The Communities of New Skete

Scripture Readings: 1Sm 19:11-17 + 2Sm 5:1-3; 1Cor 13:1-13; Mt 2:19-23

Reflections from a Monk

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
You may remember the Gospel passage where Jesus speaks to Peter and asks him: “Do you love me?” and Peter replies: “Lord, you know I love you.” And then Jesus says: “feed my sheep.” Around here that exchange might go something like this: “Do you love me? You know I love you. Walk my dog!”
Love is a four-letter word spelled: W-O-R-K! Love is not something that simply descends on us without any action by us and makes us feel good. It is something that takes effort on our part. It flows from ingrained habits and dispositions. For St. Paul love is the foundation of all meaning, it requires the formation of character and it trumps all our knowledge. In First Corinthians 13 St Paul is not writing a wonderful paean to a romantic notion of love but rather he is scolding the Church in Corinth for not living up to the calling of Christ to be a truly loving community. Joseph, as we heard in this morning’s Gospel lesson, acts in a way that conforms to what St Paul is describing.
Joseph actions are similar in character to what we so often attribute to Mary. He was alert, listening for God’s word and then acting on it. He may have had doubts and fears but he overcame them and acted in the interest of his wife and child out of love for them. Joseph’s actions without love would simply be duty. At the end of First Corinthians 13 St Paul says that when what we reckon as knowledge passes away then only faith, hope and love remain, but the greatest of these is love. Why love above all? Because as one commentator said: faith without love is cold; hope without love is grim. And this is what St Paul is telling the Corinthians and us. One may speak like an angel, have great insights into the spiritual life – or any aspect of life, or live in a sacrificial way always doing for others and yet if this is done without love, it is nothing.
God is love. God doesn’t do love; God is love. For us to be God-like, to live up to our birthright of being created in the image and likeness of God means that we also need to learn to live as best we can by being focused on the other in love. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believes in him will not perish but will have everlasting life. Love is giving of oneself to others without expecting anything in return. God does not need our love. God needs us to love others, to carry that divine love like a lamp into our dark world and bring it light. And yet, awareness of others is easier said than done.
We all want to be loved, no one wants to feel unloved, rejected. But the understanding of God as love itself tells us that love is received only if it is given.
We want others to love us but do we make time for them?
We want people to hear our story but do we have any time for their story?
We want others to care for our needs but do we give a thought to the needs of others, unless it also benefits us, makes us feel good or assuages feelings of guilt?
We want someone to treat us as if we were important, but do we treat others as if they are important, or do we avoid them if they do not measure up to our standards for them?
St Paul describes the characteristics of love and they are all patterns of behavior that need to be learned and reinforced by practice. Love is patient, kind, never jealous or conceited, does not act shamefully nor is it self-seeking, it does not take offence or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice in wrong-doing but finds joy in the truth. And to use that familiar translation from the RSV: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
To learn to love in this way takes effort, or as I said in the beginning, it is work. And the work is for us to struggle against what are already strongly imprinted behavior patterns.

Don’t you get it, I’ve shown you a million times!
But love is patient.
She got away with it why can’t I?
But love is never jealous.
Oh, that is so simple, even a child could do it;
but love is not conceited.
He was arrested for DUI;
but love does not act shamefully.
I raised my hand first, yet he got called on;
but love is not self-seeking.
Can you believe what she said to me!
But love does not take offense.
You never asked for my opinion;
but love does not store up grievances.
See, I got away with speeding;
but love does not rejoice in wrong-doing.
I’m not sure you can count on him, you know how he is;
but love trusts.
We’ll never be able to survive that loss;
but love always hopes.
If he does that again, I’ll go crazy;
but love endures all things.

Indeed, love endures for all eternity. And this is what St Paul is driving at. The things we think are important or the most exalted: our ideas, great technological advances, world conflicts, our personal achievements, money, power, etc., all these will pass away. “Love never fails” because it is grounded in God and just as God is eternal, so is love. But for us to act in a loving way is work. Let us help each other in that task.
Glory be to Jesus Christ!

