Transcript of Abbot Clement's Homily on Thursday, 11 July, 2002 

       If we were to summarize what does it mean to be a Christian, we always like to summarize things can you say this in two words or less? I think the two words that appear in today’s gospel would be such a summary, "Those who follow me. To follow me." Actually the words themselves appear about twenty times in the gospel directly, "follow me". And then there are similar words so it goes a little higher. But you know the Greek really says, "come behind me." Which is really trying to express a Hebraisms. It’s important to focus on that because it means that you’re going to be in the company of Jesus and the first focus of following Jesus is to look at Jesus to see what he’s like. Because "come behind me" means your going to imitate, follow and act in His presence with the attraction that He is for you.

        And what was Jesus like? Jesus was a spirit-filled person. He was conceived by the Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Mother. The Spirit was poured out upon Him when John the Baptist baptized Him. According to the Acts of the Apostles, He poured out that Spirit upon others. And of course it’s also in the gospel. So to be in the presence of Jesus is to be animated, is to be given His spirit. Jesus says, "I came to cast fire on the earth and how I long for it to be ablaze." Which means if we really are in the company of Jesus then we are not only standing in admiration of what He is like, but we are receiving the power of His spirit. And that’s not just in the past, that has to be now. So what’s our problem? Our problem is we don’t know how to be open to the outpouring of Jesus’ spirit as we imitate Him and follow Him. What blocks that? That kind of faith that’s behind the proclamation of today’s gospel. We have left all things to follow Jesus and Jesus says, "Man, you can’t make a better investment!" You’re going to get a tremendous response and that doesn’t mean when you die, eternal life, yes, you’ll get that too and you’ll share my glory but now you will get a hundred fold.

        Now God is not dumb. He knows the difference between things, people, grace and so on. So he’s certainly not saying you’re going get a bigger bank account, two Mercedes in your garage, and three television sets in all the rooms of your house or whatever. He’s obviously meaning what Jesus came to do, to pour out His spirit upon us. Now. Then what blocks us from this? We don’t really believe this. We think our life is miserable. We think there is no hope. There’s no excitement. There’s no awareness at all that the Lord is moving us further everyday toward the kingdom. And we don’t experience it because we don’t believe it and we don’t open ourselves up to the action. So there’s that passage in Jeremiah 29:11-14, it goes something like this, "I know the plans I have made for you. Plans for your welfare not for your woe" says the Lord. "Plans that will give you a future full of hope. If you look for Me you will find me, if you seek me with your whole heart you will discover I am with you and I will change your lot." So no matter how messed up you have made your life or you think you have messed up, your future is before you and the best part of your life is in front of you. Why? Because God knows your not finished and He’s moving you toward glory. And to move you toward glory He’s giving you grace every day. So the best part of your life is in front of you, it’s here and forward. But how often do you live and act as if this life is miserable? Can anything good come out of St. Andrew Abbey? This is a terrible place, whatever, whatever way you say it, I don’t care. Or yourself. You missed all these opportunities, you had a great opportunity to do it and you missed it, etc. You forget that God is moving you all the time further toward glory. And that’s exactly what today’s gospel is saying. Peter says, "well, we left everything what are we going to get out of it?" And so the real question is do we really know the forgiveness of God and do we go to Him asking pardon, not only to receive pardon and forgiveness, but the graces to move forward to what He really wants to give us fully which is going to happen one day when you die, of course, the fullness of His glory for you. So our life is one filled with hope. Our future is a future filled with hope because God is moving us toward glory.