the population; the Protestants, nearly 20%; the couple: a general in the Korean Army and his wife, Buddhists, 15.5%; and fewer than 1% belong to a distinguished artist and the foundress of the new religious movements or to groups associated Making Happiness Institute, where I was to speak. with elements of Chinese Confucianism or native The general knew some English, for he often goes forms of shamanism. Oddly enough, about half of to Washington for meetings at the Pentagon. This the Korean population claims no religious affiliation was the very time when a terrible tragedy had been of any kind. One person told me that the Catholic unfolding at Virginia Tech, where a young Korean Church is growing in strength, relative to problems

11 and difficulties that are being experienced by the same way, we can wonder if the same can be said Protestants. However, my lengthy talks with Korean or will be said about the life of the Church in Korea Benedictine monks at Abbey indicated as we move from our current circumstances into an that, in absolute terms, the Church is undergoing uncertain, uncharted future. The earlier rapid ex- a very slow, gradual decline in strength and influ- pansion, the challenges that were posed by a more ence. Whereas in the West the decline of the Church rapid spread of Protestant beliefs and practices, and has been precipitous and rapid, in South Korea a now the current gradual decline in the Church’s life slow downturn has been very gradually occurring, suggests the value of turning to a long-lasting, pa- although differences exist as one moves from one re- tient form of faith commitment in the hope that, in gion of the country to another. time and perhaps unexpectedly, a new configura- It is worth asking if we should continue to think tion of factors and variables might come together in of Korea as mission territory, for it has been sug- a way that will release new energies. These would be gested that the Church in Korea will best progress creative of a new sense of life grounded in determi- and succeed if it can move into Korean ways and nations of faith that have been slowly pushing down so adopt a Korean form of practice and expression. into the local soil of Korea in a way that would mit- Quite rightly, our Catholic life is not supposed to be igate against any kind of eradication. We may hope determined by any given culture and, if you want for the emergence of a new Christian culture that has to avoid superficial forms of practice and allegiance, yet to appear. you need to have a kind of religious life that, from Apart from issues relating specifically to within, coheres with the life of a given society. But, Christianity, a number of religious scholars have as we learn from the Parable of the Seed and the concluded that a religious sense of things exists Sower, an overly rapid cultural transition will de- more deeply among Koreans than among many of tract from the truths of the faith as they are professed their Asian neighbors, such as the Japanese. This and lived, through time, in the lives of many per- sense does not, however, seem tied to any particu- sons. In this respect, we can look back and remember lar religion. In South Korea, many persons tend to how, in the fourth century, the Roman Empire was move from one religion to another without much converted to Christian belief, and the spread of the difficulty. I was told by one senior monk that, within faith and its official acceptance soon led to changes the Korean Catholic world, there does not exist a in the prescriptions and proscriptions of public leg- degree of doctrinal penetration like that which can islation. Despite this apparent success, the creation be found in the traditionally Christian West. While of a genuinely new culture was another matter and it is true that in contemporary Europe there is a re- it seems that this was a much later development. As ligious winter landscape, where everything above Kenneth Clark observes in his account of the twelfth ground appears to be lifeless and dead, neverthe- century, a new sense of life unexpectedly emerged at less the roots underneath remain Christian, whether that time in western Europe, something he referred Catholic or Protestant. On the other hand, in Korea to as a “great thaw” or as the onset of a “Russian a Catholic nun, for example, might readily become a spring.” Suddenly, the earth seemed to grow in Buddhist nun, or a Buddhist nun become a Catholic warmth, but centuries of gestation were required be- nun for reasons that do not appear to be rooted in fore this new culture emerged, as if new born. In the basic changes of belief and in an accompanying depth of denominational commitment and convic- into a society that has not yet lost its sense of unity tion. I report these things, of course, apart from my and cohesiveness. In Korea, for instance, you never personal experience and knowledge, relying instead see poor people anywhere. Everybody is well- on the testimony and reflections of others. dressed and well-mannered. No loud noises and Beyond specifically religious considerations, boisterous talking, and we can be a bit awed by the Korean society appears to be very western and mod- rather even distribution of the nation’s wealth. The ern but, if we retain this image of roots, we can think bonds among persons point to a hierarchical, organic about points and sources of meaning that, from our sense of the order which continues to exist within perspective, are somewhat hidden, even though Korean society. This is certainly one factor that has these roots sustain persons and bind them together made my visits to that country very memorable.

