Meeting

How the Title Was Born
The Rule of St Benedict

by Mauro Lepori*

The idea for this title came from the Rule of St Benedict. A monk approaching the monastery for the first time is asked, “Is there a man who desires life and longs for happy days?” If the one knocking at the monastery door answers, “I do,” then he follows all the rest of the Rule.
The title is very timely… I think that this determined reaction on the Pope’s part against this war–against all wars, but this one in particular–is precisely a realization that a war like this in a certain sense mortifies even the desire for life, people’s ideals. Throwing soldiers into war for calculated reasons of power shows that man does not play a part in these plans, that man’s desire for life is no longer respected, no longer placed at the center of things.
Is there today this man who wants happiness, who fights for his happiness?
The important thing is that the answer be “I do,” that is to say, that each person say “I do” to this question, that each one want to be that man. This is the essential thing, because at bottom it is a very fine thing that the Pope be the Pope, but if I do not become the man who desires life and longs for happy days, for me it is perfectly useless that the Pope be like this, it would even be useless that Jesus Christ came, died on the cross, and rose again. The important thing is to understand that the most important answer is “I do,” obviously not “I” alone, but that I adopt this desire and live it for the truth of my humanity, and consequently for the truth of all the humanity in the world. The world depends on each of us. That the world be different depends on me, on the entreaty of each of us.
When we understand that the truth of life is entreaty, that salvation comes from an Other, we understand as well how important the entreaty of each one is. For if salvation depends on an Other, my entreaty, my welcome is enough: this is the logic of Our Lady. Because if this Other saves the whole world, He mysteriously seeks a person who says “Yes” to him. Clearly, we must all be this person, but the logic of responsibility is personal: if I truly see the limit of not being able myself to save the world, of not being able myself to change the world, of not being able to stop this war, and I know that the Savior can really save the world, my entreaty is essential. In fact, the Pope asks each person to pray. He does not ask it of the monasteries, he does not even ask it only of Catholics, in a certain sense, but he asks it of each one, he proposes it as the truth for the world’s salvation, as the truth also within the world, in front of the world.

*Abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Hauterive (Switzerland)