Historical Setting: The Great Skellig, 924 C.E.
Abbot Mactyre is annoyed with Brother Lugh and is also as anxious as Lugh is for a boat to come. Lugh wants nothing more than to become a wandering monk following a holy calling to feed the hungry and bring comfort to the grieving.
But I now see Brother Lugh empowered by a new energy. Is it that he finds some intense hope in that one day he may leave here? Or maybe he has discovered that his good hands are newly appreciated in this place.
Every morning the abbot pretends not to notice that Brother Lugh is present for matins but missing from the morning prayers and the breakfast. The abbot and I both know he isn’t just fasting long into the day. Others of the monks may have the notion that like a martyr, Lugh skips the morning gruel in order to save food for the rest of us. It appears a self-sacrificing fast. They talk of his change in heart as ignited by the Holy Spirit.
But I happen to know, Brother Lugh is sharing the morning meal with Sister Brigid before they come up here together to deliver the extra blessing of goat’s milk. Those who say it is his spiritual calling are rightfully observing holy love. But my long years of mortal life suspect that Brother Lugh and Sister Brigid are finding a sense of belonging with one another.
I agree with the other Brothers that this extra attention Lugh gives to Sister Brigid must be caused by the Holy Spirit empowering Lugh’s complete selflessness. And I know that to be true. But is his example of selfless love the perfection of the holy ordination and the keeping of the vows? Or is his fine example of a fasting, and this selfless martyrdom more of a forbidden infatuation. Love is something different for every person and every time. Sometimes it is carnal lust or sin, and sometimes it is brotherhood or friendship. But the one thing I know, that celibate brothers don’t really acknowledge, is that all loves are holy and none are changed by human judgment. Sexual love is one earthly amazement that speaks of heaven where love is all that is. And the loves among siblings, the fraternal love monastic brothers are encouraged to nurture, also speak of heaven. The parental loves and the friendships, and the longings and the grieving loves, they all speak of heaven where love is all that is.
(Continues Tuesday, November 10)
