Transcript of Abbot Clement’s Talk of Monday, February 9, 2004
A couple of years ago sociologists did some research on what makes vibrant communities. They found out that what really counts is clarity of purpose, but not just clarity of purpose, but stated in a short phrase and kept before people and reminding them of their purpose again and again. Then the communities were vibrant, fruitful and successful. Then someone picked up on this.
A Protestant pastor outside of Oak Forest, Illinois, had his staff research the whole New Testament to see what exactly does the Lord ask of us as a church community. After eight months they came to the conclusion that two texts of scripture summarized the aim God has for each church, each faith community. One is to love the Lord your God with your all mind, heart, soul and all your strength. The other is go make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them all that I have commanded you. They took those two texts and reformulated them into five goals. Within fifteen years that church has gone from a few families to ten thousand families. So they had their goals and because they had their goals they could also tell what they didn’t want their church to be. So it had two sides to it. The truth is that this clarity of purpose and it’s sucinctness is also true of individuals. The people who live with clarity of goals are also fruitful and flourishing people.
The question that we need to raise as we go into this question of renewing ourselves is why are we here? Why is St. Andrew Abbey here? What exactly is our purpose? The same questions have to be raised about each of us here. Why are you here? As the creative leadership team brainstorms and offers these things we want to be able to come to some clarity about our purpose and make sure that everything that we undertake is connected to that purpose.
I think all of us without too much reflection can say we are here to seek God. It’s sucinct, it’s easy to memorize, and therefore, it should be easy to keep before our minds and hearts. Certainly the first sentence of the Rule tells us what are the conditions for seeking God. Listening. Be able to listen to the Word of God that is calling us to transform our lives to be able to find God. That means the things that we do select for renewal should be able to be connected to this purpose and they should be chosen and promoted to the degree that they do. If we find something that’s not quite in line with that purpose then we shouldn’t do it. So that we have a guide as we work forward to renewal. The real thing that we need to ask ourselves, reflect on and pray over is: Why are we here? Why am I here?