Duty and Love

Dry duty is a cold and hard master who does not console anyone and who is terribly boring. Speak to me of loving God, that I may fulfill with joy the duty he assigns to me, and keep the great joy of love which is sacrifice.

LOUIS VEUILLOT

Hardness of Heart and God’s Image Within Man

There is a hardening of the heart that cannot always be measured merely by the number and gravity of one's sins. A relatively upright life in the eyes of the world can nevertheless conceal a layer of cold egoism that is thicker than the one possessed by an avowed sinner. Man is made in the image of God, and, even if only in the deepest part of his being, he always retains some sense of the divine life. Because man is the bearer of that reflection of the God who is Love, he is always capable of being attracted again to that Love.

YVES DE MONTCHEUIL, SJ Problèmes de Vie Spirituelle

Silence and the Call to Holiness

The call to holiness is accepted and can be cultivated only in the silence of adoration before the infinite transcendence of God: we must confess that we all have need of this silence, filled with the presence of him who is adored: in theology, so as to exploit fully its own sapiential and spiritual soul; in prayer, so that we may never forget that seeing God means coming down the mountain with a face so radiant that we are obliged to cover it with a veil; in commitment, so that we will refuse to be locked in a struggle without love and forgiveness. All, believers and non-believers alike, need to learn a silence that allows the Other to speak when and how he wishes, and allows us to understand his words.

SAINT POPE JOHN PAUL II Vita Consecrata

Justice and Mercy

Attend to mercy and justice. Do not imagine that these two can be separated in God in any way. They may at first seem to be mutually opposed so that whoever is merciful would not uphold justice and whoever adheres unconditionally to justice would forget about mercy. But God is omnipotent: he neither lets go of justice in showing mercy nor of mercy in judging justly.

ST. AUGUSTINE 

Discernment as a Filtering Process

Discernment can be described as a filtering process that takes place as one asks of every stimulus, activity, or relationship: “how does this help me achieve my goal of living a spiritual life, of seeking God in everyone and everything?” Filtering thus helps cope with sensory overload and our culture's fascination with what is “different.”

GAIL FITZPATRICK A Monastic Vision for the 21st Century

Renouncing Self-Sufficiency

This means we put ourselves fully at God’s disposal. We overcome the difficulties of life by trusting ourselves to God who asks and who knows what he is asking for, without envisaging a success rate on the basis of our own possibilities and natural gifts. It is never impossible to obey. When this does seem to be the case, a great opportunity arises for the conversion of our heart and mind to the infinite possibility of God. So far as we place ourselves at God's disposal, we become a space in which divine omnipotence can move.

CRISTIANA PICCARDO Living Wisdom: The Mission and Transmission of Monasticism

To Whom Shall We Go?

Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”  John 6:67–69

Today’s Gospel comes at the end of the Bread of Life Discourse in which our Lord taught clearly, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” At the beginning of today’s Gospel, upon listening to Jesus’ new teaching, many of His disciples murmured among themselves saying, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” This teaching of Jesus is “hard” in the sense that it requires a profound faith to understand completely. But just because something is hard to accept does not mean that we should not accept it.

Peter’s statement quoted above gives us the words we should say whenever we find God’s will or His teaching difficult to accept. When that happens, we must hear Jesus ask us the same question He asked the Twelve: “Do you also want to leave?” Jesus will not try to manipulate us. He will not back down when He sees we are struggling. He will not lessen the requirement of being His faithful follower. Instead, He will give us the freedom to either believe or leave. And when we feel like leaving, we should always remember Peter’s words, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

Self-forgetful Service

Self-forgetful service of the community is, like prayer, a movement out of myself toward the other, a movement of giving, of love…. When work and prayer are put in the context of love and of adhering to the will of God, then conscious, rational thought processes become secondary. It is enough to be working out of love for God and for my brothers and sisters.

CHARLES CUMMINGS, OCSO Monastic Practices 

Prayer and Work

Following Mary’s example, the fundamental practice for healing the wounds of the false-self system is to fulfill the duties of our job in life. This includes helping people who are counting on us. If prayer gets in the way, there is some misunderstanding. Some devout persons think that if their activities at home or their job get in the way of praying, there is something wrong with their activities. On the contrary, there is something wrong with their prayer.

