Transcript of Abbot Clement’s Homily on the occasion of the First Profession of vows by Br. Louis, January 19, 2008
I want to thank the parents of Louis for giving their son to us. I want to thank Louis for his perseverance and for his A yes@ to God.
Br. Louis is professing to give his whole life to God for the rest of his life and we are the witnesses. But because we are witnesses, we are also confronted, if not challenged, to ask ourselves where we stand in our gift of ourselves to God since all of us here I= m sure are baptized.
The Christian life is a consecration to the Lord, and therefore, a rather profound, lofty mission for each person. It’s also kind of delicate and it’s also holy.
When we reflect on this mystery of consecration of giving ourselves to God each of us has to reflect on where we stand and how we are moving. The church has always taught that we go to God by faith and the sacraments of faith. It’s important to realize this because it tells us first and foremost it’s not our work primarily. We have received the sacraments of faith. Baptism has plunged us into the death and resurrection of Christ. That means the Lord has broken the grip of sin on our life. That because of God, we have the power to overcome it. That’s a negative side. The positive side means that we have been given the gift of the life in the Spirit. But we= re also aware that Baptism doesn’t make us mature in Christ. It’s the beginning. But the Lord has provided for that also by giving us this great sacrament of the Eucharist in which we are nourished into the mystery of Jesus’ body and blood which of course makes us grow, both in body and spirit.
So we are not on this journey under our own power. Nevertheless we have to cooperate with this great gift of life in the Spirit. And again the traditional goals that kind of summarize the end point are three. We are on the journey to become martyrs the monastic tradition is clear on that. We are to be victims, a word that is poorly understood even in the Catholic world. It’s part of our priesthood in Christ. And we are to be apostles. We are to be martyrs. Jesus said: A Unless you deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me you cannot be my disciple.@ So nobody is free first of all in or outside the Church without difficulties and problems. But we all know that the constant bombardment of the truth of the spiritual life by good masters is to tell us the real enemy in our life is ourselves. It takes us a long time to really want to die to self. So the Lord gives us plenty of opportunities to become martyrs. And they’re very simple ways. Doing things we don= t like to do but they= re good for others so we do them. Putting self aside so as to listen to another is a way of dying to self, it= s very simple. But we need this lesson because when we die we must be ready to die to go to the Lord. So the tradition is summarized that we are called to be martyrs. How are you journeying in this question? How are you struggling with dying to yourself? I still have difficulty with giving up my red wine. I like it. I don= t drink many glasses but the point is I do like my red wine. To put self aside, to think of others is a form of death and it= s endlessly in our life. How and where is the Lord asking us to struggle right now on that point?
The second one is to be a victim. This word is in the Catholic literature of spirituality, of course. Most people focus on suffering. Everybody has to suffer but that= s not the focus. The focus is really to say A yes@ to your life fully! Not half way, I’ll do it later. No. Everyday say A yes@ . Why? Because if we really believe that we’re giving ourselves to God and God loves us there’s no reason not to say A yes@ to everything that happens in our life. That doesn’t mean we agree with everything but it does mean that we find God in every moment and can say A yes@ to it. So that= s a struggle. There are some days when I would like to say, A I’ll see you Jesus.@ And there are some situations in which I can even feel my feet moving, no Clement, stay here, stand right in it! And stand in it fully! Say A yes@ to it. Each of us has to struggle with that question and really hear the call of God to move us to more fullness of life in the Spirit to be a A yes@ . God= s not asking us anything that he hasn’t been doing. God gives his whole self to us everyday. No holding back!
Then to be an apostle. If I’m associated with Christ as Paul said he’s a supreme, great blessing in his life and he= d give up anything to be with Christ, you begin to realize that the heart of Jesus embraces the whole world and each person for their salvation. Therefore, you begin to be concerned about the salvation of people. First and foremost those that are in your life directly but also the whole world with Jesus. Which means you are beginning, hopefully, to pray first for the whole world and then secondly, to make sacrifices and to be pushing agendas that promote the salvation of others, whatever form or shape it takes. And it becomes a real desire that= s manifested in our actions so it= s easy to see in the lives of Saints.