Scripture Readings: Jer 23:3-8; Gal 4:4-7; Mt 2:1-12

Reflections from a Monk

I recently heard a popular speaker describe a wake-up message he received on his 65th birthday. It struck me because I too recently turned 65. His children gave him an elaborate card, and on the front it said in fancy script: “God has an important birthday message for you.” He opened the card, and it said: “See you soon!” —signed: “God.”
Today, of course, we celebrate the birth of Christ. As our readings today show, the birth of Jesus was seen as the fulfillment of so many hopes for humanity and promises for Israel. In the gospel of Luke the angelic choirs celebrate by singing: “Peace on earth to everyone of good will!”
And yet these days, after hearing this, we could ask: “Why is there so little evidence of peace in the lives and hearts of so many people?”
At the Christmas Vigil we sang another blessing: “God is with us!” But these days, why do we still feel so deeply divided and lacking in that divine feeling of peace?
19th century poets could feel that “God is in heaven and all is well on earth!” But we don’t we hear this sentiment expressed in the 20th century!
Every day, church-goers can hear the blessing: “Peace be with you!” Everyone says good-bye”, which means “God be with you!” But why do things still go so wrong, and why does it hurt inside so much for so many?
Psalm 30 gets it just about right: “In the evening we fall asleep weeping.” And this has been so, I venture to say, in every generation.
I remember when I was in the eighth grade at St. James Parochial School in Sewickley, Pennsylvania: my baptismal name was Dennis, and the school principal was Sr. Mary Dennis and our teacher was Sr. Mary Hyacinth. The school put on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
And guess who was chosen to play the part of the aging Scrooge?! Even though my voice had not yet changed, I had to practice speaking in a gruff voice! In fact, I succeeded so well that Sr. Mary Dennis and Sr. Mary Hyacinth both said afterwards that I made a very good Scrooge. …At the time, I took this as a compliment!
The Dickens story shows the sadness of life, the pain, and the blindness we can witness and experience every day. But then, as in all good stories, something unexpected happens!
Three nights in a row, before dawn, Scrooge suddenly wakes up and can’t go back to sleep—and yet, this is his first salvation — that he stays awake and watches! As the Sufi poet Rumi once wrote: “The morning breezes carry a message for you; do not go back to sleep!” And this also echoes the classic monastic practice of waking very early to recite the psalms and to spend a quiet period in sacred reading and listening and meditation. This brings us to a very different point of view from everyday waking reality. During that peaceful hour before dawn, our true and deepest self challenges us with our own lack of peace!
After this happens three times to Scrooge, a change finally takes place, a healing break-through. All the characters share in a new energy, a new happiness, hope, and peace.
Maybe this morning it’s time to let our own inner Scrooge be transformed, to wake up to the challenge of our inner monk or nun. Maybe this morning we can shine some light on the questions I began with: What is peace, where is peace, how does peace happen?
Our first clue is in Scripture; it says: “Be still! Be still and know! Be still, and know I am! Be still and know that I alone am the One whom you call God, that I alone am life, and do not accept any substitutes!”
Let’s take notice now of the slow-down that happens for a little while on Christmas day itself — this can give us a tiny taste of peacefulness and good will. The drama and the message of the first Christmas is presented on the radio and T.V., in plays and concerts, and in schools and churches: angels and shepherds; Magi with gifts; and even scheming King Herod: all of them point to these few short moments! A Silent Night! A Holy night! When all is calm! All is bright! —Let’s be still! Peace on earth breaks through—if only for a few precious hours, for Mary and Joseph, and for us.
“In the evening I fall off to sleep weeping, but dawn brings shouts of joy,” says the psalm.
These hints and moments of peace are not a fantasy of nightly phantoms or wishful projections! Even Scrooge was smart enough to see the message, and sends the fattest goose in the market to the poor Cratchit family. Something has happened, as the star and the wise men point out in the Gospel and the icon of the Nativity: the child with his mother, Joseph stunned and worried, barn animals with their noise and odors both pleasant and unpleasant, and a dark and damp cave.
Just as real as the change in Scrooge, is the instantaneous change in the fortunes of the human race on that first Christmas. The God and Source of life and peace and healing was planted on this earth: Be still and know! Glory be! Like the peaceful star above, infinite compassion is shining, even though our world ignores it 364 days of the year. We have seen the true light, even though we mindlessly and heartlessly block its rays!
Like Scrooge, we don’t have to wait for New Year’s resolutions to look to each other and walk in each others’ shoes. Instead of distinguishing, like Santa, those who were good from those who were bad, let’s just sit in peace with our own hurts, in peace with our neighbor, and in peace with our so-called enemy, even if we can do this only in our heart. Instead of being against and hating our self, or some other person or situation or disease, let’s imitate the real St. Nicholas and be bringers of healing and love! Let’s say that famous prayer of St. Francis: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace!”
Questions remain, but they no longer need to be cynical! Today the Path to peace and good will beckons to us; today our burden feels lighter; today a new Spirit is stirring in our midst!
A blessed Christmas, for Christ is born!