THOMAS KEATING The Mystery of Christ

Look To Mary

When you are beset with temptations, when you are about to give in to pride, hatred or jealousy, look to the star, call upon Mary. Should anger, avarice or lust violently assail you, look to the star, call upon Mary. If you find yourself beginning to sink into the bottomless gulf of sadness and despair, then think of Mary. Let not her name depart from your lips. Never suffer it to leave your heart. If you do this, you will be safe from deception and will never go astray. You need  not fear that you will grow weary and lose heart. You will reach your goal.

SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX Second Sermon, The Glories of Mary

The Eucharist and Service

The Eucharist is a mystery and as such cannot be fully understood by reason alone; faith must supplement our reason. But there has to be something we understand about it, something to hold onto and practice. I believe that by washing his disciple’s feet, Jesus is telling us something about the mystery of the Eucharist, something easily understood, something as easily understood as, who is more privileged? The one who serves the table? Or the one who sits at the table and is served? What does this tell us about the Eucharist? In the Eucharist, Jesus hands over his body and pours out his blood for us. Jesus’ words are repeated every day at the consecration: “This is the cup of my blood… it will be shed for you and for all. Do this in memory of me.” We know that our blood is our life force, our life. When someone says, “I offer you a cup of my blood,” they are saying very graphically that they are offering themselves, their very existence to us. Now, we cannot offer actual blood, but we can serve each other and in this way pour out our blood for the other. Saint Benedict calls the monastery a school of the Lord’s service. As such, it is a Eucharistic school, a place where we connect liturgy and life. However, you do not have to be in a monastery to be in this school. The message is so simple: serve each other and you will fulfill the law of Christ who came among us to serve and not to be served.

BRENDAN FREEMAN, OCSO Come and See, Ch. 1

Homily: Feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux

This morning I'd eventually like to quote to you a warning made by St. Bernard concerning “a painting executed in thin air.” But first, the reading from the Book of Wisdom gives us the first brush strokes of a fine scriptural portrait of our great Cistercian father, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, “I prayed and pleaded and the spirit of prudence and Wisdom came to me.” St. Bernard was indeed faithful to our common Christian vocation to become a holy people who pray to the Lord in all our needs: material and spiritual, for the coming of the Bridgroom of the Church and the fullness of the Kingdom of God. The Responsorial Psalm: “O God, you are my God—for you I long! For you my body yearns, for you my soul thirsts.” in this psalm we see the ardent desire for God mystically planted in Bernard's heart by the Lord God's own desire for him and for all of us who seek God in our Cistercian vocation and, indeed, all whose hearts are restless until they rest in God. The reading from Philippians brings to the protrait the remarkable theme of the Imitation of Christ, so important in Bernard's own life, as it should be in all our lives. After all, our Lord said to Bernard and to all of us, “Come follow me.” I will say more on that later.

The final reading, the Gospel about the salt of the earth and the light of the world describes our St. Bernard who gave such a flavor and illumination to the Christian world of the 12th century and through his writings and holy intercession gives flavor and light even to our own century: especially the flavor and light of devotion to the names and persons of Jesus and Mary. “Jesus,” he writes, “is honey in the mouth, song to the ear, and jubilation in the heart.” Of Mary he says in a homily, “In danger, in distress in uncertainty, think of Mary, call upon Mary. She never leaves your lips, and she never departs from your heart.” Through Bernard's abbatial service, the Abbey of Clairvaux, even though it was built in a valley of light, became the city on a spiritual mountain which could not be hidden.

In the Epistle to the Philippians we heard this morning, St. Paul exhorts the community saying, “Join with others in being imitators of me, brothers, and observe those who thus conduct themselves according to the model you have in us.” This could sound like an awful spiritual pride and be rather off-putting, if St. Paul had not told us in the passage before this one that “It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity, but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.” In First Corinthians, Paul says it all in a way that is clear and simple, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” And, finally, we have Paul saying in Gal. 2:20, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” It is the imitation of Christ to which St. Paul is exhorting his people. Paul's own life, apart from any words he might utter, is what proclaims the Gospel most clearly. It is what makes his words, and makes our words believable. It is like what St. Francis of Assisi told his disciples, “Go and proclaim the Gospel. Use words only if necessary.” This is what Pope Francis calls us to do in today's evangelization—proclaim the Gospel with our lives, not just words.

