The Feast of St Benedict is a good time to reflect on the care of the body and the union with Christ. Benedict escaped the village, the university, and Rome in order to be devoted to the inner life and union with the Lord. He accepted some food from the mountain villagers and slowly warmed up to the social life and his fellow man. This beloved of God had the benefit of an excellent education, but had much social pressure coming from a patrician Roman family. In the ravine he was the master of his social life. Benedict concentrated on the knowledge of the physical, the natural, and the bodily world as he matured as a Christian in the Italian ravine. He knew the limits of bodily life and the value of nourishment. He was akin to John the Baptist in that he too sought the wilderness and a bare subsistence as he turned his complete attention to the spiritual union with the Lord. Benedict had the Holy Spirit to guide him in his solitary life.
“God …who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit…Always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith not by sight. We are confident…willing rather to be absent form the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him.”
2 Corinthians 5:5-9 KJV
Jackson Precincts 