Transcript of Abbot Clement’s Talk on Tuesday, 18 February 2003

            You could make a lot of money if we had a percent of all the conferences and workshops that are offered, especially in the United States, on self confidence and self-esteem. It shows that a lot of people don’t feel good about themselves. And yet, each one of us here has the essential healing and the power to overcome this difficulty. It’s our faith. But what do we do with the faith? Some people put their faith in their talents and good looks. Other people put their faith in others, or what they think others show that they should be. Others, of course, put their faith in money, which is quite common. But who puts their faith in God? So here’s a woman who felt she was weird. So she looked around and her neighbor was a rather attractive to her. She was a lively person, a gardener, and she canned and all this, so she thought she was going to be like her neighbor. So she plants a garden hating it the whole time. Finally the tomatoes come up and then she goes out and buys all the equipment for canning and just as she’s ready to do it the bugs come and they eat up all the tomatoes because she didn’t know all that had to go with it. But she’s determined. So she goes to the market and buys a bushel of tomatoes and then cans the tomatoes and again swearing and sweating all the time. She puts her faith in this image of her neighbor and that’s going to make her who she is.

            The amazing thing about Sunday’s gospel is that this leper, you can imagine what this is like: ok, you’ve got leprosy and so you now have to live in this area and maybe your parents or relatives they bring food, maybe ring a bell and you come out, no hugs, no kisses, stay the distance, talk to each other. So ok they do it for a period of time and they get tired, and pretty soon they don’t start showing up and so you get more and more isolated and then you got to live with other people who are disfigured and you begin to feel miserable about yourself and life. And then you hear that Jesus is around. And not only that, Jesus is going to come by. And he decides to put his whole faith in Jesus. And of course he’s healed. He’s just flooded with health. His limbs are fresh like a baby’s and of course he can’t help but praise and thank God and become an evangelist. And at the same time of course this reveals Jesus’ attitude toward us. Because he asked him "if you want to you can heal me." And Jesus said, "I want to, be healed." And so the first attitude he reveals is that God’s love is a healing presence in our midst. And you remember the text from Paul that says, "God proved His love for us that while we were yet sinners He died for us." And so there’s no doubt that Jesus wants us to be healed and have a good sense about our life. But the real question, I think is, for monks is, I want to know what happened after the leper quit being all happy about being healed and now had to go back to ordinary life.

            In a certain sense every person here in the monastery discovered Jesus and by your vowed life you totally put your faith in Jesus. Then what happened? Did Jesus stop being your Savior? I think parents understand this to some degree anyway because you know when they have a child they’re all excited about the child. They wondering ok, when is it going to start crawling? It starts crawling and they’re saying when is it going to start walking? And they’re always looking forward to the next thing. Hopefully the parents learn to simply take life as it is and that it’s unfolding potential is going to happen because it’s in good hands. That’s the total faith we need. It means we have come to see that what we have done in placing our whole faith in Jesus he will accomplish what he promised. "Sustain me, O Lord, we pray, that I shall live." It means we have learned to live the daily life, in and out, and find in it the presence of God fulfilling His promise to us, healing us, transforming us, moving us in the direction that He called us to accomplish here in this monastery. Which means, you know, that situations become opportunities for discovery and responding to God. Here’s and opportunity for humility: I have to pick a little violet this moment. And here’s a little opportunity for charity to my brother, so I pick a little rose at this moment. And this is the little moment to take up my cross and follow Jesus. And the process is unfolding. So the real amazement of Sunday’s gospel, which has to be an amazement in us is, do we really place our total faith in Jesus and do we keep it there?