Dunstan Robidoux, osb

The Message of Hosea

A few newsletters back we published “The a faithful wife. In this experience Hosea gained an Message of Amos.” There will, of course, be similar- insight into the boundless, persevering love of the ities in the messages of all the prophets, but Amos Lord for Israel, His faithless covenant partner. Hosea and Hosea are as different as any two prophets saw in his own marriage, real though it was, an alle- could be. They were both eighth-century prophets, gory of the divine love seeking Israel and willing to a time when much of the Near East was under the forgive infidelities if only she would return and be thrall of an expanding Assyrian Empire, and both faithful. In this awareness he recognized God’s prov- proclaimed their message in Israel, the Northern idential design calling him to prophecy. This could Kingdom. But while Amos hailed from Judah, a then be formulated, by anticipation, “When the visitor unwelcome to the powers that be in Israel, LORD began to speak to Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea was a native of Israel and prophesied there. Hosea: ‘Go, get for yourself a woman of prostitution Important elements of Hosea’s message relate and children of prostitution, for the land prostitutes to his unhappy marriage experience. He married itself, turning away from the LORD’” (1:2). a woman named Gomer, whom he deeply loved. The story of this marriage forms the content of the However, she proved to be unfaithful to him. In first three chapters of his book. In the third chapter anger and jealousy he resolved to divorce her. But we find him redeeming Gomer (from what we are then he realized he loved her too much to give her not told) and setting a time of probation: up forever; he longed, instead, to win her back as You will wait for me for many days;

