Let us get up then, at long last, for the Scriptures rouse us when they say: “It is high time for us to arise from sleep” Romans 13:11 (Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue.8)
This “sleep” is the spiritual stupor of ordinary people who imagine that the front line is somewhere else. They think that they themselves have no responsibility for the outcome of the battle. They presume that they will suffer no consequences for their complacent inaction.
I myself had an experience of a call involving Scripture and a stirring up from physical sleep, on a particular occasion. At about 2 a.m., the morning of June 19, 2012, I woke up with the urgent sense that I should post verses of Scripture online. So I thought, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”
But the urgency increased. I felt that I must check what the readings for the day were–not in the Upper Room guide to prayer that I’d been using for twenty-two years, but in the Catholic Missal, which I had downloaded on my phone at some point but had never even opened before. I fumbled with my phone in the middle of the night and read the readings: 1 Kings 21: 17-29 (the Lord sends Elijah to confront Ahab). Then there was Psalm 51 (“…in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense….). The Gospel was Matthew 5: 43-48 (“love your enemies“). Then I checked the daily Bible verse and saw Acts 17:30-31:
God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent, because he has established a day on which he will judge the world with justice through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.
There was a “share” feature on the app to connect to Facebook. It was urgent that I must do so immediately. I signed in, and I posted the verse.
This experience had never happened to me before. It hasn’t happened again since. Afterwards, trying to come to terms with it, I explained to God that this was the wrong message to the wrong person at the wrong time.
First of all, these days God does not “demand” anything. God is lucky if anyone condescends to acknowledge that he might exist. Second, if God wants to get a message out to all people everywhere, my Facebook page is not the place to do it. Third, people these days don’t repent. A few religious people make a practice of repenting routinely, but the people who do most of the sinning aren’t interested in repentance at all. There must have been some mistake. The angel tapped the wrong person on the shoulder. I don’t have the credentials, the platform, the authority, or the influence.
But St. Benedict actually gives some insight into the call of God. Seeking his workman in a multitude of people, the Lord calls out to him and lifts his voice again: “Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days?” Psalm 34:12 (Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue.14-15)
There’s a promise here, and it’s not just pie in the sky bye ‘n bye. The promise of God for those who will heed him is a good life beginning here and now.
With this conclusion, the Lord waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, his holy teachings. Therefore our life span has been lengthened by way of a truce, that we may amend our misdeeds. As the Apostle says, “Do you not know that the patience of God is leading you to repent?” Romans 2:4 (RB Prologue.35-37)
The call to each of us is to translate into action daily the teachings that we believe to be true. How do we live them out in ordinary life within a culture that has explicitly rejected them and that organizes itself along opposing principles?
Therefore we intend to establish a school for the Lord’s service. In drawing up its regulations, we hope to set down nothing harsh, nothing burdensome. The good of all concerned, however, may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love. Do not be daunted immediately by fear and run away from the road that leads to salvation. It is bound to be narrow at the outset. (RB Prologue.45-48)
Every Christian home is such a school. If the home is spiritually chaotic, then the child may emerge into adulthood unfit for any good purpose. Discipline costs effort every day. But the rejection of discipline costs far more. Everyone pays the price in illness, despair, loneliness and worse. Rather than raging at evil in others elsewhere, let us combat it where we are. The battle for good against evil will be won or lost in our own homes.