Transcript of Abbot Clement= s Thanksgiving Day Talk on November 24,2005

We listened to Fr. Godfrey tell us that the night the Lord was betrayed he gave thanks and he struggled to answer that question on how that worked out in the life of Christ. Yet the church in many of its prefaces says we are wise to give thanks always and everywhere. This is a dynamic in the spiritual life that it= s first of all a discovery that we need to move to be thankful people. That means we must move away from our thoughtlessness, our lack acceptance, and our lack of openness to the gifts that God gives us.

I remember very clearly when Abbot Theodore called me into the office, I had just finished my simple vows, and he said, A I want you to go and learn physics.@ Knowing the Rule I gave my reasons why not but I was really more concerned that what did physics have to do with the priesthood, so I obviously had my own agenda that I felt belonged to the priesthood that maybe the Lord at this time didn’t. But after listening to him tell me I had a good math background and we need someone to take Fr. Cyril= s place so I went. However, I was not very well disposed because I played golf everyday at Notre Dame and then when we had a test every week, I got a B and that was a no, no in graduate work at that time because if you didn’t have A= s then you couldn’t go on. So I put the clubs away and I didn’t really change my attitude until about two years later when I was studying philosophy and I began to realize that my mind compared to my confers was more disciplined because of physics then I could say thank you.

So I moved from my own agenda, from my own directives of how I think my life should go to accepting what the Lord asked of me, which I was obeying but not very whole-heartedly, to appreciation. I began to see how this was a gift for me to develop me. I still didn’t learn that lesson fully because when Abbot Theodore called me in again, then asked me to teach Slovak, and again since I didn’t speak Slovak and I didn’t know it, I gave my reasons as the Rule says but he said, A you= re smart you can do it.@ So I did it for about two weeks. I would practice the lesson before the mirror, I was more Italian than Slovak, and then I would go to class and almost everyday the last thing I knew what to give them the bell would ring. So the Lord walked with me for two whole weeks and then the abbot called me in and said, "We are dropping the course since you only have seven students." So I was grateful but I did learn was that the Lord was with me. So I moved from fear and from awareness of my inadequacy and found that really didn’t matter to God. God only wanted that I would obey him and come to appreciate that this was a blessing.

So when we celebrate Thanksgiving the first gift this country has received is the fact that this is a national holiday. It forces people to be aware that they are gifted. This is probably very embarrassing to people who don= t believe. What are they giving thanks for? At least it kept alive the awareness that they are more then their possessions, they= re more than their pleasures, they= re more than their successes, and therefore it opens them up. But you know this is all real gross. When read in the Book of Job, Job responded to the death of his family and all their possessions being destroyed he said, A The Lord gave, the Lord took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.@ Well, I= m not so sure that most people give a response to those kinds of disasters with that kind of response without having to go through the process of God= s guiding them and seeing that this too is God= s blessing.

Or in the life of Cory Tenboom and her sister when they were moved to a concentration camp and in this new concentration camp there were fleas in the mattresses. Cory was all shriveled up because of fear and her sister is praising the Lord for fleas and thanking the Lord for fleas and Cory said to her "You’re crazy!" But then they found out because they had fleas the women guards wouldn’t come into their dorm and so as a result they had free time to administer to each other and pray and they performed many miracles. One miracle was they received a little bottle of medicine that they needed and it never emptied. It kept on be used day in and day out the whole time they were there.

So the importance of this feast is first of all to really realize that this is a dynamic, this is a growth into thoughtfulness, acceptance of my life and my life situation and be open. The first level of that is simply not to expect happiness in this or that. That is in power. Power is meant to be of service. If you have a position of authority you are called to serve. Possessions are an opportunity for enriching others not just yourself. Pleasure is to make your life flow. It= s meant to be a balance. But if you make anything an absolute you= re already blocking what God is intending in your life. If you can= t live life without your cup of coffee every morning you= re over doing it, you are too attached to something. So you have to look at where you are attached in a kind of absolute sense and relax. But more importantly you have to believe. If God worked so hard to get you to the monastery and gave you this great gift of a vocation don= t you think he is working on you now to fulfill it? Everyday you receive all kinds of graces from God and he wants you to blossom into the likeness of his Son. He’s not playing games with you. He doesn’t lie, he doesn’t make bad decisions. So everything that happens to us he will use for this purpose. St. Anthony of the Desert was the first monk to state this - there is no such thing as accidents in life, it= s all providence.

Then, of course, that classical book of De Causade in the Sacrament Of The Present Moment, he reiterates that statement and now I just recently read a statement by Fr. Van Kaam who says basically the same thing. Every moment is providence. So it= s not a question of doing something fantastic, it= s right in your life you are being led by grace. How are you tuned in, how are you accepting, how are you thoughtful, how are you moving with that grace that God is giving you and wants to even give more to transform you so that you not only thank him in this life but praise and adore and rejoice in this tremendous love that= s embracing and guiding you.