Transcript of Abbot Clement’s homily on Wednesday, 17 July 2002
What do you see when you look at the crucifix? Do you focus on nails, on the thorns, on the wounds? What do you see and what do you react to when you see the picture of St. Andrew Svorad and his hollowed tree, sitting and praying with the big spikes in the tree so that when he falls asleep, bends over and they hit him and he’s startled and then he prays.
What do you see? Do you see an ascetic? Is he a psychologically twisted soul? Interesting. Really. What’s going to happen to you when you die? You’ll be placed in the presence of God and for the first time in your life you’re going to see that you’ve been surrounded by incomprehensible love. That that love has been sustaining the universe. The stars, the galaxies, this mud ball earth that’s only a little piece of matter in the big galaxy the Milky Way. And that love has been in your life every moment. And as you are realizing this you will see only too clearly, how you have responded to it or failed to respond to it. So on September the 21st, I think it was, Sr. Faustina was wakened quite a number of times in the evening in her sleep. And so she prayed and she was thinking of the graces God gave her and thanked Him and so on. So the next morning, September 22nd, she went to communion, she said to Jesus, "Jesus, I was thinking of you quite a bit last night." And Jesus said to her, "Before I called you into existence I was thinking of you." Of course, that was a strange response to her. So she said, "what were you thinking of?" And Jesus said, "I was thinking of how I am going to share my eternal happiness with you." It’s very hard for us to really let in the truth. That Jesus on the cross is loving us tremendously.
It’s very hard for us to see St. Andrew having such a great love for souls that he has taken on Jesus and is willing to suffer and to intercede, if you remember what the text said last night, for others. He’s not a psychologically twisted soul. His love is so great that he can’t do enough to win grace for the salvation of souls. Is there anyone you really care about enough to do anything for? Less alone take on their sins and suffer for them. If we really want to understand and celebrate our patrons then we have to see that they really understood what it meant to be a monk. They withdrew from the world physically not to be unencumbered with responsibility but to really give themselves totally to God , twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, gaining the same dispositions of Jesus. Put self aside, become crucified. Put self aside! And begin to live for others. Even to the point, under God’s inspiration and the power of the Spirit which we have been given, that you are willing to suffer for the salvation of others.
There’s a sister I helped to become a Carmelite. She was a sister in another order. She went to one Carmelite house and the house was screwed up. Instead of being Carmelite’s, they were trying to do all kinds of apostolic work and this upset her terribly because she knew exactly what she was going for and heard the call. So she, so happens in their structure, had access to another house and in that house Carmelites are Carmelites. They’re cloistered, they live a life of solitude and silence. Of course the world thinks they’re crazy but that women cherishes her solicitude in order to give every minute, every moment to love God while she is in this world. And she’s only in her 30’s. So we’re not talking about only the past. We’re talking about "what do you see when you look at the cross?" What do you hear when you hear Jesus say, "that the seed has to die in order to bear fruit but if it dies it will bear fruit unbelievedly." So we need to pick something from today’s text and just chew on it for today. It would be enough to take "if God is for us, what can be against us?" It would be enough to take "nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus." It would be enough to take "We are more than conquers." It would be enough to take the truth that I gave you in the first conference please get in touch with the Holy Spirit. Because time is short and God wants to crown us with glory. He wants to share His eternal happiness with each of us and all of us and the whole world. So how are we responding to the great gift of our vocation? Where God has been thinking of each of us before we existed to share His happiness with us.