13 you will not prostitute yourself exodus, the time of youthful fidelity. There she shall or belong to any man; learn again to respond in love (vv. 16-19). From this I in turn will wait for you. (3:3). grows the promise of an ideal restoration (v. 20) and Israel’s greatest crime, in Hosea’s eyes, was the the assurance: religious infidelity of Baal worship and the fertility I will betroth you to me forever: cult conjoined to it. This is reflected in the matchless I will betroth you to me with justice and chapter 2 (which you must read along with this). So with judgment, skillfully is the oracle constructed that it seems at With loyalty and with compassion first that Hosea is speaking of Gomer, as he says, I will betroth you to me with fidelity, “She is not my wife, and I am not her husband” and you shall know the LORD (vv. 21-22). (2:4b, a primitive divorce formula). Only as the or- acle proceeds does it become clear that the words The scenario of chapter 2 promises a renewal, but are the Lord’s, as He tells of Israel’s sin, His reac- only after a return to the desert — in other words, tion, and what He will do to bring about a change. the end of the old order followed by a rebirth. Hosea She has gone after her lovers who, she says, give suggests the same elsewhere, but before looking at her bread and water, wool and fax, oil and drink that, we need to understand how bad the old order (verse 7). That is, Israel attributes to Baal the fer- was. For enlightenment let us turn to look at many tility that she enjoys. But the Lord, the true giver other passages, beginning with chapter 4. of these gifts, will snatch them back and afflict her Unlike Amos, whom we might call a phenomenol- with all manner of evil (vv. 10-14): ogist, weighing the concrete acts of wickedness he perceived — cheating, bribery, oppression — Hosea I will punish her for the days of the Baals, looked for underlying causes. So at the beginning of for whom she burnt incense, chapter 4 we read, “There is no fidelity (‘emeth), no When she decked herself out with her rings loyalty (hesed), no knowledge of God in the land,” so and jewelry, he is not surprised that, as a result, “Swearing, lying, and went after her lovers murder, stealing and adultery break out; bloodshed but she forgot me—oracle of the LORD follows bloodshed.” Israel has gone adrift from its re- (v. 15). ligious moorings, so sin of every kind abounds. This Yet even these afflictions are stratagems to turn breach he goes on to specify as participation in the Israel back to Himself: fertility cult, a pagan aberration widely practiced in If she runs after her lovers, she will not the ancient Near East, but totally at odds with Israel’s overtake them; religion. It was a nature religion, by which fertility if she seeks them she will not find them. was believed to be accorded to nature — the flocks, Then she will say, the fields, the family — through the fertility god return 'I will go back [ ] to my first husband, 1 Verses 8-9 would suggest Israel’s change of heart and the 1 for I was better off then than now' (v. 9). reason for it, and so would fit better after v. 15, from where they may have been displaced by a copyist’s error. This With deepening tenderness He speaks of leading would explain the transition from the Lord’s harshness to her into the desert, the place of honeymoon after the tenderness, otherwise seeming so abrupt. (known as Baal and by var- of YHWH’s moral de- ious other names) and the mands and the kind of fertility goddess (known He promised— as Ishtar, Astarte, Anath, all at odds with pagan Asherah, and by various belief and practice. other names). The fertil- All this is background ity god was understood to for understanding Ho- be so closely connected sea’s chapter 4, the with nature that the cycle burden of which is that of seasons was thought to Israel has substituted be a reflection of his adven- the worship of Baal for tures; if nature languished, that of YHWH. And for An Assyrian bas relief he might be dead or in the of Asherah this the prophet blames netherworld. Fertility in na- the priests. He says, “My ture—the fields, the flocks, people are ruined for lack of knowledge,” knowl- the family—was thought edge which, he says, the priests have rejected; they to be the effect of the god have forgotten the instruction (torah) of their God (v. An Assyrian statuette and goddess of fertility 6). The proper Yahwistic cult would include the rec- of Baal coming together in fertile itation of the mighty acts of God for Israel and the sexual union. Along with this goes the belief that response expected of them, a far cry from the “prosti- it is possible to bring the god and goddess of fer- tution” and the worship described in vv. 12-13. Very tility into fertilizing union by the proper rites. That clearly verse 14 says, “Because the men themselves is, to manipulate the divine through “sympathetic consort with prostitutes,/ and with temple women [or imitative] magic”— in this case by intercourse they offer sacrifice.” The reference is very clear, since under cultic auspices. Initially this was carried out the phrase, in addition to the common term for “har- in a rather official manner, with the king represent- lot” (zonah) uses what is the technical term for a cult ing the god and a temple priestess representing the prostitute (qedeshah). More properly the word (which goddess. Later the process became more “democra- means literally “holy one” [fem.]) was the title of tized,” with numbers of cult prostitutes (qedeshoth), the goddess of fertility but was then applied to the who could be approached by men who held no devotees who were her surrogates in the cult. It ap- cultic office. pears that the crime condemned is the substitution This practice would have been objectionable from of the cult of Baal for that of YHWH, apparently by the point of view of Israel’s strict morality. More the priests of the YHWH shrines. (This was probably importantly, it was in effect a denial of Israel’s mono- done by introducing the pagan rites under the name theism as well as of the nature of Israel’s God as a of YHWH rather than by blatant worship of Baal.) Creator who stands above and apart from creation, The burden of this chapter, then, is that Israel, able to give or withhold fertility (compare the story led on by a corrupt priesthood, has abandoned the of Elijah in 1 Kings 17-18), in no way able to be ma- proper worship of their God, and so has lost the re- nipulated by creatures. There was also the matter ligious virtues of fidelity, loyalty, and knowledge of

