Transcript of Abbot Clement’s Talk, Monday, 29 April 2002

    The paper is still focusing on sins of priests and the neglect of leadership. I thought it would be a good idea to reflect a little bit about our vow of conversion. What sense do we have about our ongoing conversion? Probably most of us use the image that we’re all on a spiritual journey. And probably also we are aware of the fact that we started that journey with a serious turning to the Lord and away from sin as the first step. And then of course we repented, that is, we turned away from any serious sin and now are on the way to perfection. And probably all of us think we’re pretty much on the way to perfection and we forget about the first two stages. That’s not the way real life is all about. Life is messy and our need for conversion is constant. In fact, it think the Easter season is a very important season in this question because we’re called to die and rise continuously.    

    The paschal mystery belongs to the rhythm of our conversion. That means that it’s very important for us to do our spiritual reading and meditation and so on and also to listen to events in our life that may reveal to us our sinfulness. Because in a certain sense, in a very real sense, there comes a time when we cannot see our sinfulness when it’s a question of how selfish we are. God has to enlighten us. And if we take the example of the prodigal son we can see that when the Lord leads a person to the awareness of their sinfulness it shatters their world. When he comes to see that he has no longer the comforts and etc., in contrast to the father’s house, then he comes to himself. And when we read the Lives of Saints, even very holy people like Conchita, for instance, it was only after she received a rather tremendous grace that she really saw her sinfulness. Her selfishness. And of course it was the opportunity for her to also turn to the Lord and ask for grace and receive mercy. So once we begin to look at the conversion as an ongoing reality that God is doing something in us then we have to be willing to listen to how the Lord shows us our sinfulness. Because that’s part of the conversion. It’s the Lord who shows us our sinfulness. And it’s the Lord in that moment being very patient and merciful as the Rule says in the prologue: "That the Lord, don’t you know that the time extended to you is God’s patience to bring you to conversion," quoting St. Paul. And so the real issue is the fidelity of the monastic practices basically to come to see how the Lord shows us our sinfulness because that’s the first step. We just don’t move from sin to grace we really move to sin. That is, the Lord shows us where we fail. He does that not to put us down and to keep us in that state of affairs but rather to offer us His mercy and forgiveness so that we would now receive His mercy and give Him praise and thanksgiving. And so then we become really aware of the fact that it’s the Lord who’s guiding our life. Since we make the promise of a life of conversion it follows that we have to be rather more and more adept at this process because it’s surely what God will do and does do if we are really practicing meditation and spiritual reading and listening to the events in our life.

    It certainly must be very devastating for people to have their past sins brought up in public and then have to be removed from their position if they are guilty and then their whole life is shattered and so they have to start all over again. Nevertheless, the Lord does that not to debilitate a person but really to bring them to greater mercy and to greater forgiveness and to greater union with Him. This is the key question because from the beginning of even creation God intended to have us live in union with Him. And that didn’t change. And the death and resurrection of Christ is the first manifestation of the accomplishment of God’s new creation in which mankind and God are one. And so the context of our vow of conversion then has to be read in that light. That we’re always moved to greater union with God. And that means, of course, that He will show us our sinfulness in order to bring us to receive His mercy as we turn to Him precisely for that.