The founder of our community

I enjoy poking around to see what other bloggers are doing, and recently found the blog of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration of Our Lady of Solitude Monastery in Phoenix, Arizona. (Whew... that's a mouthful!) On their sidebar, they have a quote that apparently comes from some writings to be found in their monastery. It says:

A religious community which refuses to conform to the requirements of the times becomes unfaithful to its founder, for it will no longer be able to do the work confided to it...A community keeps its youth if it is faithful to the spirit of its founder by striving to do things, not as they were done in the lifetime of the founder, but as the founder would do them if he were alive in our day.

Most of us aren't called to be contemplative nuns, but I think we can still apply the spirit of that quote to our daily lives in the world. Do we keep ourselves to the spirit of our founder?

We're not called to conform to the norms of today's world... or of Jesus' world. We have to deal with things that weren't in existence during Jesus' time. We can't pattern our behavior precisely after those of Jesus or of his disciples. We don't live in their day, and they don't live in ours. Not that some people haven't tried. Take this, for example:

After reading A.J. Jacobs’ book, "The Year of Living Biblically," Rev. Ed Dobson decided to live like Jesus for a full year. He celebrated the Jewish holidays. He dressed and behaved as a Jew of Jesus’ day would. He followed a kosher diet. He observed the Jewish Sabbath, which meant that he largely refrained from work and travel. He allowed his beard to grow untrimmed. He re-read all four Gospels each week (!!) and tried as much as possible to follow Jesus’ teachings. He prayed daily, including repeatedly echoing the words of the blind man healed by Jesus: "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me." I admire Rev. Dobson's attempts to "live biblically", but I suspect that the untrimmed beard and kosher diet didn't contribute much to enabling him to live like Jesus.

I don't think we're really asked to "live biblically" as much as we're called to "live like Jesus". We need to get to know Jesus so intimately that we can be more and more transformed into his image and respond as he would if he were in our shoes. Our lives need to be firmly rooted in Jesus, the founder of our "order":

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

- 1 Corinthians 3:10-15

As we proceed through this Advent, let us make room for Jesus to be born into our hearts and to grow and mature there. May he come alive within us and shape us more and more into his image.