15 God. The last-named does not relate to intellectual For it is he who has torn, but he will heal us; content but rather to the total response owed to God. he has struck down, but he will bind our To “know” needs to be understood very concretely: wounds. “to know God” would mean to respond in fidelity, He will revive us after two days; obedience, devotion, etc. God has “known” Israel by on the third day he will raise us up, favoring them in every way (cf. Amos 3:2, where the to live in his presence.’ word is translated “favored” to render this sense). They say all the right things (“Let us know, let us The word rendered “loyalty” is hesed, a key term strive to know the LORD”), but they think it is too in Hosea. It has a range of nuances and, though often easy, too automatic (“as certain as the dawn is his translated “mercy,” it more accurately suggests “loy- coming”). But there is no staying power to their alty,” “love,” “steadfast love” (the regular rendering resolution, and the Lord is compelled to exclaim: in the Revised Standard, and New RSV), sometimes “pity.” The term occurs six times in Hosea, where it What can I do with you, Ephraim? always has Israel, not God, as its subject; this is quite What can I do with you, Judah? paradoxical, as will be seen shortly. Your loyalty (hesed) is like the morning mist, Hesed is received or shown only by those among like the dew that disappears early…. whom a definite relationship exists, and only For it is loyalty (hesed) that I desire, not sacrifice, between those who share an ethically binding rela- and knowledge of God rather than burnt 3 tionship and mutual responsibilities. Hesed is done offerings (5:15-6:6). by the situationally superior party for the one who Though Israel is slow to embrace the sort of dispo- is completely lacking in present resources or future sitions the Lord desires, the Lord is not without His prospects. How could Israel ever be situationally own resources, as we see in chapter 11, which now superior so as to be able to render hesed to God? reveals ever more fully the depths of His love. It be- This is because God desired Israel’s love and fidel- gins by revealing a different kind of relationship ity, something only Israel can provide. We might call between God and Israel, that of parent to child: this divine condescension. God might call it love. When Israel was a child I loved him, Another term of crucial importance in Hosea is “re- out of Egypt I called my son. turn.”2 Already in 2:5-9, the afflictions the Lord visits The more I called them, on Israel are intended to lead her to the decision: “I the farther they went from me, will go back to my first husband, for I was better off Sacrificing to the Baals then than now.” “Return” is what the prophet longs And burning incense to idols (vv. 1-2). to see, but he recognizes that “their deeds do not allow them to return to their God” (5:4). In a classic He lavished all love upon them: text (5:15-6:6) Israel recognizes the need: I drew them with human cords, In their affliction, they shall look for me. with bands of love; ‘Come, let us return to the LORD, I fostered them like those who raise an infant to their cheeks; I bent down to feed them (v. 4). 2 “Return,” “go back,” “repent” can all render the same Hebrew word whose root is shin-waw-beth, “shub,” pronounced “shoov.” 3 Words quoted by Jesus in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7 But Israel’s return of contempt in place of love faithful. We think of Psalm 136, whose every verse enrages the parent and so: ends “God’s love (hesed) endures forever,” and of He shall return to the land of Egypt, countless other instances. So of course God will not Assyria shall be his king, allow Ephraim/Israel to remain in Egypt/Assyria: because they have refused to repent.4 They shall follow the Lord, who roars like a lion; Adamantly He declares, “Though they call on When he roars, God in unison, he shall not raise them up” (v. 7). But his children shall come frightened from now we see God, bereft of His children, grieved to the west, the heart, and we read one of the most astounding Out of Egypt they shall come trembling, passages in the Bible: like birds, How could I give you up, Ephraim, like doves, from the land of Assyria; or deliver you up, Israel? And I will resettle them in their homes, How could I treat you as Admah, oracle of the LORD. 5 or make you as Zeboiim? Is this a happy ending to the drama? Israel has My heart is overwhelmed, been exiled and returned; YHWH’s love has tri- my pity is stirred. umphed over anger. But although there has been I will not give vent to my blazing anger, return to the land, there has been little sign of the I will not destroy Ephraim again (vv. 8-9a). “return” of repentance, so the drama continues as Scholastic philosophy would not allow God to chapter 12 lists Israel’s failings and ends with: speak that way, would insist that God is impassi- Ephraim has aroused bitter anger, ble, that is, not capable of experiencing passion or so his Lord shall cast his bloodguilt emotion. But as Blaise Pascal once said, “Our God upon him and repay him for his scorn is not the god of the philosophers; he is the God of (v. 15). Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the Chapter 13, we might say, is a low point, where God of our fathers.”6 Israel is accused of idolatry: they substitute the wor- And just after God has spoken, we would say in ship of a calf for the living God. God reminds them a most human way, He goes on to declare, “For I of the ingratitude which they returned for His nur- am God and not a man” (v. 9b). The meaning is, of turing in the desert. God’s patience is at an end; course, that He is not changeable, as humans may with utmost violence He threatens them, as Hosea be. Having called Israel in loyalty (hesed), He remains again demonstrates in his changing mood:

4 There is a play on words in v. 5: “He shall return (shub) to the So, I will be like a lion to them, land of Egypt,/ Assyria shall be his king,/ because they have like a leopard by the road I will keep watch. refused to repent (shub).” I will attack them like a bear robbed of its young, 5 Admah and Zeboiim were two of the five “cities of the plain” and tear their hearts from their breasts (v. 8). destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah. No divine compunction is expressed; rather, this 6 For a masterful treatment of the pathos of God, see the destruction is confirmed: relevant chapters of Abraham Heschel, The Prophets (New York: Harper & Row, 1962). Shall I deliver them from the power of Sheol?