How St. Theresa can come to the convent and say that she came precisely to save souls especially those of priests. She offered everything for the salvation of priests, especially some specific people that the Lord placed in her life and they were tremendously blessed by her. They were the channels of many graces.
So each of us is called to share with Christ this capacity to be an apostle and therefore to bring graces to others. Where are you in that? Do you even pray for the whole world seriously, do you really mean it? When you go to Mass and they pray the petitions are they real for you or are they just ritual? And how deep, how wide is your heart, how deep is it? How on fire is it?
So these three goals that the religious tradition of the spiritual life has pointed out was the outcomes of the life of giving one= s self to God. But there are two other reflections that I would like to add to them from experience.
There was a parish in which the pastor was extremely excited about celebrating this 60th anniversary of this couple. Such a nice couple in the parish, such love in their family and children, oh my, marvelous. So he asks, "What do you attribute this to?" And the husband says: A Oh it’s easy. It happened very early in our life.@ Oh, what happened? I took my wife to the Grand Canyon for our honeymoon. A What did you do?@ Well, we went on donkeys down into the canyon. A Tell me, what happened?@ Well my wife was in front of me on the donkey and the donkey started to stumble, she jumped off the donkey, grabs the reins and looks it right in the eye and says: A That= s once!@ They go down some more and the donkey stumbles again. She jumps off the donkey, gabs the reins, looks the donkey in the eye and says: A That= s twice!@ Goes down a little further and sure enough the donkey stumbles the third time, she jumps off the donkey, looks him in the eye, takes out gun and shoots him. The husband is watching all this so he says: "Honey, what are you doing that= s just a dumb animal?@ She says: A That= s once!@
We enter this journey not in fear. God calls us to this, he wants it to be fulfilled, he= s on our side. So how are you looking at the mission, this delicate, but very serious sublime mission of giving yourself totally to God? How do you trust that God wants to fulfill this? But there’s another angle.
I don= t know if you know Henry Nowen. He was a very intellectual person and a Chaplin of Harvard. He began to realize he= s too much in his head so he went to Larch Community. Larch Community is a community where the mentally handicapped live. They don= t care about degrees and stuff. So as Henry Nowen was with them he began to realize that his headiness didn’t get anywhere in this group. So for instance he didn’t come to one of the birthday parties of one of the members and the first thing they said to him was "Where were you?@ A We missed you!@ So after a while he began to get real close to John. John was down to earth, said what was on his mind, and really gave himself. He was a very simple person. Then Harvard University decided they were going to honor Nowen and Nowen says A I= m not coming unless you let brother John come with me.@ Everybody knew he was from the Larch community so everyone was kind of nervous about it and said no. But Nowen insisted. So Nowen comes with John to this very big party with all these intellectuals, everybody is tense and you could feel it in the air. John stands up, grabs the glass and says: A If you= re happy and you know it raise your glass! If you= re happy and you know it raise your glass! If you= re happy and you know it let your face show it, if your happy and you know it, raise your glass! It blew the whole crowd. Tension disappeared, everybody enjoyed the evening.
John showed a quality that is part of our journey. If we= re moving into self-forgetfulness we really begin to appreciate each other and simply relate concretely to situations in such a way that they are a precious moment together so that we are happy to be here with you. The quality is simply simplicity but it= s also self-forgetfulness. We take ourselves sometimes way too seriously. And as a result it blocks us from being free to the Spirit that= s given to us. This is not Fr. Clement= s private opinion.
There are saints in the Church= s history that you can read about but I= m thinking of one specifically is Blessed Dina Bellinger, I think that= s the way you pronounce it. She joined the convent in 1922 and died in 1929 of consumption of Tuberculosis. She was 33 when she died. In seven years she completed this gift of herself to the Lord. Her whole aim from the time she walked in was to give Jesus whatever he wanted. Within three years Jesus appeared to her and said: A This is my little self.@ She simply was at the disposal of Jesus 24 hours a day 7days a week and Jesus was happy to visit that convent and her.
So this is a very sublime, holy, delicate mission for each of us. We need to promote each other and rejoice with each other when we see our growth and we see that we= re struggling through things and help each other move. It= s not just for ourselves this mission as is clear from the goals is to promote the salvation of the world. Become a martyr, become a victim, to become an apostle.