Transcript of Abbot Clement’s Talk on Tuesday, September 2, 2003
When we look at the gospels and see that Jesus performs miracles the thought that comes to my mind is that Jesus is simply revealing what He promised and said in John’s gospel, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you." How does the Father love Jesus? He loves him undividedly. He certainly loves him infinitely, limitlessly, and He certainly loves him in giving his whole self to the Son. Whatever God has He gives to the Son. Jesus comes to earth and manifests himself a Savior by giving his whole self to mankind. One of the outcomes is healing. Jesus performs miracles. It’s interesting that as you read about these different miracles there are some things that gives us a guideline to ask ourselves how are we open to this endless, undivided love that is directed toward us?
In John’s gospel, Chapter 5, Jesus asks the paralytic at the pool, "Do you want to be healed?" The paralytic starts giving excuses why he can’t get to the pool first. Then Jesus heals him any way. It shows pure gratuity on the part of Jesus to do good to the paralytic. In another passage the Master was asking about his servant and said to Jesus, "If you can help us." and Jesus said "If?" So it presupposes that we have that kind of faith and will to want to be open to the love that God is exercising toward us day in and day out because Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
One of the things that really blocks the possibility of the many graces that Jesus pours into our life is none other than our own will. Obedience is throughout the Rule - but it’s not oppressive obedience. Obedience is that will that’s open to God, that wants to please God. That’s what obedience is about. It’s love. If we don’t have our will oriented this way, if we don’t live to try to please God everyday, then we’re not open to the graces that God wants to give us. They’re there. It’s not that they’re not there. One time Jesus said to Sr. Faustina, "Please gather up all these graces that are being wasted because nobody wants them."
The issue is what does it mean to want to please God, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week? How do I grow in love to this God that loves me so tremendously? Certainly it must mean that I’m going to grow in the capacity of a pure will, I really want to try to please God. I make it a project or at least an intention. What am I working at to grow in my spiritual life? It wasn’t so much to charter times and how many times you succeed and how many times you fail. Some people did that. It was simply to be conscious of the fact that you’re opening yourself up to a new behavior, new attitude and you see how the Lord is helping you to do it.
The first thing is that we have to have a pure love. A will that’s pure really wants to please God. In everything, all the time. The second thing is a firmness, that is, our faith in God cannot waffle, it can’t be unstable. It has to be willing to really believe that Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever. What we read in the gospel is the way God is treating us. God wants to transform us. God wants to be alive in us. God is offering us all types of opportunities to do so everyday of our life. The proof of that is in the fact that Jesus came and gave us the Spirit. God has already given us what’s going to transform us into Jesus. It’s the Spirit’s job to form Jesus in us. These graces are available to us. The question is, where is the firmness of our faith and what kind of purity of will do we have to really want to please God, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week?"