17 shall I redeem them from death? I do not suggest that Where are your plagues, O death! these scenes can be where is your sting, Sheol!7 put in any chronologi- Compassion is hidden from my eyes. cal order. For example, should we really imag- With the Lord washing His hands of Israel once ine a new exodus as in and for all, we are hardly prepared for chapter 14— 2:16-17 plus a new exile but are grateful for it, nevertheless. Almost at the to Egypt (and Assyria!) beginning we are met with the invitation, and restoration, as in "return, Israel, to the LORD, your God; 11:5-11? Hosea, as an you have stumbled because of your iniquity. artist—and a great art- Take with you words, ist he was—returned to and return to the LORD; this panoramic master- Say to him, ‘Forgive all iniquity, piece time and again to and take what is good. depict in different terms Fr Joseph Let us offer the fruit of our lips’" (vv. 2-3). Israel’s sin, the Lord’s anger, and His merciful forgiveness. The good news Israel goes on to renounce the seeking of deliverance predominates, coming early—already at 2:1-3, as the where it cannot be found—in idolatry and Assyria names of ill-omen are changed to names of good- (v. 4)—to which the Lord compassionately responds: omen—and at 2:21-25. And then, of course, the I will heal their apostasy, magnificent conclusion in chapter 14. I will love them freely; And Gomer, did she return to Hosea? We are not for my anger is turned away from them. told, but perhaps we can see a hint in what hap- There follows a series of blessings the Lord will be- pened to Israel, her stand-in. While the theme of stow, appropriately all in terms of fertility: dew, Israel as the bride of the Lord was introduced by blossom, striking root, Lebanon cedar, grain, vine, Hosea, other prophets picked it up—Jeremiah, wine of Lebanon (vv. 6-8). If we are not prepared Ezekiel, and Second Isaiah, at least—and the theme for this turn-around, it means we have never un- continues in the New Testament, with the Church derstood the New Testament and the way God has as the bride of Christ, as in Ephesians 5:24-32, and dealt with us—our sins freely forgiven, grace freely magnificently developed in the Book of Revelation bestowed. (19:7-8; 21:9-14; and compare 22:17).

Joseph Jensen, osb

7 St. Paul quotes these words in a very different sense to speak of our triumph over death through the of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:55. Stability

