Transcript of Abbot Clement=s Sermon on Monday, November 1, 2004
Scholars tell us that if we want to summarize the whole gospel message all we have to do is read Matthew
=s gospel in Chapter 5 to 7. If we master this we will have mastered the whole of the gospel. Then St. Augustine says if you want to summarize the Sermon on the Mount, which is 5 to 7, simply read and meditate long and hard on the beatitudes. The beatitudes are the intensification and clarity of the whole of the gospel and the saints are the clarity for the real Christian life.What are the strong, clear, marks of the saints? They are people who know how to live in faith, hope and love and they execute that faith hope and love in the cardinal virtues of fortitude, prudence, temperance, and justice. So they delineate the gospel in action.
That
=s one of the reasons why I ask that we would look at the saints at every noon hour so that we would see how these characteristics are manifesting so many different ways in so many different people in so many different circumstances. So that we would catch the characteristics of the saints.Everyone of us here belongs to the Lord. Either by Baptism, we are consecrated to the Lord or by our vows. So we don
=t belong to ourselves. If we want to test our journey all we have to do is live this week and think about and reflect on one simple phrase: AI don=t belong to myself, I belong to God.@ Then look at how you really live. Does your tongue belong to God? What comes out of it. Are your thoughts something that belongs to God? Perhaps more characteristic, what about your time...how much time do you spend in front of the TV set that doesn=t belong to you, it belongs to the Lord? What about the use of your talents and abilities, is it for the Lord? If you walk with this reflection for a week, I think you=d get a pretty good idea to what degree you are allowing the Lord to transform you into the saint he=s calling you to be.