Now back to St. Bernard--he writes in the treatise on the Steps of Humility, “ As for me, when I did not yet know the truth, I thought myself to be something, whereas I was nothing. But after I believed in Christ by imitating His humility, I came to know the truth, and it was exalted in me through my own confession.” In a later sermon on the John 12, Bernard develops this theme of the imitation of Christ: “There are some who do not follow Christ, but flee from him... These do not obtain the reward; others truly follow the Lord and attain the goal... They follow and attain who, in a spirit of sincere devotion, perseveringly imitate his way of humility. The Lord has clearly indicated this in the following words: 'He who serves me must follow me,' that is to say, 'he must imitate me.' And what will be the result of this imitation? 'Wherever I am' he said, 'my servant will be there too.' The result of this imitation, therefore, is to abide in everlasting happiness.”

The worry that we moderns might have about the use of the word “imitation” which, to us, means “fake” is addressed by St. Bernard in much the same way that St. Paul insisted that his exhortation to imitate him was rooted in the fact that Paul was being transformed into another Christ by being “possessed by Christ Jesus.” Bernard explains himself on this point about “imitation” in a magnificent passage from the very obscure treatise “On the Errors of Peter Abelard.” This passage is the perfect preparation for our feast day celebration and reception of the Eucharist. Please notice the graphic powerful language he uses—language straight out of Chapter 6 of John that we have been meditating on so many Sundays lately. So I will now be silent and let Bernard prepare us for the Eucharistic sacrifice and our communion in it as he explains the source of his strength for the imitation of Christ:

“To be sure, the example of (Christ's) humility is great and very necessary, and great and very worthy to be accepted is the example of charity; but both are without foundation, and therefore without a secure position, if the redemption is lacking. I want to spare no effort to follow the humble Jesus; I desire to embrace him by rendering love for love to him who loved me and gave himself up for me; but I must eat the Paschal Lamb. Indeed, if I do not eat his flesh and drink his blood, I will not have life in me. It is one thing to follow Jesus, another to hold him fast, yet another to eat him. To follow him, this is counseled for salvation; to hold him and to embrace him, this is the joy of a feast day; to eat him, this is the life of beatitude (to eat him, this is the life of beatitude). His body is real food and his blood is real drink. He is the bread of life, come down from heaven, who gives life to the world. What secure position would joy or counsel have without life? Nothing more than a painting executed in thin air. Therefore, neither the examples of humility not the manifestations of charity are anything without the sacrament of redemption.”

Eating the Paschal Lamb

With all my strength, I would follow the humble Jesus. I desire to hold in an embrace of vicarious love him who “loved me and gave himself up for me.” Yet I must also eat the Pashcal lamb. For unless I eat his flesh and drink his blood, I shall have no life in me. It is one thing to follow Jesus; it is another to hold him; yet another to eat him. To follow is a wholesome counsel. To hold and embrace is solemn joy. To eat is blessed life.

SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX Letter 190 to Pope Innocent, in S. Bernardi Opera, 8:38

Hope

Too often we think of hope in too individualistic a manner as merely our personal salvation. But hope essentially bears on the great actions of God concerning the whole of creation. It bears on the destiny of all humanity. It is the salvation of the world that we await. In reality hope bears on the salvation of all men—and it is only in the measure that I am immersed in them that it bears on me.

JEAN CARDINAL DANIÉLOU, S.J. Essai sur le mystère de l’histoire, 1953

The Living Bread Come Down From Heaven

Come together in common through grace, individually, in one faith, and in Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David according to the flesh, both the Son of Man and the Son of God. In this way you will obey the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote to prevent us from dying, enabling us to live forever in Jesus Christ.

