Apr 04th - Benedict The Black

How do we think about the places and situations into which God places us?
Our choices are our own but the opportunities placed before us require from us a decision. As the saying goes, you cannot always choose what happens to you but you can always choose how you react.
Slave or free, Benedict choose to have Jesus as his only master. Whether as superior or kitchen worker, by keeping Christ ever before him he carried out the tasks that God laid before him with the same love and concern. It was not the task but following of Christ that mattered.
How did he accomplish that? Humility. None of us is above complaining, and the more indignant we are about a given situation the louder our complaint. It is not to say we should meekly acquiesce but that through true humility see the needs for which God has placed us here to fill and act on them. We are often only needed for a moment - so while we may desire another situation, we really do not have the time to complain. This is probably doubly true when we lose a coveted or highly desired position for one that is not to our liking.
We must learn to hear what God is telling us, work where and when God needs us to work. Remember, theological discussions aside, Jesus heals on the Sabbath because that was what was necessary.
Benedict help us to be true servants.

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Jesus answered...“My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God. Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
“I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”


-- John 5:17-23, 30