To Whom Do You Disciple? Part 2

In my previous post, “To Whom Do You Disciple?,” I suggested thinking of “The Rule” as “The Discipline.” The word discipline comes from the Latin verb discere, meaning to learn. What are we learning and who is teaching us?

Most days, I think a pretty convincing argument could be made for me being a disciple of my phone. It’s habitual for me to return to that screen, to see what I’m missing, to see who has contacted me. But I wouldn’t list my phone even in the top 100 things that I value most in my life. If we’re not careful, becoming a disciple of something happens by accident.

One of my favorite songs, one of my life anthems, is from the band, Mumford & Sons. It’s called “Awake My Soul.” Right in the middle of the song, these lyrics are repeated: “In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die. And where you invest your love, you invest your life.” 

St. Benedict begins in the Prologue 18-20 saying, “See how the Lord in his love shows us the way of life.” The Lord in his love. That’s someone I want teaching me, disciplining me.

What... no, WHO are you a disciple of? St. Benedict was a disciple of Love. Not the romantic eros love, but the agape love: the way that God loves and who God actually is. That’s what St. Benedict’s Rule is: directions on how to be a disciple of Love. And St. Benedict thought it was the highest value, the discipline that would lead us to ultimate health, happiness, and holiness. “Indeed, nothing is to be preferred to the Work of God” (43:3).

Don’t become a disciple by accident. Choose to be a disciple of agape. A disciple of Love looks like St. Mother Theresa seeking out the abandoned in the streets of Calcutta. A disciple of Charity looks like the friend who goes out of their way every day to check on another friend in need. A disciple of Agape looks like an adult waiting patiently for a child to put on shoes. A disciple of Jesus is a disciple of prayer. Because what is prayer except spending time with God? Like St. John Vianney who prayed, “I love You, O my God, and my only desire is to love You until the last breath of my life... My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You, I want my heart to repeat it to You as often as I draw breath.”

Being disciplined in prayer leads to love and peace...even in a valley. I’ll leave you with St. Benedict, a man disciplined in the way of Jesus: “But as we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love,” (Prol 49).