Scripture Readings: Tb 13:1-8; Gal 6:1-10; Lk 11:1-4; 9-13

Reflections from a Monk

I can remember many years ago rehearsing a Te Deum, a choral work by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki that included a number of a cappella cluster chords. Our choir director was patiently working with us, assigning each note in the chord to a specific group of singers and then building the chord from there trying to get us to hear our part in the midst of all the other close notes. Then he would begin the passage again building up to the climatic moment. We would all try to hit our notes but many were not sure if they really got it right. Finally, he turned to us and said, well, who’s going to know the difference anyway? You can say that when you’re dealing with something that is not well known, or not known at all. No such luck with today’s Gospel. I can’t imagine there is anyone in this temple that does not know the Lord’s Prayer! And you may have noticed that St. Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer differs from St. Matthew’s and also from the commonly used version. So I will be referring to the commonly used version.

How often have we thought, “if only things were different here, my life would be so much better?” We may look around at our circumstances and then look at someone else’s and wish we were there rather than where we are. In English we have an expression to cover that very human sentiment: “The grass is always greener on the other side … “ of the fence, the hill, the town, the state, the country, the lake, the ocean, you name it. It’s always greener somewhere else.

It’s no different for monks and nuns than it is for everyone else. Indeed, there is a venerable tradition in Christian monasticism that has led monastics, as they strive to be as close to God as possible, to reject everything in this world as being inferior to what lies ahead in the world to come. Indeed, the expression “an angel in the flesh” that is found in much of our hymnography for monastic saints, can be interpreted to carry this very meaning. The goal is to get closer to God by becoming more and more like the angels who spend all their time praising and serving God in heaven. These bodiless powers do not need to worry about their physical well being so to be like them, we should do the same. And they are in heaven, which is a better place than earth. Achieving this goal is like escaping from earth even though one is still here on earth. It comes from the dualist idea that spirit is good and flesh is bad. It is a notion that comes not so much from scripture as from other philosophical schools of thought that were prominent in the early centuries of Christianity. It is easy to let such notions seep into our understanding of the faith if we start with the premise that to get closer and closer to God is a worthy goal and it would be hard to imagine beings closer to God than angels, hence, we should also strive to live like angels. The problem is, here we are trapped in this earthly body far removed from the desired angelic realm. So, if we don’t want to be here because we see that other “angelic life” as preferable, then what must we do? Unfortunately, this idea has led to some very unhealthy behavior by monastics, and by others who have been influenced by this idea.

A major problem with this idea of striving to escape from earth in this fashion is that it calls into question the fundamental tenant of our faith: the incarnation. God became human not to show us how to escape from this world, but rather to sanctify this world and remind us that the world and all that it contains is God’s creation. And living life within this created world is God’s great gift to us. Even the expression “an angel in the flesh” need not be taken as a rejection of the flesh, but simply as a characterization of how to live in this world ever mindful of what it means to praise and serve God in all things. After all, the expression is not “an angel in heaven” but rather “an angel in the flesh.” It’s about the here and now not just about the hereafter!

The Lord’s Prayer was given to the first disciples and to us to use in our earthly situation. When the Lord’s Prayer says “your Kingdom come” where exactly is that Kingdom? What is it all about? It is in part about where the grass is greener. “Your Kingdom come” need not be about some apocalyptic end time but rather about our time, indeed all time. Jesus said that the Kingdom is at hand. He also said that the Kingdom is within you. And that is why the Lord’s Prayer is such an important tool for constantly reminding us that Jesus’ message to us is about how we live wherever we live. It’s about making “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We humans are to be the instruments that give effect to God’s will here on earth.

That “earth” isn’t the greener grass on the other side of the fence, its right here on this side of the fence. God’s will can only be done if we do it here! So if we are dissatisfied with how things are here on our side of the fence, to do God’s will is to make things better here on this side of the fence, not to try to escape to the other side of the fence. The grass is always greener wherever we strive with God’s help to make it greener.

Discerning what is God’s will and how to accomplish it is our occupation as Christians. But we know that if Jesus is the light of the world certainly our task is not to bring darkness into the world but rather to manifest Christ’s light for all to see. That light is about love and compassion, forgiveness and understanding, repentance and renewal. It is within our grasp and capabilities because whatever contribution we make towards accomplishing God’s will is beneficial. Each one of us doesn’t have to change the whole world; we just need to change ourselves in relation to our immediate world and the people we live with.

But the Lord’s Prayer also is about the Kingdom of God and the will of God in heaven. It is, to use a phrase often used by our good friend Fr Paul Lininger, a both/and not either/or proposition. The manifestation of the Kingdom here is confirmation of the Kingdom to which we are all called, that realm where we are with God eternally. But it begins here. And as we prepare to celebrate the Nativity of our Lord, we do this mindful of the dual nature of the Kingdom that is to come. It is to come into our hearts and shape our lives here on earth, even as we are preparing ourselves for that time when we will transition into that life everlasting.

Christ is in our midst!