Homily for the Feast of St. Benedict
If St. Benedict were alive today, he would surely be one of the great influencers of our age.
Today, an influencer is someone who has the power to shape the opinions, behaviors, and even the purchasing decisions of others. Their influence comes from their knowledge, credibility, or their relationship with a particular audience. In every generation, true influencers recognize the deepest needs of their time and speak to them.
St. Benedict was precisely such an influencer—but his sphere of influence was not fashion, politics, or commerce. It was the human spirit.
He recognized the spiritual hunger of his age and responded with a vision of authentic Christian living. The Roman Empire was crumbling. Political authority was weak, society was fractured, and waves of migration had transformed the old order. Benedict did not try to save the Empire. Instead, he built communities rooted in Christ, believing that a renewed society begins with renewed hearts.
Is our society today better than Benedict’s? Yes and no.
In many ways, our lives are more comfortable. We enjoy conveniences and a standard of living that Benedict could never have imagined. Yet the hunger of the human soul remains. In some respects, it may even be greater. Benedict lived in a slower world, where people still had time to reflect on life’s meaning, on suffering, on death, and on eternity. Our world is filled with constant noise and endless distractions that often keep us from asking those deeper questions.
One of the greatest losses of our age is the loss of listening.
The Rule of St. Benedict begins with a single word: “Listen.” Listen with the ear of your heart. Scripture constantly reminds us that we are not only hearers of the Word but doers of it.
Our culture often teaches the opposite. We are encouraged to believe that everything revolves around ourselves. We prize self-empowerment, self-expression, and self-promotion. While these have their proper place, they can easily become forms of narcissism that place the ego at the center of reality.
Benedict offers a different path. He invites us to listen honestly to our minds and hearts, to recognize the subtle demands of the ego, and to question the illusion that happiness comes simply from getting what we want or achieving enough success.
His answer is clear: remove the ego from the center and enthrone God once again. Our lives find their true center only in God.
This is why Benedict established communities of peace—places where people seek God together and learn to build a different kind of society. The antidote to self-centeredness is humility.
He teaches his monks to serve one another, to honor legitimate authority, and to recognize the wisdom of those who have gone before them. “Pray and work” (ora et labora) gradually erodes our sense of entitlement and teaches us that greatness is found in service.
Benedict also understood that equality does not mean sameness. Every person possesses equal dignity before God, but not everyone has the same gifts, responsibilities, or strengths.
In the Rule, Benedict distinguishes between the strong and the weak. He urges the strong to support the weak, and he encourages the weak to have the humility to receive help. This is not inequality; it is charity.
He entrusted the monastery to an abbot, who represents Christ within the community. Here we must recover an important distinction—the difference between the person and the office.
There is an old story about a soldier who disliked his captain and deliberately refused to salute him. A colonel witnessed the incident and called the soldier over. “Son,” he said, “you salute the rank, not merely the man.”
In a healthy monastery, however, we hope to do even better. We honor both the office and the person, recognizing that the abbot’s authority is a service entrusted to him for the good of the community.
A Benedictine monastery is a living community. Every member contributes to its growth. It is not a refuge for people trying to escape a chaotic world. Rather, it is a place of conversion where people learn to live differently.
Monasteries are not places to hide from the world. They are places of retreat, renewal, and healing. From them, monks are sent back into the world—not always physically, but through the witness of their lives. In that way they become true influencers, quietly shaping society by reflecting Christ.
Nor does a monastery shut the world out. It remains in dialogue with the world while refusing to be ruled by it. A monastery becomes lifeless whenever its members begin treating it as private territory to defend rather than a gift entrusted to them for God’s mission.
Above all, the monastery is a place where minds are enlightened, hearts are healed, and lives are given a new vision.
Together, the monks strive to build a community centered on God alone, who is Love itself. It becomes a small image of the Kingdom of God—a microcosm of the Church whose life and strength come from the power of the Risen Christ.
The Rule is not primarily a collection of rules and regulations. It is a school of the Lord’s service. Its purpose is to help us cling ever more firmly to Christ, whom the abbot represents within the community.
If St. Benedict were living today, he would indeed be an influencer par excellence. Yet the secret of his influence would be exactly the same as it was fifteen centuries ago. His spirit is the Spirit of Christ.
To live according to the Rule of St. Benedict is ultimately to live according to Christ. It is no longer Benedict who lives, but Christ living in the midst of the community. And that is the influence our world needs most.