Transcript of Abbot Clement=s Homily on Saturday, June 21, 2003, Feast of Corpus Christi
Mass Celebrating 25 years of Monastic Profession of Brothers Richard and Peter.
The texts of today=s Mass strongly emphasize covenant. Presuppose that we have some appreciation of covenant and that we want it. In the first reading, the Lord had brought the people from Egypt to Mount Sinai, and He did all kind of wonders in the process. First, God liberated them from slavery, then God fed them in the desert and took care of them, under the leadership of Moses, to whom God revealed Himself in the cloud. Finally at Mount Sinai, the Lord exhibits His power through thunder and lightening as Moses goes up on the mountain. When Moses comes back down the mountain, faces the people, and tells the them what the Lord said, they respond, AWhatever the Lord says, we will do!@ Presented this way it sounds like if the Hebrews don=t follow God=s commandments they will be punished. There is a truth to that. The covenant in the Old Testament consists of two realities - either blessings or curses. God says, A If you keep my covenant, if you keep my word, this is what I=ll do for you: I=ll make sure that the rain comes at the right time, that your crops are tremendous, that you have cattle in the stalls, and that you have no enemies. When you chase your enemies, one man can take care of ten, and ten can take care of a hundred, etc. So you=ll be safe and everything will be fine. But if you don=t, then I will oppose you!@ The people without doubt say, AWhatever the Lord says, we will do!@
We know that the people were unable to really live the Word of the Lord.
They are exiled, and the prophets begin to promise that the Messiah will come and He will enable us to be faithful to God so that we can be God=s people and God would be our God. In today=s gospel, we see Jesus make that covenant which includes His passion, death and resurrection as a followup, and a fulfillment; the realization of His own words, AThis is my Body given up for you, this is the Cup of my blood, the cup of the new covenant which will be shed for many.@ Which means Jesus died for all. Just in case we missed it, the church places the epistle to the Hebrews, the second reading, in which the author is saying that we have a high priest that has done something for us that=s unbelievable. By shedding His blood He=s cleansed our conscience from sin and made us capable of a life to serve the Lord and to receive His blessings that the first covenant talked about.
It=s fitting that on this feast we celebrate and really say Athank you@ for 25 years in religious life for Brother Peter and Brother Richard because they heard the covenant 25 years ago. They heard the call of the Lord saying, ACome and make a covenant with me.@ And they did it. No fanfare, no thundering, no lightening, just come and give themselves totally to the Lord Jesus through the Benedictine way of life. Now 25 years later they have to say Athank you@, yes, it was the right thing to do. They=re probably looking at me thinking - really? Why do I say that? Because to live by faith is not easy. It=s easy to mouth the faith. It=s easy to talk, but to live it is not easy. Twenty-five years of living it at least begins to waken you up to not only how poor we are, but how gracious and patient God is, and how He does fulfill His word toward us when we risk the step of saying Ayes@ to Jesus. So what did Brother Peter and Brother Richard do after they made their vows? They did ordinary things. Peter worked in the kitchen in the high school a good bit of the time, and now he=s in charge of the kitchen in the abbey. Br. Richard has been an expert laundry man for us for most of the time. Br. Peter and Br. Richard have done ordinary things. So when we come to say Athank you, Lord@ we=re not going to talk about making a million dollars in 25 years, or about a new car that you got, or about other exterior, material things. The real thanksgiving comes with the grace that God gave me to say Ayes@ to God, and for His grace to begin to understand it. Why? Because when we gather around the altar we renew the covenant just as much as they did when they made their first profession. When we come to the Eucharist we believe that God gives us power. Not the power that we see in the world around us. Not force. But the ability and the strength to be and to have patient endurance. Jesus gives us freedom again, not the freedom that the world offers, do whatever you want, but the growth and the capacity to be freed from sin and from any kind of slavery to anything in the world. Being really free means being unburdened and not carrying baggage. That=s what we begin to taste when we come to the Eucharist. We begin to taste life. We are more alive today than we were 25 years ago - right? They know it.
It means to have some sense and some openness too. Capacity is a love of more, and more, and more and more. They can say with St. Paul, AI have forgotten the past. All I want to know is Jesus Christ and His resurrection.@ We really need to look at what faith means. It means I have come to realize that Jesus is alive and that He calls me. When I surrender to His call a relationship begins that begins to transform me. As that relationship grows, then I become thirsty like St. Paul. I don=t want anything else but to know Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection. So we do have quite a powerful thing to say Athank you@ for. No one can give you this but God, and having been given it by the Lord makes us very grateful because it means we have eternal life.
So we gather here to thank the Lord first and foremost for calling Brother Peter and Brother Richard and we need to thank them for saying Ayes@ because their Ayes@ their AAmen@ to the Lord is a witness to us because they lived an ordinary life. They are a witness to us to say our Ayes@ and to expect the same gifts especially when we gather around this altar expecting to receive the power of Christ, the freedom of Christ, the life and the love of Christ, so that all of us will be eternally grateful.