Transcript of Abbot Clement’s talk on Thursday, 7 February 2002
I just want to take out some time to communicate to the community what Cardinal George had to say to us (at Abbots meeting). The Cardinal basically focused on two things and that is: how does he see the church? and he really reiterated the four marks of the church. That the church has always to remain catholic, open to everyone, and that it must proclaim the apostolic message, the gospel.
So it’s apostolic. And because it’s apostolic and the gospel gets preached people begin to hear the message and become holy. And in the holiness, of course, the union with Christ makes for unity. So basically that’s what he hit. He’s an extremely intelligent person. Articulates very well and fast, hard to take notes, I wish I had shorthand and then he articulated some more of these points in terms of how the world is seeing things. Namely, that the world we’re addressing is really a pagan world and that for a lot of people it’s if they do turn to God it’s at the end after everything else is tried. So he asked a question right up front "If God did not exist would your life be different?" Now you know you may have to think about that because you could do a lot of things in terms of religion that basically God is not really that important. You’re doing the things what the institution of the church asks of you but God is really not encountered. So he’s not just talking about pagans and out and out atheists but people who really don’t have God in their life.
Then he insisted that Vatican II by coming out with Verbum Dei reminded us that God revealed Himself to us. And so that self disclosure of God is a personal invitation to have a personal relationship with God. And so if we’re in the monastery and we don’t have a personal relationship to God we have missed the point. And of course that’s true for the whole Church. To the degree that God is in a personal relationship with me and I with him then I can say that I’m living the Christian life. And the document on the liturgy is not a document about exteriors and whether we have five chalices on the altar or one and all that stuff, it’s about do we adore God, in Christ, through the Spirit, in the Church. This is the question. So, if we are really the people of God does it show that we are his relatives? Do we have some kind of radiation to show that we look like our Father in heaven. Now of course, right now, religion is not in. Religion is defined very much by the Talaban approach, right? If you don’t agree with me then I shoot you. But spirituality is in so there’s some hope. We’re not sure exactly what that means after the football game and the owner’s start talking about spirituality for the Patriot’s I’m not sure exactly what that meant. It was hilarious to be honest with you. So the real issue is then as it applies to us is we claim to seek God but that means that we really make an effort to meet the Lord today. God is revealing himself to us. Do we hear it? And of course that hearing is characteristic of our life. It’s not just hearing God in scripture, not just hearing God in the Sacraments, not just hearing God, but also hearing God in me and in others . I have to listen to others. I have to listen to my immediate circumstances and events and the larger world. And so how good am I listening? Chances are we’re maybe good at one or two but probably not all of them and we don’t always expect to hear God speak to us in all of them but he does because he’s sustaining everything and he’s moving everything toward the kingdom. So it’s not that its not there, the question is, how do we do this? Now of course those people that seem to be successful and ignore God and so on but when you get very close to them, really close to them, you find out that they have almost pathological loneliness, isolatedness. Because they have no real contact in a personal level with the living God. So as monastic, as people who claim to seek God, and having consecrated ourselves to God, that consecration is meaningful to the degree we surrendered to this living God, that’s our freedom. That’s what makes us happy. The happiness of God is precisely in the surrender of the Son to the Father and the Father’s total gift to the Son. That’s the happiness. And he wants us to share this. We share that in every Mass. Or do we? So for the monastic the answer to the question is, do we die to ourselves daily a little bit more each day in order to rise a little bit more in order to be in touch with the living God? God is vibrantly alive. He can’t be only partially alive. He ended that with a paragraph from consecrated life that we read and discussed, its paragraph 94. When you look up paragraph 94 it deals very much with the question of Lectio, that is, reading scripture. So I leave that to you to do because I want to move on and because he is so sharp and clear speaker there were all kinds of questions that came up after and I don’t want to go through all the questions because they’re all over the place.
