Awhile ago I was talking to someone who shared that when he joined a parish, several people expected him to be mystical, given his Benedictine background. They saw someone who had been part of a religious order and expected him to be lofty and holy. They wanted someone who would prioritize adoration and philosophy over things like building projects and charity. “I was like, go plow a field,” he told me. Their idea of a former monk was a mystic. But he was more rooted in practicality, in doing the faith more than thinking about it, in ora et labora.
“Go plow a field,” has kept resonating with me.
When things get tough or complicated or confusing, it’s best to resort to productive
work. Beyond completing a useful task, the activity pulls the mind out of the
clouds, out of the words, back into the concrete and present. While private
prayer and philosophy are important, they must be used in context. We each have
been put in a specific time and place, and it is there where are meant to work out
our salvation. We are called to address specific challenges where we find
ourselves. The mysticism can permeate, but the reality must be acknowledged. We
are fully whole when we choose to live in our present time and place, when we
embrace the part of creation in which we have been placed.
I’ve been bad about keeping a garden this year.
I got nothing new planted, and I’ve not kept up with weeding. My spiritual life
has sort of been the same way; nothing new planted, barely maintained, weeds
creeping in. It takes effort and continuous attention. It is good for me to be
active, both in the garden and in my own growth. The act itself, regardless of
the harvest, is good for me. I need to drop the plans and overthinking and just
go plow the field.
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