But first a slight diversion – today we heard a section of
St. John’s gospel. You may be familiar with the description of John’s thought
as a spiral, returning again and again to certain themes but always at a higher
level. Well, I have to admit there were times when I’d finish speaking with Br.
Bernard and feel that the spiral had been significantly compressed; in fact it
was more like I had just been circling on the same level for the last hour. But
maybe it was just that Br. Bernard’s spiral went up in very small and
concentrated increments. I can remember, for example, how he would tell me
about reading Pope Francis’ encyclical on faith – he took a whole year!; or how
he would work his way slowly through six months’ worth of L’Osservatore Romano; or how he seemed to deepen in admiration
every time he would walk up the lavabo stairs and look out on the beauty of the
cemetery and surrounding buildings. There was a contemplative dimension of his
life as a lay brother – an uncomplicated relationship with the God of
simplicity, as our Constitutions put it.
In today’s gospel Our Lord says, “Do not let your hearts
be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith in me also.” Many times Fr.
Damian would quote Br. Bernard’s words to me, “Father, we are in God’s hands.” As
true as that is, I assume Br. Bernard had his own moments when his heart was
troubled, perhaps especially during the time that the lay brother vocation as
he knew it was being dismantled from above. Yet he persevered to the end,
faithful to his vocation as he perceived it. When we had the conversation
mentioned above, it was not that he had an axe to grind about the history of
the lay brothers. If I understood him correctly, it was more of a hope, or a
concern, or even a sense of satisfaction that the value and importance of the
lay brothers’ vocation would eventually be understood, that in fact the
complementarity of the two vocations, monk and lay brother, would be made clear.
“In my Father’s house there are many rooms,” not separate dwellings with no
interaction, but distinct rooms of mercy where the full beauty and
complementarity of God’s house would become manifest in the Body of Christ.
This morning at vigils we heard from St. Bernard’s ode to
his brother Blessed Gerard. At one point he says of Gerard, “Your involvement
in the business of the house gave me the leisure and privacy for more prayerful
absorption in divine contemplation, for more thorough preparation of doctrine
for my sons…I must repeat that through you, my dear brother, I enjoyed a
peaceful mind and a welcome peace; my preaching was more effective, my prayer
more fruitful, my study more regular, my love more fervent. Alas! You have been
taken away and (with you) these good offices too…” But it was not as though, as
St. Bernard points out, that Gerard’s involvement in the business of the house lessened
his charity. It overflowed for the good of the whole community, for the poor,
for strangers, and for those who came to the monastery. This, I think, is what
Br. Bernard was trying to communicate as something of importance for the new
abbot and for all of us to understand.
Finally, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The way for Br. Bernard
was his vocation as a lay brother. He persevered in this way to the end, raking
up leaves and mopping the cloister floor to the end; holding fast to the truth
revealed to him by the Lord and the life which was his service to the
community. Let us, too, hold fast to our vocation in troubles and in joy, and enter
anew the rooms of mercy that the Lord has prepared for us, lay brothers and monks,
under the mantle of her who is our life, our sweetness and our hope, Our Lady
of Spencer.
Dom Vincent's Homily for Brother Bernard's Funeral Mass, Saturday, October 2, 2020.
