Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, New York
Ben, you came to us seven
years ago to live
alongside the community as an intern, and then a year and a half ago you
returned as a postulant and then a novice in the community. You know first-hand
that this life presents its challenges and its rewards. You’ve learned that
community life presents human beings at their best and at their worst. When you
requested to take the name Daniel, marveling at his experience in the lion’s
den, I confess that it crossed my mind that there might be a parallel there to
your initial monastic experience. Initial formation is intended to take you
outside of your familiar framework to raise basic questions where meaning is
challenged, decisions reconsidered, and doubts unearthed. It can be daunting
and exhausting, and it can both drain but also infuse hope. When our private
worlds go to dust, hope digs in the ruins of our heart for memory of God’s
promise to bring good out of bad, joy out of sadness, and life out of death. For
all of us, especially in these times, hope is not optimism in the face of dire
circumstances, nor is it founded on denial. Hope is made of memories which
remind us that there is nothing in life we have not faced that we did not,
through grace, survive. Hope is the certainty that something will make sense,
regardless of how it turns out.
Today, as you make
your vowed commitment to continue your discernment, the more honest you are in
examining your own motives, the closer you are to being yourself. The more
equipped you are to distinguish the person you want to be from the one
everybody else wants you to be, the more likely you are to become it. Without
the honesty it takes to unmask the self, there is no liberation, let alone
fulfillment. To make a truly life-giving discernment, we all need to squarely
face what it is that gives us life. We need to speak the truth of our
interests, our abilities, our desires, as well as our dissatisfactions. We need
the help that comes from having our confusion, disappointment, and anxiety
accepted and understood by those who are not threatened by it. We need the
acceptance and encouragement of each other so we can move beyond fear to the
freedom it takes to be who we are. The power that comes with self-discovery at
any age catalyzes us. Our
holy Father Benedict, in the longest Chapter of the Rule, emphasizes humility,
which is nothing less than living in the truth.
The three-fold vow helps
us to continue to embrace the path of seeking God and satisfying our desire in
a communal context. The vow is not about negation, restriction, or limitation. The
vow guides us in facing the three basic demands of this life: the need to
listen, the need to not run away, especially from ourselves, and the need to
change, the conversion of our way to the monastic way, by embracing
transformation through common ownership and consecrated celibacy. Living the
vow requires fidelity, endurance, perseverance, and patience---with yourself
and with your brothers. The Epistle today wisely exhorts us to clothe ourselves
in compassion, kindness, meekness and patience, forgiving each other, and
clothing ourselves in love which binds us all together in harmony in one body.
(Col.3:12-14)
Your commitment today reminds all of us that the paschal mystery of Jesus’
dying and rising is the pattern of our monastic life. Our ongoing conversion is
a sign of our commitment to allow God to continue to work within us.
While we come here seeking God, it
becomes increasingly evident that God has sought us. In the depths of our
heart, hear the invitation to abide with Christ. Our Gospel today reminds us
that we cannot live this life apart from abiding in the love of Christ. He is
the vine, the source of our life and love and all that flows from it in
community. Our
primary relationship is with Christ. He is both the Light we see and the Illumination by
which we see. That Light and
Illumination reveal mercy and forgiveness in the shadows of guilt and shame,
courage in the night of fear, compassion and hope in sorrow and loss, a way
forward in the blindness of confusion, and life in the darkness of death. Our monastic life is
the call to immerse ourselves in the all-inclusive and transforming love of
God. Giving witness to that love, leads deeper into the meaning of being chosen
by Christ, and of learning to prefer nothing to Christ. It is the flame of God’s love that consumes our
darkness and frees us for the peace God has promised.
Faithfulness is a prerequisite to trust
and intimacy. With divine love flowing through us we can see others and
ourselves in our connectedness and wholeness. But be warned, the vow does not
put an end to struggle. God intends us to live together in the fragility of
human imperfection which leaves us open to deeper truth. Yet, even when we fail,
and often because of it, we come to know more of ourselves, each other, and
God.
Daniel, you are now embarking on another stage of your life pilgrimage. Within the abundance God’s and our love, we give great thanks that you’ve decided to take this next step as we continue this journey together. +Amen.
