In Chapter 57 of the Holy Rule, St. Benedict briefly discusses the skilled craftsmen of the monastery. His concern is that they avoid falling into either pride or avarice because of their work. He rounds off this Chapter by quoting a line from St. Peter’s first Letter, Chapter 4: ...that in all things God may be glorified (1 Pt 4:11). This line has often been taken as summing up not just monastic work, but the whole of monastic life, indeed of the Christian life itself. Let us say today also, this could fittingly sum up the lives of SS. Peter and Paul. The Latin goes ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus. That is abbreviated to UIOGD, which you sometimes see as a sort of motto placed at the head or foot of documents produced by Benedictine monks.
The quotation cited from 1 Peter concludes in this way: in everything may God be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Glory then to God then through Jesus Christ; and glory to Jesus Christ also, through whom God invites us to share his own glory.
On the eve of his passion, according to St. John, Jesus said: Father, glorify the Son, so that the Son may glorify you (17:1). And later: I have given them the glory which you gave to me, that they may be one, as we are one (17:22). Fulfilling this word of the Lord, SS. Peter and Paul were one in the Spirit; one in their doctrine; one in their apostleship and preaching; one in a single faith, and hope, and love; one in the communion and fellowship of the Church; and finally, one in martyrdom. We rejoice today especially that they are also now one in eternal glory.
Where should the emphasis fall? In all things may God be glorified. Giving glory to God implies an attitude, a habit, a life of worship. This necessarily involves not giving glory to oneself, or to any other created thing that is less than God. In his Prologue St. Benedict quotes Psalm 113: Not to us O Lord, not to us give the glory, but to your name alone (Prol 30; Ps 113:9). Then in function of that, as we know so well, Benedict insists everywhere on the virtue of humility. We attain such humility not so much by doing ourselves down, as by the practice of the presence of God; by our life of obedience; ultimately by the gift of the Holy Spirit. And always it’s Jesus Christ himself who is the measure of our humility, and its source, and model, and inspiration.
In all things may God be glorified. One of the defining features of our monastic life, as designed by St. Benedict, is that nothing whatever is held back, nothing is missed out, no aspect whatever of our life is not given to God. A monk is consecrated; his day is consecrated; his duty and work, his recreation and rest, his eating and sleeping, his fraternal relationships, his public and private prayer are all consecrated, so that they may all as far as possible be in accordance with God’s will: for the hallowing of God’s name, and the bringing about of his Kingdom. So, as obedience directs, a monk may intone an Antiphon, or clean a toilet, or mend a habit, or weed a vegetable bed, or peel potatoes, or pick gooseberries, or prepare honey for sale, or cook a meal, or wash it up, or balance the accounts, or care for the sick, or hang out the laundry, or set up the sacristy, or mow the lawn, or swing a thurible, or welcome a guest, or study theology, or do the shopping, or attend a conference, or prepare a homily, or unblock a drain: and all of it has the same overriding aim of giving honour and glory to God.
In all things may God be glorified. Of course monks most obviously give God glory when they explicitly praise him, whether in public or in private. We praise God by recalling his saving works, especially through the sacred liturgy. We do this through the daily and weekly and yearly liturgical cycles: seven times a day, and seven days a week, and passing in turn through all the mysteries of Christ in the seasons of Advent and Christmas and lent and Easter, then through the ordinary time that is also punctuated by feasts of the Lord and Feasts of his Saints, and by the reading and recitation of his holy Word.
One rather striking summary of monastic praise is the simple prayer that ends every Psalm, the Gloria Patri. As Benedictines we sing that rather frequently. I calculate that here at Pluscarden the Gloria Patri is publicly sung 64 times every Sunday or Solemnity, and 57 times every weekday. That’s not counting the doxologies of hymns, or hymns that are themselves doxologies, like the Te Deum or Te decet, nor is it counting the Glorias said in private on the Holy Rosary. I don’t know how many decades of that the brethren say each day. According to individual devotion or preference, I suppose we would have to add those to the sum, in multiples of 5. Happy are we, to have such occasions and opportunities to do what is so utterly worthwhile and fruitful and rewarding and good!
There’s a very useful index at the back of the RB80 edition of the Holy Rule. One of its sections sets out how St. Benedict uses scripture. Admittedly the index cites allusions as well as direct quotations. But it gives a good indication of how well St. Benedict has internalised the teaching of SS. Peter and Paul. For the First Letter of St. Peter alone our index lists 9 references. For St. Paul, we find 81 references. That’s not counting Hebrews or Paul’s speeches in Acts. And St. Benedict does not fail to quote directly some of Paul’s best known sayings. To take just a few:
By God’s grace I am what I am (Prol 31); He who boasts should make his boast in the Lord (Prol 32); You have received the Spirit of adoption as Sons, by which we cry Abba Father! (2:3); Whether slave or free, we are all one in Christ (2:30); What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, what God has prepared for those who love him (4:77); He was made obedient even unto death (7:34); In all this we are conquerors through him who loved us (7:39); Do not give occasion to the devil (43:8); Let each be the first to show respect to the other (63:17 & 72:4).
To give God glory: through the Benedictine monastic life; through the whole Christian life; though the life of prayer and praise: all of this is summed up, and focussed, and sanctified, and made effective, in the Holy Eucharist. Here also our communion with SS. Peter and Paul is most perfectly expressed. For here, by the working of the Holy Spirit, we give perfect glory to God the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, our Priest, our intercessor, our mediator, our reconciling sacrifice, our joy; the supreme love and light of our life.