The second talk he gave that was at the end again, was the issue of globalization basically. Again, he gave a great presentation and he gave images and so on to prepare for that statement then he said globalization really means a question of expanding to the whole world consciousness and yet in density of relationships. What he meant by that the world shrinks. Now what does that mean? You use the computer you can have all the information of anybody, anyplace in the world if you’re in Alaska on an iceberg or something. So therefore, the world shrinks. But you know, physically it doesn’t shrink it still takes you a long time to get home from Louisiana and so on. But the intensity is there also. Now as a result people look at life totally differently and that’s what’s happening they loose their sense of boundaries and now with European euro going on, the governments have given up a certain amount of their sovereignty cause part of sovereignty in government is your own coinage. So that makes people have a different sense of identity. And so that’s going to change things. It’s already doing it. Plus a few other things that go on with this international companies and so on and so he delineated the global thing. And if you want this the article from the origin it is on my desk right now, December 16, 1999. What he did, he modified it and gave it to us. What he wanted to show is that the needs that arise from globalization are really problems that come up with ideologies that is people taking some truth and absolutetizing it and universalizing it when it can’t be done. And consequences are that people are in isolation and again looking for genuine human living and that he has stimulated us. He said "here is what we can do" and again, its interesting that what he basically said is we have the solution in our way of life if we would only live it. That is monastic culture is really the result of our living in a rhythm of work and liturgy and Lectio Divina. And those powerful realities if lived fully transform us and make us open and accepting and radiant instruments to transform the world that needs it so much. Because the world cannot save itself. And so I’ll leave it at that because I don’t want to spend too much time. I just want to let you know what it was like and then after that then of course in small group discussions we talked about education, we talked about bringing people that have difficulties in the community bringing them back home, which reminds me that Fr. Joachim is doing very well, please send him some more cards yet and not this next week but the following week I will go and have the preliminary discussion with the panel before they discharge him. So that’s a good sign. And he’s very appreciative, of all that you have sent him and supported him. The Cardinal then applied this also to the question of the present world that the dialogue between Catholics and Muslims must take place. You can see the problems because of the attitude of the Muslim fanatics, that is, they have difficulty moving into modern world so they go back to what’s secure for them and you either agree with them or else. So it’s not going to be easy. However, the United States has worked through different immigration people, it has worked through problems of being less rigid and so it has a lot of skills that can make it happen but it requires on our part a deep faith and a capacity to do ecumenical discussions without becoming fearful or in self defense. So that leads me then to one other last comment: as far as the Super Bowl, I did watch it and I want you to know I enjoyed it. I stayed at the center because we had a nice big screen and they were going to do the same thing in New Orleans they weren’t going to do anything different so I figured why should I come home late and sure enough they came home about one in the morning. So after the game I went to bed, just about, I prayed and stuff. So for me it was very refreshing in the sense that I had a lot of space and time to read and study which I brought books to do and I did but also to meet the abbots and talk to them about their problems and their struggles. So in that sense it was worth it but in terms of renewed presentation of some themes it was kind of lacking.
Since we are going to start Lent, I really want you to prepare for what you’re going to do because it’s a grace to see our sinfulness and what we need to repent about. And so if you approach this as simply "ok, here’s Lent what am I going to do?" and then go do something, you’re missing the point. Remember the rule says in Chapter 7 that "the rungs are put in the ladder for each of us by God." So I don’t know where you are but God does. And God is wanting to put the next rung for you to go up which you know: humility means to go down, to go up. And so if you don’t pray in preparation for your Lenten practices and ask the Lord where is the rung that he wants you to work on and what you must repent of you’re wasting your time. God wants to put the next rung in for you he’s probably already doing it, you’ve got to ask him to show it to you in order for you to prepare and have a good Lent. You can be sure it’s there, so have no fears just ask for the grace and be radically honest if you want some help reflect on Chapter 49 reflect on Chapter 4. If you want help. Certainly Chapter 7. If you want a scriptural thing to read. Read Paul’s 1st Corinthian 13 for charity, or if you want you can read also Chapter 8 of Romans is another one, and if you want something even more then look up Matthew 5 the Beatitudes if that doesn’t get you then nothing will. So have fun, pray and I will join you of course because I’m trying to do it myself . Because without that kind of openness to grace you can’t see what the Lord is asking you to repent of and the grace he wants to give you and us through this Lenten season.