Desiring with great desire to be with us, Christ Jesus our Lord snuck away from his Father’s side and tiptoed into our world, born of the Virgin’s flesh by the Spirit’s brooding. And hidden warmly in her virgin womb, he grew a human heart, a heart like ours that could be broken. Christ’s sacred and most beautiful heart pierced on the cross out of love for us and beating with love for us even now. A furnace of mercy and tenderness. A heart pierced that has become a fountain of life and peace for us.
We were lost and helpless and could not find our way back to God, so he loved us more than ever. Like a lonely shepherd frantically seeking a lost sheep, he came down after us, desperately seeking us, not embarrassed at being too eager. God in Christ has come to dwell with us and die for us. In the foolishness of love, he has lost himself in love for us. If you will, God is hopelessly in love. It’s no wonder Catherine of Siena will cry out to the him: “O mad lover! You have need of your creature? It seems so to me, for you act as if you could not live without her. Why then are you so mad? Because you have fallen in love with what you have made! You are pleased and delighted over her within yourself, as if you were drunk with desire for her salvation. She runs away from you and you go looking for her. She strays and you draw closer to her.”
Christ Jesus calls out to us, “Come to me all you labor and are heavy burdened.” He notices us lost and desolate, defeated and sinful. This is perhaps the most difficult part of our monastic ascesis - to know clearly over and over again the sad, boring truth of our sinfulness and lostness and there and then to allow God in Christ to gaze on us with love and exquisite tenderness. It’s the great reversal, the sublime trick of our monastic vocation - that Jesus' mercy is so relentless.
Reflection by one of the monks.
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During this coming week the community will be on its annual retreat, a special time for greater silence and solitude. Daily conferences will be given to us by Mother Sofia of Wrentham. We promise our prayers and ask your remembrance.