In my article in the previous newsletter, I dis- where “all is change,” for Parmenides, change is cussed how the Benedictine vow of conversatio an illusion because “all is one.” His argument can morum addresses the idea that change is the only be summarized as follows: “What is cannot not be, constant in the universe. If change is constant, then and what is not is not anything at all; what is can- we can strive to change our lives so that they might not pass away, and what is not cannot come from reflect more clearly God’s image in each of us. But is what is not.” Therefore, change is impossible. In change really the only constant in the universe? his view, sense perception cannot be trusted to re- Consider eternal truths and laws of nature. Do veal truth; change and movement are nothing more they change? On our planet, drop a pen and it will than untrustworthy perceptions of a reality that is always fall to the floor. If we put our hands ona changeless and permanent. Parmenides’ philosophy hot stove, we will get burned. If we violate one of distinguishes between “the way of truth” and “the God’s commandments, our consciences will be way of opinion,” and it is not hard to guess which pricked. If we reject God, He will still love us. When would be his idea of true reality. we ask God to forgive us, He does—again, and This brings us to a point from which we can re- again, and again—“seventy times seven,” as Jesus flect on St Benedict and his vow of stability, the vow says (Matthew 18:22). Some things just are, and this which joins us to one particular community for the is what St Benedict’s vow of stability reflects—that rest of our life. For all the chaos and violence in the we are grounded in, and may even allow ourselves world, certain things do persist. We can therefore to be formed by, unchanging and universal truths find enduring joy in living in a world that is good, written on the human soul. holy, beautiful and true, a world already redeemed As we previously acknowledged, the riddle of by Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:7). The Benedictine change and permanence is nothing new. In ancient vow of stability helps us open up to this underly- Greece, Heraclitus described the universe as ev- ing reality. Benedictine monasteries rose up all over er-changing; to him, permanence was an illusion. Europe just as Roman civilization began to collapse, However, not all agreed with him. As in modern and they were the places that preserved learning times, there was a diversity of thought among the and cultivated erudition during these “Dark Ages.” ancients. Countless generations of monks and nuns followed Before we turn to St Benedict’s vow of “stabil- God’s call to live under the Rule of Benedict in an ity,” let us take a look at Parmenides, a younger ordered and structured manner, in a life of stabil- contemporary of Heraclitus. Parmenides is “the ity equally balanced between ora et labora, “prayer philosopher of permanence.” (I teach my stu- and work.” They did so in answer to His call dents to remember the difference between the two that the Church might “pray without ceasing” (1 thinkers by noting that Parmenides and “perma- Thessalonians 5:1) so that the world might be sanc- nence” both begin with the letter “p”). Parmenides tified, that all might be open and receptive to our is Heraclitus’ polar opposite: unlike Heraclitus, unchanging and all-merciful God.

19 Some might rightly say, “Well, don’t the Dominicans and and countless other religious orders provide the same?” Of course they do, and thanks be to God for the diversity of reli- gious charisms in the Church! However, as I once explained to someone, when I was attending a Washington Nationals baseball game during the August gathering of the Catholic Beer Club and had to leave the game at the top of the third inning to get back to the monastery in time to pray Vespers with my brothers, monks are different. Our mendicant brothers could have had their breviaries with them and invited people to join them by praying Vespers in their seats at the ballpark. That is their role, to Br Ignacio sanctify the world: to be with the people and wit- ness to the joy of the gospel! But that witness needs, A few metaphors can help us understand the behind the scenes, the backup of the , Benedictine vow of stability. A sailing vessel has with our vow of stability, reliably counted on to be sails and a keel. If the vow of conversatio morum in a fixed place at a fixed time every day of the year, catches the wind in the sails, the vow of stability is year after year, century after century. the keel that keeps the ship from being blown side- So, just as change is an evident and ever-present ways by that wind and provides the ballast that reality of human existence, so too there are eternal keeps the boat from capsizing. Staying with the ship and unchanging truths, revealed by an eternal and metaphor, one could also describe the vow of stabil- unchanging Creator who wrote the truths into the ity as the anchor of a ship within a safe harbor. structure of the universe. Through human reason To use a different image, Benedictine monasteries we can ascertain such truths and by God’s grace be and our vow of stability provide a “field hospital” conformed to them. As with Heraclitus’ change, so for the Church, a place where people overwhelmed too with Parmenides’ permanence; as with the vow by the pressures and burdens of everyday life might of conversatio morum, so too with the vow of stabil- retreat from the world in order to seek and encounter ity—the human condition experiences both realities the God who is eternal and unchanging. It is a great simultaneously. It is difficult of course, even for a privilege for those at St Anselm’s to be able to pro- monk, to reconcile change and permanence within vide such a place for those working in our nation’s oneself, which brings to us to the final vow, the vow capital who need the safe harbor of the monastery of obedience, to be discussed in our next issue. where the Divine Physician can heal wounds and restore one’s equilibrium.

