+ Our readings today have to do with the encounter with love that is more powerful than anything on earth or beyond – and is in fact supremely heavenly in origin and experience: it is the love that has its source, its existence, its goal and its aim Jesus Christ: who is love incarnate, love-in-the-flesh. The first reading today from the Song of Songs describes a lover's presence set like a seal on the heart, something which is deep and lasting, identifying the lover deeply and irrevocably with the beloved; the reading also describes love as stern as death – as serious and relentless as an all encompassing experience that will last forever. But this need not be a frightful thing at all – if the love and the lover we speak about here is Jesus the Lord. In the gospel passage, Mary chose the better portion when she set her sights on Jesus who came to visit her in her home, and her devotion and love for him were as stern as death: very intense and absorbing and single-minded. While Martha held Jesus in the periphery of her vision at the time: Mary got it right! When the Lord visits – anyone would be foolish not to pay complete attention to him!
Two people in church history had their sights set on Jesus in an extraordinary way – and nothing could deter them from getting all they could from that experience – both for themselves and for others who wanted to learn from them: those two being St. Benedict of Nursia, and his sister St. Scholastica – who lived in the 6th century. We celebrate the feast of St. Scholastica today, February 10. While Benedict founded his famed monastery at Monte Casino – the first of its kind, his sister Scholastica founded a monastery for Benedictine nuns in a location about five miles from Monte Casino. There must have been a notion that what was being learned, celebrated and promulgated from these two monasteries was as stern as death, in a very positive way, and as worthy of investigation and imitation that many came to become disciples of these very holy family members: Benedict and Scholastica.
The story goes that one night Benedict and some of his companions went to visit Scholastica at her monastery, as the Rule (their Rule) stated that no women were allowed at Monte Casino (not even the sister of the founder). At these meetings Benedict and Scholastica – with others from their communities present – and in the presence of the Lord himself who would come to visit (being gathered as they were in his name) – would discuss holy things and experiences well into the night: just as Mary and Jesus did that night long ago. But when things were getting very interesting that night and Scholastica did not want Benedict to leave, after his insistence that he go, she prayed to God and a violent thunderstorm came up and stayed: so that the holy monks could not leave. Benedict then accused Scholastica (most likely in a brotherly kind of way) of provoking the storm, to which she replied: "I asked a favor of you (to stay a little longer) and you refused it. I asked it of God, and he has granted it." They spent the night then discussing the joys of heaven. Three days later Scholastica died. While praying in his cell, Benedict is said to have seen her soul rising to heaven in the form of a dove. She was buried in a tomb that Benedict had prepared for himself.
The Benedictine monastic tradition and way of life has survived these 15 centuries and have very strong numbers. In fact the Rule of St. Benedict is one of the most highly regarded outlines for Christian living that ever existed as is held in great esteem by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. "To prefer nothing to Christ," is its primary tenet! You can't go wrong with that motto set like a seal on your heart. Everything you do during the day will be colored with joy even in the midst of sorrow, if you set it as such!
Young men and women – all men and women – praise the name of the Lord!
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