Transcript of Abbot Clement’s Ash Wednesday Talk on March 1, 2006
Lent in the church actually starts in the East in the monastic area of the world that woke up more deeply to the spiritual life and became for the whole community a real preparation for the great mystery of Easter and eventually came to the West about the seventh century. Benedict has it in the Rule showing that he= s already influenced by the Eastern monks and therefore it is already anticipated in the West in the Benedictine tradition and probably other monks as well. It= s the monks that saw more clearly the need to appreciate this season.
There are certain deep questions in our life that need to be brought before us again, and again, and again in order for us to stay the course. So the church in it= s wisdom and it= s slow awakening to more deeply these deeper questions has these seasons that really make us aware. So the issue here is that we really have seen more clearly something of how God pursues us.
You can take many angles to this question but take the fact that Jesus came on earth, he= s radiant in his glory right now. Since he came into human existence he should be radiant as we see on Mt. Tabor in his manifesting himself in his glory to the apostles. Jesus had to deliberately hold back the radiance of his glory. Why did he do that? Because if he didn= t we= d be following him in fear and trembling or worse.
So Jesus made it possible for us to come close to him. He wants it so and he is offering us this communion. So it= s in the light of the mystery of redemption that Lent is to be practiced. And what we see in the Rule is that there= s a heightening of the meaning of our life. There= s a deeper seeking of God and in the practices that dispose us precisely to deeper communion with God and in the joy of the Spirit, which is the Christian life. That this is a very important step in our life because it doesn’t mean we deny the gifts that God has given us up to this point the call to religious life a vocation that each of us has is a tremendous gift that God wants to give us but it= s a call to question more deeply the living this gift fully.
What is the question that really should be asked again, and again, and again? Why am I here? Not in the sense of why am I here and then leave. But why am I here in order to serve, this is the question that St. Bernard put on his lips following none other than what Jesus says to Judas in the garden. A Why did you come?@ So Bernard used that question to ask himself whether he is indeed as a trader to the Lord at this moment in his life or whether he is promoting and responding to the love that he knows he is receiving.
And Thomas Merton says that if you don= t do this, if you don= t have such a question in your life, then the chances are that your very vocation will be weakened if not lost.
If we look at Pope John Paul we can see an example of this. Pope John Paul knew when he became pope that the Lord wanted him to lead the church into the 21st century. He often told the story that he heard from Cardinal Wzysinski, at the acceptance of his papal position, the Cardinal said to him:
AYou are to do this. You are to lead the church into the 21st century.@ And he heard it as his real mission. But then when an assassination was attempted on him he heightened that call and from that day on he began every day to examine his conscious on what is the Father asking me to do today? So he would pursue all that he could understand what the Father wanted him to do today. We all know that when he died he had on his lips the remark that he= s going back to his Father= s house.
For us the same is true. We have to ask ourselves why am I here. Am I really fulfilling what the Lord wants to give me? Deep union with him. Do I practice it in such a way that the Lord= s grace can take hold of me and begin to know something of the richness of this great gift of monastic life.