SAINT IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 

We call this food Eucharist…. Not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too… the food which has been made into the Eucharist…is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.

SAINT JUSTIN MARTYR First Apology 

Prophets and Witnesses of the Kingdom

Dear friends, Jesus lived in his flesh the prophecy of every day life, entering into the daily lives and stories of the people, manifesting compassion within events, and he manifested his being God, who is compassionate. And because of this, some people were scandalized by him. He became an obstacle, he was rejected even to the point of being tried and condemned; yet, he remained faithful to his mission. He did not hide behind ambiguity, did not compromise with the logic of political and religious power. He made his life and offering of love to the Father. So, too, we Christians are called to be prophets and witnesses of the Kingdom of God, in all the situations we live in, in every place we inhabit.

POPE FRANCIS Pastoral visit: Trieste, 7 July; Homily excerpt

Prayer In Its Essence

In its essence, prayer is a simple attitude of the soul, a silent acquiescing to the action of the Holy Spirit who awakens in our heart a humble and suppliant desire of God and of the things of God. At the same time, it makes us experience a quiet and hidden joy and peace, giving us the conviction of being loved by our heavenly Father and of being continually saved by Him.

Even in its simplest expression, where it is reduced to a mere glance toward God, prayer assumes, in some sort, a passover rhythm: it is, on the one hand, the recognition and confession of our distress, of our inability to earn our true happiness by our own resources, confident supplication and filial self-surrender into the hands of the Father; on the other hand, it is the joyous confession of salvation already granted, thanksgiving and admiring praise. For it is by appropriating in us the prayer of Christ himself such as it sprang from His heart in His passion and His resurrection that the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray.

FRANCIS ACHARYA, OCSO Cistercian Spirituality: An Ashram Perspective

Homily for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary

“Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit…” Thus, our Holy Father Pope Francis begins his announcement of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025. The gift of hope is the grace that carries us forward in difficulties, giving us confidence that we will not be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus despite the trials of this world. It is a comfort to ponder this gift of hope as we prepare ourselves for our great jubilee of 200 years since the foundation of our community in Nova Scotia. How many times did our fathers of Spencer have to renew their hope that God had a purpose and plan for their community? Hope became the anchor of their souls as they traveled from Nova Scotia to Rhode Island to Spencer. On this patronal feast of the whole Cistercian family, it is fitting that in anticipation of these great jubilees we turn to Our Lady assumed body and soul into heaven. Her steadfastness in hope in fulfilling her mission has become a “sign of sure hope and solace for the pilgrim people of God”, especially her Cistercian sons and daughters.

Our Lady understands well the saying of St. Paul that “hope does not disappoint…” She hoped against hope that there would be a fulfillment to what the Lord had spoken to her. She had a mission from God, and she waited patiently as it unfolded. What was her mission? I think it was to reveal the fulness of motherhood, both in body and soul: first, in the physical motherhood of her Son and then in the spiritual motherhood of everyone who encounters her Son and follows him. When her mission on earth was completed and her hope was absorbed in fulfillment, by her mother’s love, which is stronger than death, she guides her children to fulfill their mission in life in patient hope. This is her greatest happiness: to see her children fulfill their God-given vocations. And she knows that this will be our greatest happiness as well. She is the sign of hope that God will bring to completion the work he has begun in us. 

But what exactly is the mission that God has planned for us? Our Lady lays it out in her Magnificat. It is to proclaim the greatness of the Lord in the daily rounds of our divine office. It is to rejoice in our lowliness and “humbly regard others as more important than” ourselves. It is to gather with our brothers at work, at lectio, at meals where Jesus is present in our midst. At the same time, our mission is to allow God to cast down the mighty pretensions of our hearts. It is to allow him to scatter the proud thoughts that rise up in our conceits. It is to empty the rich coffers that we use to keep our distance from one another. Finally, it is Our Lady’s desire is that we carry in our hearts a salutary fear of the Lord which complements the virtue of hope. This is the mission Our Lady so ardently wants us to accomplish for our happiness. 

