Church

February second, we will celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the last event in the liturgical year tied to the Christmas season, and the last event of Jesus’ infancy presented in any of the Gospels. Since 1997, at the request of John Paul II, it has also been the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, a day of prayer for those who live according to the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience.

Prior Michael Brunner celebrating House Mass in a dormitory

It is a fascinating story that only appears in the Gospel of Luke. Forty days after the birth of Jesus, following the Old Testament law, the infant Jesus is presented in the temple and the purification of Mary is accomplished by the offering of a pair of turtle doves. In the temple, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, run into an old man named Simeon, who Luke tells us is a righteous and devout man. He takes Jesus in his arms, and thanks God for allowing him to see God’s salvation, the light for the Gentiles, the glory of Israel, before dying. He then gives one of the first prophecies of the crucifixion, telling Mary that Jesus would be the cause of the rise and fall of many in Israel, and that Mary herself would experience great pain and sorrow. The Holy Family then meets Anna, an 84-year-old prophetess and long-time widow, who worshipped and fasted in the Temple night and day. Like Simeon, she sees Jesus and immediately responds by giving thanks to God. Then, Jesus, Mary and Joseph return to Nazareth, and we are told nothing else until Jesus is 12 years old.

This narrative helps give some sense of the two vocations I have been called to live out: both my vocation as a Benedictine monk and my vocation as a priest. As a Benedictine monk, I made three vows on the day of my profession: stability, conversatio morum, and obedience. Through this consecration, like all other consecrated men and women, I vowed myself to a life of prayer that gives a witness of God to the world, a life of offering myself by giving up the possibility of family, property, and the free exercise of my will. As a Benedictine monk, this offering is made by living out a life according to the Rule of St. Benedict in a particular community under some particular superior and his successors.

Candlelight Procession from the Lourdes Grotto, Portsmouth Abbey

Although they are not Benedictines, and there is no specific mention of the evangelical counsels in this passage, we can see clear elements of the Benedictine life in Simeon and Anna. Their story starts with the long preparation they had before that fateful day 40 days after Jesus was born. We are told that Simeon was a righteous and devout man who had been given a revelation from the Holy Spirit that he would see the Christ. Anna, on the other hand, would stay in the temple all day and all night worshipping and fasting; she had truly dedicated her entire life to the worship of God. After this preparation, they are ready for the true Holy of Holies, not the inner sanctuary of the Temple designed for the Ark of the Covenant, but the recognition of the Word of God made flesh. As soon as they see Jesus, they approach Him and recognize Him, and the salvation that He brings through His death and resurrection. This is a summary of what a well-lived Benedictine, monastic life looks like. A life of growing in virtue and love, following ascetic practices and dedicating oneself to the Divine Office, study and prayer prepares the monk for contemplation, the ability to see and recognize Jesus.

Abbot Matthew Stark offering weekday homily

The Feast of the Presentation also shines a light on what it means to be a priest in a monastery. Here it is important to note that these are truly two separate vocations. The monastic life can be lived fully with heroic virtue, without the additional call to ordination. The clerical life can be lived fully with heroic virtue, without the additional call to the religious life. Nevertheless, my call to the priesthood is within the context of my call to the monastic life: it is a call to serve the Church, as present in the monastic community itself, and the wider community built around it. This priestly service itself becomes a part of the monastic life; it is lived under obedience to the superior of the monastery, and within the context established by the Rule.

The story of the Presentation takes place in the temple, a key location for the Gospel of Luke, which starts and ends in the temple. It is also the location of the sacrifices of the Old Testament, where the Levitical Priests would offer animals to God for their own sins and those of Israel. As the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, these many sacrifices that had to be repeatedly offered are replaced in the sacrifice offered by Christ once and for all, the Paschal Mystery, the sacrifice of Himself on the Cross for the forgiveness of sins that is fundamentally tied to the resurrection through which He conquers death itself. This sacrifice, although offered only once, is made present to us in the Mass. The great redemptive act that Simeon and Anna looked forward to is something we can be present at every day. As a priest in a monastery, the daily offering of this sacrifice for the needs of the Church, and any specific intentions the monastery gives me that day, through celebration and concelebration of the Mass is the primary activity of my priesthood. This gives a proximity to the Cross and His sacrifice that then serves to deepen the life of virtue and love I am vowed to as a monk. In addition, the deepening of the life of virtue and love that comes from living the monastic life in return also gives a greater proximity to Christ and His Cross, which serves to deepen the life I am ordained to as a Priest.

Father Paschal Scotti incenses the altar, Mass during Christmas Season, 2019-20

Thus, at the end of the day, these two vocations are folded into the single vocation of a life lived as a priest in a monastery. A life of offering and service that approaches Christ in two modes, both as a priest, serving the body of Christ, the Church through the ministry of the sacraments, and as a monk, called to offer my own whole self in imitation of Him. Through these two modes, I, like everyone else, am called to one end, contemplation: the recognition of Christ, as shown by Simeon and Anna in the Temple.