‘Sickness is an Intrinsic Part of every Human Life’

By Fr Edmund Power, osb I can remember the October night in 1989 when my first abbot died. I had been in the monastery for 18 years and he had been abbot throughout that time. In 1989 he was only 66 years old; it seems so young from where I stand today! He had had a lymphoma for a couple of years and it had taken its inexorable course. Towards the end, the cancer had reduced him to a total dependence: nor was he fully aware of what was going on. St Benedict tells us that “the abbot is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery” (rb 2:2). I remember being struck by the way our Christ-figure had entered fully into passion. The word “passion” comes from a Latin word for suffering. Suffering means accepting or putting up with something. Passion is the opposite of action. It implies a sort of letting go, a passivity. St Benedict ...