I cannot say that 25 years ago when Br. Gabriel came here and I was his Novice Master, I can’t be telling you all kind of stories like the time he went to sneak out and smoke because he doesn’t smoke, nor can I think of anything else in which I had to correct him, I didn’t catch him sneaking out at night to get a pint of ice cream either. So he came to do exactly what he said in the interview in your booklet, namely, he came to work and pray and he’s been doing it ever since. So that’s one of our joys of having Br. Gabriel with us.

Today’s a strong gospel and text to reflect on discipleship. That each of us as we walk through life gain wisdom. Either we gain the wisdom that brings life, peace, blossoming or regain the folly, the opposite that diminishes our life and destroys us.

Of course the monastic profession and all religious consecration is to go public about the wisdom that counts. It’s to say that’s the real way to go and then to commit yourself to it. We see that Jesus shares his own journey, he’s fully aware of what he has to face. He doesn’t hesitate to tell the apostles freely and openly that he is as the Son of man, he will be delivered over to men and that they will kill him but on the third day he will rise. That Jesus could share this and not restrain himself or get muddled is a sign that he really was in touch with it and he was looking for the opportunity to share and perhaps even give us more insight about his journey and his mission as Savior of the world. We see that this is a hard saying for human beings. Because the apostles represent us and in this particular passage the response of the apostles was of preoccupation with what does it mean to be the greatest. And I’m sure they weren’t talking about fish stories, how big the fish was that they caught in Lake Galilee and therefore, that’s what makes them greatest. They were probably talking about relationships to Jesus that they felt put them in a place of honor and dignity relative to Jesus. So whether it was John the apostle, or Peter, it doesn’t really matter, the fact is that they were still thinking that relationship to Jesus was really external and superficial.

The issue is really what does it mean to be great as a disciple of Jesus?

Jesus, of course, himself models this. He’s always the Son of God, he’s always manifesting to us, what it means to really be a spirit outpoured and fulfilled even in this life. So he takes a child and places them in the midst of the apostles, why? Because that’s the way Jesus is. He always the confident Son of his Father. Always obedient to his Father. Because obedience for Jesus is not a burden. Jesus knows the Father. The Father and he are one as John’s gospel tells us and he says in a number of places that he does always the will of his Father. So Jesus has a deep awareness of the graciousness, the tenderness, the care that the Father has for him. And in that awareness he embraces all that comes his way, even what looks to us like the most and really is a very terrible death. But he knows that it will produce tremendous fruit. A fruit that’s still going on today in ways that we have hardly even imagined.

The journey of a disciple is a mystery. If that’s the case of anybody that follows Jesus, it’s also especially true when your vowed life. You begin to realize that you have placed yourself in a relationship that really if we are baptized people we live a different kind life. A wisdom that this world has no idea about and cannot fathom without faith, without charity, without hope. That wisdom is accurate because we have the manifestation of the saints down through the centuries to show that those who have committed themselves to the Lord blossom in all kinds of ways. Even in this life. So the wisdom that Jesus shares with us is precisely to make us alive. So the supernatural life, it’s important to use that kind of language, because people forget that it’s not just being a human being on earth, that’s the first gift God gives us. His goodness is so good that he pours out all these gifts around us. All these different plants, and food, and animals, stars, and galaxies, etc., so that everything that exists is really already participating in something of who God is. But then when he comes to redeem us he gives us a share in his own life. A life of Jesus is in us. What’s this life of Jesus? Jesus is totally oriented toward the Father in love in the power of the Spirit. So that’s our life. We grow in the awareness of the Father, and his presence and we begin to know the Father’s protection. We begin to know the Father’s strength. We begin to know the Father’s tenderness. We begin to know the Father’s guidance. But that requires on our part that we develop the seed that is planted in us. That we take out time to pray. We take out time to follow what the Word of God says. Perhaps we should put a sign on the church door saying: Beware of accepting the Word of God, the side effects are dizziness, confusion, despair for some people. It really should be quite positive. It should be light, openness, the ability to grow and blossom and unfold endlessly.

So the first real joy that we have for celebrating 25 years of consecrated life is the fact that the Lord of the Universe has made himself known to one of us. That this is real. This is not theory. That we really can know, personally, have familiar knowledge of the presence of God in our life. Not that we hear voices, not that we see visions, we don’t need that. And we look at the lives of saints to see to confirm this because they manifest to us what is this life Jesus gave us. Even to the point of God’s guidance. For instance, one day Conchita de Alamada was the mother of nine children and she prayed very faithfully. One day the Lord was trying to deepen her spiritual life and told her, "I’m always in you but you’re not always in me!" Then he began to instruct her how to pay attention to his guidance. She became more aware of how the Lord was guiding her life. But that’s true of all of us. There are times in your life I’m sure of when you know the Lord says, "You’ve got to get out of that mess you’re in. You’ve got to put that aside." And if you listen to it and follow it you discover that God has protected and guided you, or healed you, or transformed you. So you can begin to know the Father and his guidance and his love and then you discover at the same time the power of the Spirit . That is we have within us the light that we need to see what’s good and what’s bad and also the strength of the Spirit to choose what’s right. It’s a gift from God in the gift of Baptism but also it grows especially in the Eucharist and in the sacrament of confession and also in the graces that come to us from prayer. Sometimes you don’t connect the good in your life with the fact that you’ve been praying faithfully. Maybe somebody outside has to say, you know something happened to you. You look more peaceful, what happened? Then if you listen to the person you realize that they have been praying quite consistently then they haven’t done before. So they receive more deeply God’s peace. That’s what the first reading is reminding us of that the just person experiences these things and therefore knows the guidance of God.

Another thing that necessary for this is not only to pray but to make sure you really want to please God. In the spiritual masters they called this a purity of intention. Why do you really do what you do? So one of the questions that the monk has to keep asking himself, Br. Gabriel as well, is why am I here in the monastery? Why? Not because we question the gift that God has given us but because it’s the way to keep alive the relationship and call us out on this journey in which God wants to pour his goodness into us. Not just yesterday, not just when you made your first vows, not just when you were baptized, but all the time God wants to give you more gifts. If I could get you to do one or two things that would change your life to be two or three degrees better for all eternity you’ll be two or three degrees better, so I’ll do anything to wake you up and to make you think of what God wants to pour into your hearts. Then you have to pay attention once in a while. When you walk with your friends you have mutual presence and you discover the other by the way they behave. Here’s this couple their celebrating their 25^th anniversary, they come home and sure enough they take out the vienna loaf and the guy chops off end piece and gives it to his wife. She screams at him and says: "25 years I’ve been married to you and every Sunday you cut off the end of the bread and you give it to me!" And he says: "I always liked the end of the bread and because I love you I gave it to you." So his relationship is revealed to her in the process. He’s been loving her all this time and she didn’t know it.

God is loving us tremendously all the time. He doesn’t do anything else but love us. Both in creation and redemption. God’s pursuing us more than we are. So the question is do you take out time to know what you have been given? You really have been given a supernatural life. You really have been given access to the persons of the Trinity. You can really come to know God in this life and it’s that knowledge, that deepening of faith that enables you to be not only a peaceful person but a person who is unfolding and bringing God’s peace and goodness into this world.

So Br. Gabriel you are not finished. Like all of us everyday is a new beginning. But we have the tremendous expectation that if the Lord has done this much for you and you are beginning to sense it after 25 years you can really expect that the Lord will complete what he has begun and even more than you dare to dream. So now you can even dream better dreams and richer dreams and really come to know the Lord.