The Lord waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, his holy teachings. Therefore our life span has been lengthened by way of a truce, that we may amend our misdeeds. As the Apostle says: Do you not know that the patience of God is leading you to repent (Rom 2:4)? And indeed the Lord assures us in his love: I do not wish the death of the sinner, but that he turn back to me and live (Ezek 33:11).

Brothers, now that we have asked the Lord who will dwell in his tent, we have heard the instruction for dwelling in it, but only if we fulfill the obligations of those who live there. We must, then, prepare our hearts and bodies for the battle of holy obedience to his instructions. What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Lord to supply by the help of his grace. If we wish to reach eternal life, even as we avoid the torments of hell, then – while there is still time, while we are in this body and have time to accomplish all these things by the light of life – we must run and do now what will profit us forever.

Comment

Adapted from Norvene Vest's Preferring Christ:

The whole tone of the prologue has been invitation. Do you wish life? Do you long to dwell in the Lord's tent? Do you hear the Lord calling out to you today?

This invitation comes through Benedict, but clearly he means that the invitation is God's own. Good assures us in love that we are each invited to life, not death. The invitation must receive a response. In fact, it does receive a response from each one of us, whether intentional or not. God awaits our response. What will we do not? How much will we invest?

Benedict concludes his Prologue with a heightened exhortation to each Christian to take the baptismal promise with life-and-death earnestness. Our response to God's gift in baptism must involve a daily turning toward the Creator of all life, to claim our gift of life within God's "tent." That turning involves offering ourselves in each moment to Christ or, we might say, consecrating our lives. Consecration means here and now, with the materials – indeed the very life – we are given.

Is the longing in us so great that we will consecrate ourselves?

Is it more difficult for people of our time than of Benedict's to offer themselves wholly to God? It seems that such self-offering does not mean to run away to somewhere else, but to offer myself here and today, where I am. Yet in some ways it seems that it is harder to do that today. Today we feel we know so much more about "the way things are." God seems more remote, detached from normal everyday life; or, alternatively, God in Christ is often understood so familiarly that we lose our awe regarding the hereafter. There is today a greater sense of complexity, and of the many things on earth that need doing by people. . . .

I see that I am avoiding the real issue: Will I offer myself to God today? I doubt that ever since the world began was there a time when it was "easy" to give oneself wholly to God; yet, in some ways, it is the most "natural" thing in the world to do. Will I simply make the offer of my life to God in this moment? I want to . . . As I wait, I realize I have given a big sigh . . . breathed myself out and up . . . given what I can in this moment!

Response