One of the stereotypes of Christians is that they can be somewhat dour and lacking in joy. That might have been lurking in the back of my mind as began this morning’s reading from The Rule of Benedict, where he writes, “At all times the lifestyle of a monk ought to have a Lenten quality” (RB 49:1). That immediately led me to images of penitence and somber reflection and a joy denied for a season. That may all be a part of what keeping Lent entails, but it seems that the rest of the chapter reveals how Saint Benedict views Lent in a much different light.

A little later he writes:

Let him deny his body some food, some drink, some sleep, some chatter, some joking, and let him await Holy Easter with the joy of spiritual desire (RB 49:7).

The first thing that leaps out at me is that while he advocates denial as a discipline, his approach is moderated by saying “some food” and “some sleep” and so on. Saint Benedict does not push monks to any total measures, but to practices that focus with a purpose. This is where he gets to the most amazing part of the chapter.

Father Terrence G. Kardong comments on this verse, writing:

the joy of spiritual desire (cum spiritalis desiderii gaudio) is a highly charged expression that also has considerable spiritual depth. The remarkable thing about the phrase is its insistence on joy during Lent. In contrast with the Master, who calls for joy only after Easter (RM 53.20), Benedict thinks that it should also permeate the penitential season that leads up to Easter. This is the equivalent of saying that for Christians there is no time of sadness. How can we be sad when we know that Christ has conquered sin and death? (Benedict’s Rule: A Translation and Commentary, p. 406).

What strikes me about the insight in this comment is how insightful—how resonant—is the comparison between Lent and Easter on the one hand and life and eternal life on the other. Just as Lent is a time to prepare and to anticipate and to look forward with longing and “the joy of spiritual desire” for the great celebration of Easter, so too is this life a time to practice the same disciplines with the same joy, anticipating eternal life with God. Father Kardong’s question is no less insightful for being rhetorical: “How can we be sad when we know that Christ has conquered sin and death?” How can we approach either Lent or Life and anticipate either Easter or Eternity with sadness when we know that our destiny lies with the One who is victorious over sin and death?

I will try to remind myself of this perspective when I trap myself into conjuring up the demons of stress and worry and indignation. One of the last things a Christian usually would claim as a goal is to be known for a gaudy life, but the Latin gaudio, translated as “joy,” suggests that is precisely the aim: to keep both a gaudy Lent and a gaudy life and await both Holy Easter and Heavenly Eternity “with the joy of spiritual desire.”

Ut in Omnibus Glorificetur Deus.