Transcript of Abbot Clement’s talk, Monday, 3 March 2002
First of all I want to thank everybody for their comments on the program with Fr. Mitch. It was a lot of fun. It was not really too difficult but it was new and the only tension I had was Fr. Mitch didn’t tell me what questions and how he was going to respond and some of his curves, I had to handle and continue to make sure I presented what I wanted
presented. But I watched yesterday and I see I managed to get through anyway. So it was OK. And of course I received lots of comments all over the place, phone calls, and letters and so on. So the abbey is well represented and people are happy about St. Andrew’s Abbey now. Good. Notice I even pressed my scapular so I looked presentable to you.I really loved Sunday’s text and the reason I do is because it so powerfully reminds us that Lent is a time to discover God’s mercy. All the text of the Mass yesterday just focused on that. But how do we get into it? How do we sense what this season is like from the way the church is guiding us? What made it clear to me is that we all go to the well. What do you do with loneliness? What do you do with moments of emptiness? What do you do with moments of frustration or distress? What do you do when you can’t quite figure out that your life doesn’t seem to come together? Where do you go?
A lot of people in our world have a busy day, struggling so the end of the day they plop before boob-tube and have a glass of beer, a Miller’s Lite or something. And they cover up their restlessness and their emptiness and whatever. There are worse solutions of course, but I’m talking to monks so I hope I don’t have to bring them up. But that’s the real issue. Why? Because this woman goes to the well and the routine thing, asks for a glass of water or drink of water and in the dialogue Jesus leads her by steps to her sinfulness and to her discovery of the presence of God’s forgiveness. And she’s transformed. And Jesus must be very happy. So what did Jesus say to her after she gives the speak about how he’s a Jew, you’re a man, how come you’re talking to me? Jesus says, "If you only knew the gift of God." (Well, I don’t like that translation.) "If you only knew what God wants to give you." That’s the issue.
So when you’re empty, when you’re lonely, when you’re distressed, you’re going to seek a well. What are your wells? And are they deep enough, so that there’s welling up in you everlasting life? Well the only way you can do that is to really spend some time with the Lord. And the texts are rather clear, especially the second reading, where Paul says, "While we are yet sinners, God loved us." And that he poured his spirit over the world. So that tells us something about what does it mean to have real Christian hope. Christian hope isn’t that everything is going fine and therefore I can survive. No, that’s not Christian hope. That’s hope in the situation. Christian hope has the capacity to see that God is committed to our salvation. He is committed to our salvation in daily life. In the ordinary. And you can meet Him. And therefore, the hope we have is based on God, not on us, not on our talent, not even in our capacity to believe, in a sense. God is committed to forgive us, to open us up, to deepen our life, and so on. Any other form of hope is based either on gifts, or on talent, or good looks, or success. It’s not based on God. And that’s really clear in each text. Because in the first text we have people grumbling in the desert and God hears their cry and answers them. Even though they don’t deserve it.
Paul, of course, is very sharp and clear, but the gospel itself is a very gentle treatment of God leading this woman, who’s in sin, into salvation even though, at first, she didn’t know where the real well is and how to be open to it. God himself, Jesus himself, leads her, gently, and each time she stays a little more open and boom, then He lets her experience His mercy. And in this season of Lent, this is precisely what we’re supposed to discover. That is, God’s infinite mercy is available to us if we would only make sure that our well is Jesus. And we should persevere at it until the waters bubble up into everlasting life.