Ignacio González, osb Thoughts About Stokie, My Impossible Dentist, and Meghan Markle A homily inspired by Mark 5: 21-43, the gospel for July 1, 2018

This gospel is a story within a story. A dying girl; Do you understand me?” She squeezed my hand. a suffering woman. 1. Jairus pleads for his child’s “Good, you can do this.” She stepped from the dark life. 2. In fear and trembling, the woman has a melt- car into the sunlight. down, when Jesus demands to know who touched That was a year ago. Last Saturday we were to- him. 3. Jesus enters the little room of Jairus’s daugh- gether again. This time there were casual clothes, ter. What happens is reported, but not everything. Stokie-fest T-shirts, no blue flowers. Mommy, Daddy, Something always stays hidden in what is import- sisters were still together. Grief is isolating; many ant. The secret aspect of the girl’s room reminds us. bereaved families split up. Stokie’s family lives one This week brought me a lot of personal material day at a time. We were there for Mommy’s project, to relate to this gospel. First, a picnic on a high-hu- Parents Against Negligent Daycare (Panda), a watch- midity Saturday afternoon. Food, fun, blaring dog group. I spent time with Evangelical Grandma. music. Children on swings and slides. Bring your She wants to come with Catholic Grandma to an lawn-chair to the first annual Stokie-fest. What abbey mass. “We will do that,” I promised, “a few anniversary? On June 23 last year, 120 people months from now.” Not, I thought, for the gospel of squeezed into a space for sixty, at the Seton High Jairus’ daughter this Sunday. With this gospel, how School chapel, two days before his second birth- can this family not ask, “If she got up, why didn’t day, for Stokie’s funeral. When day-care staff were Stokie? Why didn’t Jesus help him?” Those hard, not watching, he went under in a wading pool, and unanswered questions. We all ask them. Some peo- could not be revived. ple have to live with them. Stokie’s family didn’t go to church. Daddy grew Second. From profound to absurd. When exposed up evangelical. Grandma on Mommy’s side ex- by Jesus’ demand to know the toucher’s identity, the plained, “They never got around to . My suffering woman has a meltdown. After suffering daughter has some issues with the .” for twelve years, she is allowed one for her innocent Who does not, I nearly said. I stood on the curb to superstition (if only I touch his hem). My meltdown meet the family. Leaning inside the limousine, I saw is trivial. It is about my dentist. In addition to in- Mommy in a dress you might wear to a wedding. flicting pain, he never stops talking. When I ask a Floppy hat, white dress with big blue flowers. Like question about my terrible teeth, he says, “I will get the blue flowers on the little box holding Stokie. to that, be quiet and listen.” He then gives a worst- Blue for a boy. Grabbing her hand, I said, “God isn’t case scenario, and suggests a treatment—with no limited to what people or churches think we must guarantees. This is his bedside manner. When he do. God is so much bigger. Stokie is fine. Do you asks me a theological question (I really want to know understand that?” She nodded. “I want to be sure. what you think about this), he doesn’t draw breath

