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Take a moment to recall your reaction when you saw that the title of today’s reflection was “discipline”.

My first thoughts on hearing the word discipline are of childhood punishments or the hard work of disciplined preparation for an exam or a game.

However the etymology of the word is much more inviting.

The word discipline is derived from the Latin meaning one who learns by listening to a teacher and who is willing to follow. This of course is why followers of Jesus are called disciples.

Such disciplined-discipleship is not an add-on to human life or an optional extra for those who are looking for a challenge. Instead we disciples of Jesus are followers of Jesus because we have found in Him the answer to the restlessness and dis-ease of our lives.

In Jesus we find an adequate response to the question that is human existence, not in a method or a programme for life but in the person of Jesus, God who IS LIFE-with-us and in us.

From the first Christian decades countless people have lived as disciples of Jesus as parents and children and wider families in their work and homes and recreation.

Unfortunately for us few of these had the ability and resources to leave written accounts of these saintly and heroic lives. However those who lived in monasteries did write, and their reflections and biographical stories were safeguarded in monastic libraries and are therefore available to us today.

Bernard of Clairvaux (b. 1090AD – d. 20 August 1153) lived almost 1000 years ago and sought to reform and renew the Benedictine way of life (then already 500 years old) as a Cistercian (Trappist) monk.

There is one quote from Bernard’s writings that I especially appreciate:

“I have ascended to the highest in me, and look, the Word is towering above that. I have descended to explore my lowest depths, and I found Him deeper still.”

The clear message is that the life of a disciple is a journey of growth in maturity of relationship with Christ that stretches us in every way.

In this day-by-day process of maturation we gradually become ourselves and this growth is possible because…

…The Lord has given me
a disciple’s tongue.
So that I may know how to reply to the wearied
he provides me with speech.
Each morning he wakes me to hear,
to listen like a disciple.
The Lord has opened my ear.
Isaiah 50