The story of Dom Placid
A reflection for Sunday 5th of February.
He was born Robert Stockdale Lawson on the 10th of February 1934.
He was professed a monk on the 11th of July 1967 and entered eternal life 31st of December 2022.
Dom Placid was a monk at our monastery at Camperdown. I’m not sure when he came to us from England but he was there all my ordained life which is a goodly number of years now.
So for me, he had always just been there. Working hard, energetic and faithful as the day is long. His welcome was as big and warm as his winning smile. One of his brother monks wrote this about him.
“My lasting memory of him was that we were always laughing together. He had such a positive attitude to life and always saw the amusing side of things. He was a godly person who took his prayer life seriously. One could tell that from the homilies he wrote. He loved the monastic life but it had to be taken seriously and lived properly.”
One of my most enduring memories was a time that Jeanine and I travelled to join in evening prayer. Oh yes, anyone can go and join in with any of the offices.
Dom Placid profoundly bowed his head resting it on his prayer book. When he arose a prayer card had stuck to his forehead. He was completely oblivious to this and carried on the rest of the service as if this was the most normal thing in the world. And hey, this might just catch on.
Jeanine and I smirked bravely and failed dismally to contain our giggles.
It was a privilege to attend his funeral on January 11th this year. There we celebrated the fact that what Dom Placid longed for all his life is now his reality. It is odd, that a man who had spent most of his life in a Monastery had several hundred people come to his funeral. It says something about Dom Placid and something about the work of the monastery in our midst.
The odd quiet day is held there. They receive grateful pilgrims, there are oblates lurking in our midst and it sells the odd icon and prayer card. This parish used to get its pew sheets from there.
Over the years when there has been a special need, I have contacted the Monastery for some super duper high-charged prayers. They pray 7 times a day there so you know in the very core of your soul that when you ask for prayer from a place like that, you are going to get the most reliable and ardent prayer. You didn’t see it, you couldn’t measure it, but you knew in that place deep within you, the only place that really matters, that the prayer was authentic and potent.
But hang on what’s all this monkish business got to do with the salt and light in today's gospel?
Well…Salt and light are never self-serving. They never point towards themselves. Salt discreetly, almost invisibly enhances the dish. It adds flavour and makes it more scrumptious but looking at the dish you would never know it was there.
Light always illuminates the other. The subject. Without it there is only darkness; but with it, we marvel at everything around us. In fact, a good scientist will tell you that the reason we see different colours is because of the way light bounces off different things. The way we give off light for others is by following Christ so that they can follow us along the path of light on which Christ himself is guiding us. You and I are supposed to be like indicator lights on an airport runway so that the people of the world in the midst of a ferocious storm at night don’t crash but can land safely on the airstrip of heaven. The Master wants us to radiate what he teaches us, … about how to live well, how to love well, how to die well so as to live for others, to others, to enflesh his teaching to such a degree that others see the light of his way of life shining from within us almost without our even trying. We are truly light when we illuminate another, shed light on them, and let them shine. Jesus tells us in the Gospel that the way we give off his light is through deeds of genuine Christian love that lead others to glorify God.
We are truly salt when we give ourselves to others in loving service. If you like, we add flavour to other people's lives. We add flavour to the message of the Gospel.
By being light we change how others see things. By being salt we change how others live their lives.
Dom Placid specifically and the monastery generally are salt and light to us. They have enlightened and flavoured our lives in ways that we are only just beginning to understand and enjoy. It may not feel like it, but we are the brighter and the more flavoursome for their ministry to us. May your light so shine before all people so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.