21 before giving his own answer. But he is a highly them forward. My dentist didn’t cry on the phone. qualified dental practitioner, having a number of But I almost did. It felt like a meltdown. Not as bad advanced degrees and awards. In his own strange as ones I used to have. But painful. way he cares. I do know this. Forgive seventy times seven, go the second mile. I He is a naturalized citizen from the Middle East, remembered these commands. Feeling hardhearted, who disapproves of people coming through the bor- I thanked him and said good-bye. If you had called der without following procedures. He has told me an hour earlier, as you could have, I would still be your many times. This means we disagree about America. patient. I felt sad; I almost pitied him. Useless feel- This week, he explained the difficulties of an implant ings. Could I have done things differently, avoided I need. He gave the usual worst-case scenario and upheaval? Our spiritual life presents us with many prescribed a treatment, saying, “Of course, there are challenges. We learn all the time. Sometimes we no guarantees. Anything could happen.” At home, learn from failure. Failure and misunderstanding unhappy about the implant, I steamed about his pol- hurt. I apparently cared for this blockhead. He will itics. I emailed, “If my dentist is anti-immigrant, I never know. Does God know? Hard, unanswered need to find a new dentist.” And, truthfully, I thought question, not as severe as those asked by Stokie’s he would phone, as he once did when I objected to an family, but nevertheless…. expenditure. When he did not phone, I found a new Third. Hidden in the room of Jairus’s daughter, dentist and requested a transfer of records. what really happens? The obvious meaning of the I was brooding over the traumatic aspects of story is that Jesus raises the dead and gives new changing dentists when the phone rang. It hap- life. Yet I am struck by Jesus wanting to keep details pened in the car, with a monastic brother beside private. What is really important in life, especially me. He had said, “Your dentist won’t care that you in relationships, cannot be put into words. They are are dropping him.” We listen to my dentist speak hidden, despite our efforts to systematize, explain, for eight minutes. There is no argument, no accu- pigeon-hole. sation; he spoke in a soft voice. “You are welcome In their desperation, the stories of Jairus and the to come back whenever you want, always welcome. twelve-year sufferer converge. They each touch For eighteen years you have been my friend, not just the hem of Jesus’ garment, in humility and trust. I my patient. You misunderstand me about the immi- think of Stokie, the dentist, Meghan Markle. Meghan grant question [he proceeds to give the opinions I Markle? You may have wedding fatigue from all the have heard so often before]. I don’t make this call to television coverage. I heard that snort from a nearby every patient. When I read your email I felt hurt.” choir-stall: “All that money. Four-hundred thou- What would you do? (WWJD, as the bracelet asks: sand for the dress. Outrageous.” Glued to the tube what would Jesus do? I usually cannot answer that for the Super Bowl, this brother does not complain question, and feel it presumption when others do.) about money. Let’s revisit the wedding, especially Does it matter, you ask. Grow up, get a life. He’s the twin boys who were bridal attendants. If several only a dentist. You’re his customer, not his friend. years older they would be the age of Jairus’s daugh- Perhaps. But I agree with the twelve-step princi- ter, if several years younger they would be Stokie’s ple that no problem is unimportant, no problem is playmates. Look at them, carrying the sixteen-foot stupid, if it matters to you. Sometimes I help people hem of that spectacular dress up twenty-one crook- who are stuck in such a problem. I gently encourage ed-stone steps. Amazing. Inside they pause, and trumpets blare. Startled, they give a whip to the hopeful belief that people of every race, orientation, veil, which inflates like a parachute. How funny, belief-system, personality-type (white, black, laven- how perfect. Mouths agape, the twins wriggle der) will enter the city, as all the royal guests did, ecstatically. simply to be together. A happy and possible ending. Later comes another precious non-verbal moment. Yet it is hidden, seeming very doubtful, when Stokie Every wedding, however simple, has them, I know. dies or Jairus’s daughter is about to, when children The register must be signed. Sheku Kanneh-Mason, are impounded, when you spend your life-savings age nineteen, sits in the archway with his cello for and find no healing. three quiet pieces. The last is Schubert’s Ave Maria, The young cellist convinces us of the possibility which everyone knows. It brings an old-fashioned of the ultimate wedding, with its ultimate happi- moment. The glamor of this wedding can be crit- ness for humanity. His deep wordless tones cast a icized. The Clooneys, Elton John, the cast of Suits, spell. There is something beyond race, belief system, Oprah Winfrey. Gossiping during the organ pre- the alarming political situation. Where past, pres- ludes as if at a cocktail party. But listen with them ent, and future will connect. Nunc et in hora mortis. in this moment to Ave Maria, and watch their faces. Now and in death’s moment, the cello sings. Jairus, Sheku wears a formal black suit, but his socks Stokie, hem-toucher, and my dentist fall under the peek out. They have valentines in alternating col- spell. Maybe you and I do also. Bring your melt- ors, white, black, lavender. A wedding brings down with you to the very private place. Let the people together, close as socks and toes. This is music sweep you up, like a parachuting bridal why Christians believe in the ultimate wedding at hem. Let it bring you to the place where children the end of time, the lamb’s wedding. We hold the splash and play.

Gabriel Myers, osb

We ask the friends of St Anselm’s to join us in prayer for vocations to our community. We also ask you to recommend St Anselm’s to young men who may be open to considering a religious life such as ours, and/or to pass on to us the names of such young men. Director of Vocations, St Anselm's Abbey

23 ST ANSELM’S ABBEY Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage 4501 Avenue, NE PAID Washington, DC 20017-2795 Washington, DC Permit No. 8626

The Newsletter of St Anselm’s Abbey is distributed free of charge by St Anselm’s Abbey, 4501 South Dakota Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20017-2795 (202-269-2300). Names may be added to the mailing list upon request. Editorial Board: Abbot James Wiseman, osb; Matthew Nylund, osb; Alessandra Styles. Photos, pp. 5, 18, 20: Aileen Schlef.