The Most Holy Trinity has assumed Our Lady body and soul into heavenly glory to show us that hope does not disappoint us as it did not disappoint her. As we prepare for the great jubilees ahead, let us turn to Our Lady to ask for the gift of perseverance, for she is our life, our sweetness, and our hope, and the star that leads us to Christ Jesus our hope. 

The Essence of the Love of God

The essence of the love of God does not lie in affections or in sweet words, but solely in the will. If the soul perseveres decisively with its will fixed on holiness and love of God, although it does not experience the least feeling in its heart, let it be wholly convinced that it continually tends with rapid pace forward and ever pushes upward.

SAINT MAXIMILIAN KOLBE

Love Toward Everything That Is

God is everything that is good, and God has made everything that is made, and God loves everything that he has made, and if any man or woman withdraws his love from any of his fellow Christians, he does not love at all, because he has not loved toward all. And so in such times he is in danger, because he is not at peace; and anyone who has general love for his fellow Christians has love toward everything that is. For in mankind, which will be saved, is comprehended all, that is, all that is made and the maker of all; for God is in man, and so in man is all….

JULIAN OF NORWICH Revelations of Divine Love

Through the Cross to the Light

Our Lord asks us to allow him to work—to allow him to work to reproduce his image in us. Our Lord does not ask us to love suffering in itself, but to love it as a means of salvation, just as a very bitter medicine that will give us back our health can be loved. We are not asked to feel this love in a sensible way, but to give proof of it by persevering, despite tribulations, in the practice of our religious duties, especially prayer. Jesus expects us to turn to him with our prayer, because he has already decided to hear us and to lead us much higher than we ourselves could desire. Therefore, we should love the cross for the love of souls and gladly accept being associated with our Lord in his work of redemption.

FR. REGINALD GARRIGOU–LAGRANGE, O.P.

 

God’s Beloved

In my reading of thousands upon thousands of pages in books, papers, and magazines over a lifetime of study, I have found no secular writers or those of non-Christian religions who were able to put these two words together in one idea. […] Our situation on the planet is a romance, a spectacular romance—for those who want it. It is difficult to imagine a more touching description of who we are: God's beloved. We are here in a realm light-years beyond the best of our psychology and self-help books. Then there is the clear implication that if people who annoy me are also God’s beloved, they must be mine as well: we are to love as he loves us (Jn 13:34). Once these two words sink into anyone's heart and become practice, human relationships are forever transformed.

THOMAS DUBAY, S.M. The Evidential Power of Beauty, Ch. 14 (1999, Ignatius Press)

The Plan of Divine Providence

Whatever did not fit in with my plan did lie within the plan of God. I have an ever deeper and firmer belief that nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God, that my whole life down to the smallest details has been marked out for  me in the plan of Divine Providence and has a completely coherent meaning in God’s all-seeing eyes. And so I am beginning to rejoice in the light of glory wherein this meaning will be unveiled to me… When night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God's hands and leave it with Him. Then you will be able to rest in Him—really rest—and start the next day as a new life.

SAINT TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS (EDITH STEIN) 

Drawing Down God’s Mercy

At the beginning, God does not show us our misery because it would discourage us; but He reveals it little by little; then we feel that we truly have need of Him. It is a great mistake to suppose that God is dazzled by our perfection; let us seek to draw down His compassion and mercy by acknowledging our misery.

To know how to display our miseries before God is to draw down grace; never forget that. If a soul, even one far advanced in virtue, ceased to regard her own miseries and to take complacency in the gifts she has received, she would infallibly fall. For you, my dear child, learn to say with Saint Paul, “Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ made dwell in me.”

BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION 

The Church Appeals to the Mercy of God

The Church proclaims the truth of God's mercy revealed in the crucified and risen Christ, and she professes it in various ways. Furthermore, she seeks to practice mercy towards people through people, and she sees in this an indispensable condition for solicitude for a better and "more human" world, today and tomorrow. However, at no time and in no historical period-especially at a moment as critical as our own–can the Church forget the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of God amid the many forms of evil which weigh upon humanity and threaten it. Precisely this is the fundamental right and duty of the Church in Christ Jesus, her right and duty towards God and towards humanity. The more the human conscience succumbs to secularization, loses its sense of the very meaning of the word "mercy," moves away from God and distances itself from the mystery of mercy, the more the Church has the right and the duty to appeal to the God of mercy "with loud cries." These "loud cries" should be the mark of the Church of our times, cries uttered to God to implore His mercy, the certain manifestation of which she professes and proclaims as having already come in Jesus crucified and risen, that is, in the Paschal Mystery. It is this mystery which bears within itself the most complete revelation of mercy, that is, of that love which is more powerful than death, more powerful than sin and every evil, the love which lifts man up when he falls into the abyss and frees him from the greatest threats. 

Modern man feels these threats. What has been said above in this regard is only a rough outline. Modern man often anxiously wonders about the solution to the terrible tensions which have built up in the world and which entangle humanity. And if at times he lacks the courage to utter the word "mercy," or if in his conscience empty of religious content he does not find the equivalent, so much greater is the need for the Church to utter his word, not only in her own name but also in the name of all the men and women of our time.

SAINT POPE JOHN PAUL II Dives In Misericordia

Transfiguration of the Lord

After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid. ”And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” (Mt 17:1-9).

The account of the transfiguration follows Peter's confession at Caesarea and the first announcement of Jesus’s passion (cf. 16:13ff). This is the "ultimate" reason why it is always worth having the courage to confess Jesus as Lord and God, even in the most difficult and trying moments, because Jesus is Lord. The transfiguration, a foretaste of the resurrection, is offered as a horizon that aims to alleviate fear and instill courage in the face of the journey of life.

A few verses earlier, in Mt 16:22, Peter, as well as the other disciples, rebel against the fact that Jesus announced his "passion and death". They could not accept to follow a Messiah whose human existence would end that way. It is in view of this premise that the experience of the transfiguration must be understood. Jesus had spoken of His death on a cross (cf. Mt 16:21ff), and the conditions for following Him: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him take up his cross..." (Mt 16:24). Now Jesus wants to help His disciples understand that, while it is true that He would suffer and die, it is also true that He would rise again. The transfiguration is a "live" anticipation of the resurrection to prepare the disciples to face what would happen in between, that is His passion and death.

A First Faint Gleam of Heaven

To have faith in Christ means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.

C.S. LEWIS Mere Christianity

God’s Inexhaustible Riches

God must always be the greater, going above and beyond everything, and not only in this world but also in the future one, so that he might always remain the Teacher, while man, as the pupil, might always learn from God. Does not the apostle, too, say that, when everything else will have passed away, these three alone will endure: faith, hope and love? For our faith in our Teacher remains unshakable forever, he who gives us a certainty that he is the only true God, that we truly love him forever because he is the sole Father and that we may hope to receive again still more from God and to learn from him because he is the Good and possesses inexhaustible riches and a kingdom without end and unbounded teachings.

ST. IRENAEUS

Unity In Prayer

…the teacher of unity, does not want prayer to be performed individually and privately, so that the one who prays does so merely for himself. We do not say: “My Father, who art in heaven”, or “give me this day my daily bread”, no one asks that his trespasses alone be forgiven or pleads privately for himself that he not be led into temptation and that he be delivered from evil. We pray, namely, publicly and together with others, not for one alone but for all the people, for as such we are one.

ST. CYPRIAN

Homily—Anniversary of the Dedication of the Abbey Church

Curiosity and probably the need to protect himself from the scoffing and angry shoves of the local people, propel Zacchaeus into the broad branches of a sycamore tree. He is too short, the crowd too large, and he wants to see Jesus. Sensing that he is being watched, sensing Zacchaeus’ desire to see him, Jesus looks up and calls Zacchaeus down to himself and tells him most emphatically, “I must stay at your house.” This is not a casual request for an evening get-together. It is something far more sacred and provocative. In any event, Zacchaeus is thrilled.  

