The Trellis of Religion

 

Tomato Trellis -- not ours!

Remember when we were asking if Spring would ever arrive during late April and into May? Then the temperature rose, we noted the heat, and everything began to grow like crazy. Our vegetables have flourished despite the paucity of rain thanks to watering. Our tomato plants are staked and caged, our peas are climbing a net, and beans scaling a trellis. Without the support they would tumble over and simply not produce to the same extent. We also have a trellis for a clematis which is spectacular every year if we trim it and train it. 

The notion of the trellis got me thinking about the spiritual life. I recalled that the Latin and Greek words for "trellis" are the same as for "rule", as in the Rule of St. Benedict. Benedict was a sixth century Italian monk who created a framework for living in community in a practical and prayerful way. There are directions regarding listening to God and to others, and on the importance of practicing hospitality. It became the rule for the dozen or so communities Benedict established and for other religious orders through the centuries. The Trappist monk Thomas Merton lived by Benedict's Rule and taught it. 

There is an insightful book called Benedict's Dharma in which several Buddhist writers reflect on the Rule, and the first chapter is called The Trellis. They explore how structure in the spiritual life matters and that even though our "trellises" can give us form they can allow us to be fruitful and ultimately don't define us. 

In recent weeks we have become painfully aware of bad religion here in Canada. Destructive rules and structures resulted in the complicity of church and state in genocide for Indigenous peoples. This was a hierarchical abomination which resulted in inter-generational destruction. People followed rules and laws which were contrary to the gospel and as a society we must repent and make amends.

Aware of this, I am still committed to religion, not as the restrictive gatekeeper of my life, but as the structure on which my spirituality and Christian faith grows. For all the flaws and fault of religion and in my own life this is still the structure by which I  still hope I will flourish and bear the fruits of compassion, love, and justice, as a follower of Jesus, the Christ.