I've been having a conversation with a friend over the so-called Benedict Option and the Dominican Option. The distinction is nicely summarized in this piece in First Things by Dr Pecknold of CUA. I don't care much which path people chose or in asserting one is right and another is wrong. Dominicans and Benedictines are both flourishing religious orders so there's room for both. Both orders have produced saints and sinners. Both may have had their "time" but they coexist comfortably today as well. Interestingly, Rusty Reno describes the experience of an actual Dominican towards the end of this talk. One of their interns is a Dominican novice and when he wears his robes around on the streets of New York, it is definitely counter cultural.
But I would make a comment, at the risk of stretching these metaphors to the breaking point. Dominicans may indeed go out into the world to provide a counter-cultural witness. They may indeed preach the Gospels in the way they speak and in the way they live. They may well challenge the worldly mindset and convict people of their sins and their need of God's mercy. But they also go home at night to a supportive community that shares their beliefs, shares their prayers, and learns from each other's struggles. I don't know that a lot of faithful Catholics can say that same today, and this probably leads to many people favoring the Benedict style.
The world is obviously an immoral place. Think of simply going to work: watching the morning news, listening to the radio, seeing billboards on the road and listening to the chatter of your co-workers on the elevator. It's very likely that each and every one of those events will expose some new immorality and some fresh outrage against the moral order as found in the Catechism. By the time you come home your family has been inundated with daytime talk shows, cable news shows, social media and -- rarely these day -- interactions with actual people all of which serve to normalize abnormal behavior and ideas. Celebrities swap sexual partners regularly and in some cases swap sexual identity and the celebrity driven media trumpets that as a heroic triumph of will over nature.
And then you go to Mass. The homily is a forgettable, anodyne, disorganized jumble of words that seem to boil down to be nice, if it actually means anything at all. And the best that can be said about the hymns is that they are forgettable. If you get one stuck in your head, you know God's demanding penance for your sins.
"But I'm going to fix that!" you say. "I'm going to put on my white robe and pray and fast and be a witness to the world." "I'm going to make my corner of the world a holy place!" There's no doubt that the Dominican Option has a certain bravado associated with it. It's more manly to roll up your sleeves and work in God's vineyard than to close the monastery gates and tend to your own garden. But when you're by yourself, you'll eventually get worn down. Whether in a month or a year or ten years eventually you'll have to stop.
In the beginning you can convince yourself that help is coming any day now. You can feel the momentum on your side. There's a new breed of priests coming down the pike that will help! The old hippies are dying off! But things take time. In fact, some things have gotten better, but it's long past time to think that society will get better just because the current crop of bad people won't be in it any more. They'll be replaced with new bad people. Christianity conquered Rome and ended the bloodsport of the Coliseum, but it took hundreds of years. How many generations hoped in vain for help just around the corner?
In that case, the Benedict Option is very compelling. Lock the doors and throw away the key. Keep the lunatics outside so you can preserve your soul. You can feed others all day long, but eventually you have to eat, too.
An essential part of Catholicism is that you can't be Catholic on your own. You need some sort of community support. Whether you live a cloistered life or an apostolic life, you have to have support. It's probably a little known fact that our priests often feel alone, especially if there is only one priest in a parish. He's got a bunch of disinterested parishioners to deal with on Sunday and angry parishioners to deal with throughout the week and who can he talk to in between? He's busy at the parish, he doesn't have time to go down to the Holy Roller Bowling Alley and BBQ and hang out with his fellows.
And what about the faithful Catholic? Who can he talk to? At best, there's a monthly meeting of the Knights of Columbus or Catholic Daughters of America. At worst, he's stuck by himself with a hostile world outside his home and a indifferent family inside his home.
How can the parish foster this sense of community? Father Bergman talked about this a bit in his talk at the Institute of Catholic Culture. He talks about physically moving closer to the parish. So that the parish would be the physical and spiritual center of people's lives. So that the neighborhood would be dominated by the parish and the parish life would be the neighborhood life. It seems unworkable in a bit city like Dallas but it's such a compelling idea. I don't know that all the "busyness" that goes on at the parish helps too much. I'm doubtful that playing volleyball with my fellow Catholics helps me to face the next day's challenges to my faith. I'm thinking more of a place of fellowship. Just hanging out talking, drinking (we're not Baptists) and recharging for the next day. Someplace you'd go frequently with a TV showing sports and people hanging out for an hour or two. It doesn't have to be an organized activity, but if someone wants to give a talk about how he dealt with the gay lobby that day, I'm OK with that. And the priests can come, too. I don't know if they would feel recharged hanging out with a bunch of laypeople or if they do in fact need something like the Holy Roller Bowling Alley, with membership limited to clerics. If so I'll pitch in to buy it.
Something like that would make the Dominican option more palatable. But how do you get people to go?
Many thanks, Ben, for sharing your analysis of these options...and possible related suggestions, too. My family and I the privilege of living very near our parish church for many years...and, gratefully, the proximity did lend itself often to the kinds of fellowship you have described. I have very much felt the difference...and in many ways have missed...that kind of parish neighborhood-community experience since we moved away. Just may re-connect with a parish neighborhood-community like that again, perhaps sooner than later.
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