Transcript of Abbot Clement’s talk on Monday, 30 September 2002
Monastic life is not an accident. It’s a flower of the presence of the Church. It’s part of the Church’s development in any local. So if you and I are here it’s because the fruit of the Church has touched our lives and we have responded. It’s very easy to see, if you remember that the Eastern Churches are rooted in monasticism. And monasticism flows from them, rather almost visibly. But it’s the same for the Western Church too. So God’s plan is part of us. Our monasticism is essential to unfolding of the Church in the Cleveland diocese. So it’s not an accident. It’s not an appendage that the Church community is here. The monk, of course, is a person who takes God seriously, we said. And if you read the paper today and the survey that was presented you see that the unchurched people are increasing, at least, in the United States. Which means there’s a lot of people who don’t take God seriously. Now there are two things that flow immediately from the liturgy that makes us important people: One is we give praise to God. We acknowledge God as God. I don’t care how I feel, God is rather happy today, He’s infinite, He’s loving us and doing all kind of good things for me, we owe Him, adoration, thanksgiving, praise and so on. So we should have a certain song in our heart, that doesn’t mean you have to have a good voice. After all, even frogs sing! If God gave you a frog voice then give it back to Him in praise. He deserves it. But the second point is, that because from the liturgy you are confronted with the word of God, Lectio Divina flows. And seeking God is part of that, of course, and with it ceaseless prayer. Now ceaseless prayer is not something we’re doing all day long. It has to become a way of being.
If we have listened to Sunday’s Gospel we see our danger, for us, is probably not so much the person who gets mad at God and says, "No" and then does it, our danger is the one that says "yes, yes, oh yes, I’ll do your will" but never does it. Let me give you a couple of examples that happened to me recently. You don’t know these people and you don’t know where these happened so I can share them with you. A priest came to me to confession he was committing serious sins. And I asked him specifically about his prayer life, about his office, about mortification, etc. and he gave me an answer that can be summarized in this, I can’t help it, it doesn’t work for me. He excused himself. And after a long struggle, telling him you know you are dancing on the rim of hell, because he was in the state of sin sometimes when he did the liturgy. The only reason I could give him absolution was, one, he responded to the call of grace to come to confession, so there must have been some grace there, some place. And secondly, he seemed to have a desire to do something. So it put an obligation on me to pray for him and to do penance for him to win him grace. Then I heard another person, a married person, and he’s going to a prostitute. And then I asked him why, and he says "I don’t know." No sense of evil. Again, after struggling and asking questions, the only reason I could give absolution is that he wanted to come to confession, it’s a start and there’s some sound grace there, some place. And again the burden is on me to pray for him and do penance for him, to win grace for him. So that’s an extreme. I’m sure you’re not in that state, I hope. For sure it tells us something about the possibility that you can be in the Church, you can touch the things of God, and yet be indifferent. You really don’t believe that God is alive and interested in you. And you don’t meet him even though He’s available in the Word.
Many times as I’m preaching, I hear another message for Clement, and I know what the Lord is asking of me. And then of course in the Eucharist, how many times, even here at St. Andrew, I know the Lord is with us in the Eucharist. I experienced it. Now the monk , the virtue of the monk, especially the Benedictine Monk, is humility, right? Now what’s God’s wish about us being humble? Not what we think. He wants to be humble in us. That means, that our eyes must look at others and not judge them, condemn them. It means our ears have to be humble, that is, we hear people where they are and accept them and try to be of service to them. It means our tongues have to be humble, that we speak the truth in love. It’s not easy, but that’s what we have to do. Our hands have to be humble, they have to be willing to serve. Our feet have to be humble, we have to follow the path the Lord puts out for us. Above all, our hearts have to be humble, not to raise ourselves up above others. Jesus was humble of heart. He wants to be humble in us and what does that do? That means the radiance of humility is seen in this monk, that monk, etc. and everybody will look different because we’re all a little different, but it’s O.K. But, humility will radiate and the fragrance of humility will go through the Monastery and the area and what does that do? It attracts people. Like when Conchita was talking to Fr. Rogier about purity. The more she talked the more he felt the Spirit’s fragrance of purity. And he wanted to be pure. So when we are humble the way God wants us to be humble we attract we move people. Not only that, if we’re truly humble, God will use us to save people. So we further the Kingdom. And so what’s the root of all this? The root of all this is this, do you want to love Jesus, for Jesus? Our danger is that we come to the spiritual life, we want to serve Jesus, but we have the danger of serving Jesus our way. We have to learn how to seek Jesus to want Him, to love Him a lot, for Him. Like the Little Flower said, "I wish Jesus didn’t know everything, cause then I could surprise Him and perform a little act of love for Him and just surprise Him, for Him." This is what Jesus wants. Now, if you say, "well, I have no desire." Well then I have a suggestion, make a Novena to the Holy Spirit. Make it through the intercession of the Blessed Mother and ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart to what God wants in your life. And expect an answer. And then put it into practice. God wants his Church to be fruitful. We are already a fruit of the presence of the Church of the diocese of Cleveland. We, right here, this Monastery and each of our vocations. He doesn’t want it just to stop there, He wants us to bring that fruit to bear in our environment, so that He can be humble in us. That He can attract in us. That He can move others in us. And that He can save others through us.