Transcript of Abbot Clement
=s Talk on Monday, April 4, 2005First of all I would like to thank everyone who made the Easter Triduum a good celebration. I want to thank Brother Gabriel and his crew for beautifying the church and those who pitched in this past week when we were short handed.
The questions to be raised by each of us at this time is are we more resurrected this year than last year? After all Lent and Easter is a time of grace and gifts. So we should be able to say how we have become more of the new creation since last year. Probably the way to look at it is in the areas of faith, hope and charity.
In the area of faith, have I grown in the awareness of Jesus as Lord? That
=s one example. It=s not the only example there=s tons of examples, but that=s one. When we say Christ is Risen, how does it really ring in you? How does it impact on your daily life that Jesus is Risen? In the concentration camps it was powerful for those people in the prison because it sustained them. They were suffering and they knew they had the victory and it impacted on their daily life.In the area of hope, to see sin as sin and hate it in your life. See that the Lord has freed you from it. Again these are not the only examples but it
=s possible. In 1935 St. Faustina had an experience in which she participated a little bit in the passion of Christ, it was not the only time, but this particular time she said she came out of it with the deepest hatred for sin that she ever had in her life. She went one step further she said another time, AI came to the realization that my misery cannot out match God=s mercy. I will run out of my misery before God will ever run out of his mercy toward me.@ I=m talking here how it impacted her life so that her consciousness was no longer kind of mulling around watching her belly button. Always thinking of her misery. Of her problems. It freed her. She had greater hope, she lived with greater hope as a result.What about charity. Am I really growing to love my neighbor? Look at the thrust of the Pope. The thrust of the Pope is everybody sees that he
=s a man of God, for God, and a man for people. The two commandments shined in his life. Even by people who aren=t believers.This season of great grace, which is Lent and Easter, has to bear fruit in us. We should be able to sense it because after all God cannot be passive. He calls us to religious life but he calls us also to transform us. He
=s doing it. The question is can we sense it, can we hear how God is doing these things? It=s very important because one time Jesus said to St. Faustina. AI want to pour out grace and pour myself into people=s lives but they don=t want it. But my love will not be rejected others that are ready will accept it.@ So it could be passing you by. This is nothing else but Scripture if you remember from Isaiah that God=s word goes forth and it bears fruit just like the rain and the snow falls on the ground and it produces fruit. So this is no small statement to reflect on about where I=m going.I myself as your abbot, pray for you precisely for these two things. That you become more and more passionate for Jesus and you become more and more passionate for people to be a brother to all that the Lord places in your life.