Transcript of Abbot=s Homily on Friday, August 19, 2005
Besides the celebration, the feast and dedication of this church, the important world event in the church is going on in Germany and it
=s World Youth Day. We have representatives there. Fr. Bede=s there with six of our students and a couple chaperones and also Fr. Anselm is there with some young people from St. Charles Parish. I hope when they get back you ask them to share their experience so you can get some feel for this.The reason that Pope John Paul II initiated this World Youth Day in 1985 as a time for a Pilgrim, a Pilgrimage, and a time for witnessing to the faith. One of the strong things that John Paul has done is really help people focus on the importance on your period of life. Youth is a very important period of life. It
=s a treasure, it=s a gift. I know that sometimes you don=t feel that way but that=s not the point. When people come to me at the parish and say: AMan, Abbot you look young for being your age and healthy.@ I always have to tell them I taught for 35 years at Benedictine and it=s the students that kept me young. Your youth makes me stay youthful. Why? Because youth is a time of hope. It=s a time of discovery and a time of growth, and that=s a dynamic. It=s given to you. The most important discovery that you have to make in this period of your life, or at least significantly lay the foundation, that is the discovery of who you are. You=ve got to get to know this person that you are becoming and want to be.Now the church has always considered this a very important period of life. Not just because it
=s a gift that you have but you share it with others. Your family, your family is young because you are young. The school would not be so vibrant and dynamic if you weren=t in it. And we know that the news media always try to get the pulse of each generation so they call this generation X-generation, Y-generation, etc. So they sense that youth is a significant dimension of each generation. Why is this so? Because you are shaping not just your future but the future of others and that future is someday going to be the present time. Just like right now the adults around you are the people who are responsible for the shape of the way the world is today. So you will someday stand in their place and you will be responsible for the shape of the world that you experience as an adult. Obviously this is a very important period in your life and it=s a gift. You don=t have to make it, it=s already there, the question is what are you going to do about it? How are you going to discover more of who you are?Today
=s gospel really tells us the most significant step toward that discovery. Jesus asks the apostles, AWho do you say that I am?@ Who do you say Jesus is? Have you discovered that Jesus is a friend and more than a friend? Have you discovered that Jesus is the Truth, the splendor of brightness and light? And the Son of God. God himself speaks to us. This is the beginning of the discovery of who you are.Now how are you going to get there? One of the helps you have is the teachers around you. They
=ve gone through these things. They have a lot of experience, they know youth quite well, especially those who have taught over 20 years, they have been instructed by you in terms of your kinds of experiences, therefore, they know how to guide and help you.I remember a teacher I had in chemistry, Mr. Pastor. I never really talked to him one to one but his influence was simply the way he was in the classroom. He was a real gentleman. The first thing that came to my mind was I want to be like that. The way he treated us, how he discussed problems, how he handled problems, how he taught the class made an impression on me that I
=ve never forgotten.So there
=s all kinds of ways which the adult teachers around you are going to help you start discovering who you are and who do you want to become. But you have something even more important, very important, and that is you come to Benedictine. You come to a tradition that has shaped society for over 1,500 years. It has shaped it quite well. So well that the present pope chose Benedict as his patron because he knew the value of St. Benedict and his Rule. What did Benedict really do? The Roman Empire fell apart. It was chaos in the Mediterranean actually more than the Mediterranean. The world was in devastation. Benedict came along and with his Rule he began to show people how to live. By degrees, what happened? The monks began to live the life that Benedict proclaimed and before long the whole of Europe was shaped so that there was harmony, there was balance, there was moderation, there was the good use of talents and resources and also the places where discoveries were happening were in monasteries. The first plumbing system was in monasteries, they ran hot water through the hall ways, from the calefactory where they had the fire, they did all kinds of things that were creative. What happened? Europe grew and prospered before God and man.What was the real source of that? Well, I can
=t go in to all of that but the first word in the Rule tell us the power of that transforming presence. If you notice some statues of St. Benedict have him with his finger to his mouth, he=s not growling and he=s not mean, he=s calm but he=s got his finger there. It means silence. Why? Because the first word in the Rule is listen. What were they listening to? They began to realize that God speaks to each person in his heart. That right where you are God is trying to get a message across to you. By listening to the Word of God and making it their own, all of a sudden in the light of that message they began to transform whole sections of Europe and therefore the whole of Europe.The real issue in starting the school year with such real enthusiasm and real support from teachers who are quite capable of guiding you is how do you answer the question - who do you say Jesus is? Do you know Jesus
= love for you? Do you know it? Do you thank him for it? Do you know Jesus= friendship? Do you walk with him? Do you know Jesus= forgiveness? It=s in forgiveness that we can live in the light spirit and have joy in our life because we know our problems are not the most important thing. There=s something greater. Do you know that the Lord is leading you to glory and that glory is already beginning to be possible for you, now as you begin to follow him. Probably a very important thing do you take seriously that God loves you? If you begin to take seriously that Jesus loves you and you begin to follow him, you will begin to have a life full of meaning and full of value and then eternal life because the word of the Lord stands forever.