Jesus is well-aware of the shock value of his action. Zacchaeus is chief tax collector; tax collectors were among the most despised members of Jewish society, as sleazy as prostitutes. True, prostitutes sold their favors to Roman soldiers, but tax collectors were worse; they were in cahoots with the Romans, collecting taxes for them and taking an enormous cut for themselves. That was how the system worked. They were smarmy low-life, living in luxury at the expense of the poor whom they had bilked. Befriending Zacchaeus is provocative indeed – he of all people, the short man, short of stature, short on virtue, a fabulously wealthy swindler, despised by his countrymen. Jesus knows exactly what he’s doing. He keeps hanging around with the wrong kind of kind of people. And it’s going get him in a lot of trouble, but Jesus can do no less. He is the Mercy of the Father enfleshed. This is why he has come – to gather the lost and call sinners to change of heart. 

So Jesus invites himself in. “I must stay at your house,” he says to Zacchaeus. Perhaps it’s ridiculous, but this makes me a bit uncomfortable, seems a bit intrusive. And I remember many years ago when my mom was in the hospital, my father announced that he and I would be having our supper at Aunty Jenny and Uncle Charlie’s house that night. “Oh, did they invite us?” “No,” says my Dad. “That’s my brother, I told we were coming over for supper.” Even as a kid I knew a social taboo had been violated. You don’t do that kind of thing. Or do you? Jesus doesn’t seem to have any qualms. He must stay with Zacchaeus because it’s what Mercy does, it abides, it stays. Mercy is always magnetized by our pain and sin and need of any kind. Mercy intrudes.

And so as Zacchaeus receives the Lord with joy - two desperations meet, Jesus’ desperate passion to share God’s Self and Zacchaeus’ desperate need for the healing and mercy that only God in Christ can give. He may be wealthy but this is the one thing he now realizes he desperately wants and does not have and probably believes he does not deserve. Jesus restores Zacchaeus’ lost honor by staying at his house for supper and evening’s rest. Mercy in Christ has come and wants to remain with us.

Zacchaeus’ face-to-face encounter with Christ Jesus causes a radical reorientation. And amidst the din of all the grumbling against him, Zaccheaus stands his ground and confesses to Jesus. Looked upon with love by the Lord, Zacchaeus is converted, he literally makes a complete turn-around; he is released from the inertia of his past. In the light of Christ’s kind regard, bitter self-knowledge has overtaken him, he can see who he has become. And if Zacchaeus has been extravagant in exploiting his fellow Jews, he now promises extravagant remuneration to the many he has cheated. A swindler has been transformed. How? Through the joy of the encounter, a fascination with the person of Christ in his Goodness and Beauty and Truth. Today Salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ house. A spark of desire and curiosity to see the Lord has ended here: Zacchaeus allows himself to feel deep within his heart the embarrassment of who he has become. As Jesus stays with him, he can see a new future.

And so this story is a kind of parable about what happens each day when we enter this sacred space.  Here Jesus invites us to come down, to lower ourselves, and invites himself in. Awed by the mystery of this divine intrusion,  we instinctively call to mind our sins and beg forgiveness. And this morning as every morning Jesus will sit at table and share a meal with notorious sinners. Zacchaeus’ story is our story. The ringing of the bells day in day out, hour after hour is our reminder to come down, for we too have nothing to boast of but our need for him. And so each morning a great reversal is enacted. Jesus is honored guest but best of all he himself is the banquet of Mercy for us sick sinners who desperately need a Physician. And, praise God, he does not require perfection before he approaches. Just the opposite. It is not because we’re worthy. It is our weakness which is our best credential for graced encounter with him. All it takes is a sigh, says St. Mechtilde. A sigh, a mere whiff of desire to see and be near him. Even the faintest desire will draw him, and the subsequent encounter with God most high brought low in Christ will bring transformation, for when Jesus meets us, something unexpected might happen.

Jesus will praise the tax collectors and prostitutes because of their openness to his message, their readiness to change their minds and hearts. They’re broken enough, they know themselves as outcasts and sinners. They have no illusions about themselves and so cannot refuse such a great offer, his invitation to change and reform- literally to be made beautiful again through their relationship with him. They know they’re a mess, they know it all too well. They’ve got nothing to lose; they’ve lost it all already. What about us? What have we got to lose? Perhaps only the heavy burden of having to pretend we’re good.