The Communities of New Skete

Reflections of a Monk on Exaltation of the Holy Cross Monday
Is. 19:25-27, 11:10-12; 1 Cor. 1:17-28; Jn. 19:13-35

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen

In the movie “Traitor”, the FBI questions the hero’s mother to find out who’s side he’s on. Here the mother is the unique source of insight into her son, but sometimes, you know, we might have to say “She would say that, or “only a mother could love the person” and forget about it.

This very issue is one the Gospels try to avoid. They may show Mary’s opinion of her son but only in a veiled way and less than we would like, even with the birth narratives and other occasions. We know Mary was among Jesus’ followers and stood at the foot of the Cross. The rest is left to tradition and a lot of it unwritten. For the ancient church, it would have been a tactical error to use her testimony in those times of hostility and persecution. That would only leave it open to accusations of family prejudice and then dismissal when it was trying to live and preach Christ and his message.

As for the apostles, at first they didn’t hold much sway with Jesus’ opponents anyway. Jesus even had to defend them at times. Some were fishermen, but one wonders, what else did they do everyday, in those days before the passion and resurrection? Of course I am over-simplifying somewhat, but a good bit of their story, too, is left to tradition. The same for the women followers: I’m sure they didn’t only stand around and be attentive to the words of Christ. It is not hard to imagine some of them concerned about going to the market, cooking and cleaning up.

The point is, what signs or evidence do we have, as the Pharisees (and others, I’m sure), demanded or wished for, without the testimony of family and friends who knew him closely? Who or what would confirm Jesus’ divine authority, the legitimacy of the faith, and, by the way, the real stature of Mary and the apostles?

Those who were hostile to Jesus did not see as his words, his miracles, and his healings as proofs. Certainly they are signs of something new, but only for “those who have ears to hear and eyes to see.” Signs are usually indications, signals, or even flags and banners to rally behind. By definition they only point to other realities.

Jesus told to his adversaries that the only sign to be given will be the sign of Jonah. The prophet Jonah, as the respected but controversial story unfolds, had been thrown deliberately into the sea during a storm while he was on his way to Nineveh. He was then swallowed by a whale but three days later disgorged onto the beach. It was controversial because here was a prophet from Israel successfully bringing outsiders into repentance at God’s own behest.

At any rate these events were seen to represent, as we know, Jesus’ cross and his burial for three days. But more than this, the cross has been transformed from an image of oppression and execution, and now it veils the deeper reality that Jesus passed through death, and after three days burial, into the resurrection from the dead. Because of who Jesus was, death has been relativized. The sign of the cross has become a sign of eternal life.

This is dramatic, but critical. Those who think it’s all a myth, and those who are unable or refuse to see its radical truth, are really the worse for it. Everyone has to cross the threshold to the larger life “no heart can imagine”. The Cross challenges us to walk freely and confidently in the footsteps of Christ. This is powerful and heroic Path takes us into life abundant even as we are going through all the joys and tragedies of living and dying.

In the discussion of signs, I think Jesus is saying what both Isaiah and John’s gospel were getting at. Something like this:
I am the sign. If I am not among the lowliest, I am not the One who is supposed to come, to fulfill the promise of the ages. I and the children the Lord has given me are signs. They are my witnesses; they know the teaching; they too have seen and have arrived at the truth.

As dawn signals daytime, so am I the rising sun of that new life. Those who know this know from the depths of their souls. The wise and clever and the seekers of proofs and arguments will not find it. The real proof is in the living and doing, and by their fruits you shall know them. As I told the disciples of John the Baptist, what do you see happening here? The blind see, the lame are made to walk, the despairing have the word of life given them. By this John will recognize me.

I came with the Spirit friendly to humanity and was not recognized or figured out. But some caught the fire and woke up, and the light went on in them.

I am revelation, enlightenment, and transformation. Yet at first only the few, the struggling, will find me. As Peter said, “I believe, help my unbelief,” my lack of trust.

Listen, discern, and follow the deepest Spirit with in you. Endure the testing and purification and the suffering that is part of it. Those taught by the Spirit will not be suppressed. Even in their dying they are mine, and their blood will only seed the faith as they go on to life. Trust in God and trust in me for I am the right Way. You cannot make it alone.

Then St. Paul encourages us by writing: Be partners with one another under the sign of the Cross. By your mutual self-giving, by forgetting any self-seeking, let the Holy Spirit make you into the body of Christ, a sign for the world. He tells us: Find your courage and generosity, my friends, and live only for that fullness of life and that unsurpassed love. Your gratitude will seem plain foolish to the world, but you can say “But yes, we are truly fools for the sake of the Cross, the resurrection, and life eternal,” since Christ is in our midst! He is and shall be!

1 Kings 19:19-21; Rom. 1:7-17; Mt. 9:9-13

St. Matthew, like all his neighbors, hated the Roman occupiers. But being a really smart guy, he thought: I can make the best of this situation and live a decent and comfortable life. Let’s go with the realities! He knew how to write up reports, do accounting, keep records, and deal with people. So he sold out to the Romans.

But as a tax collector, he became alienated from his own people, the synagogue and God. He worked for Rome but did not have the rights of a citizen. Worse still, he was enmeshed in a system of oppression, which can turn abusive even to those who try to cooperate and do the best they can with it.

Along comes the well-spoken of healer and teacher Jesus, not from the establishment but just maybe destined to be an opposition leader. He claimed authority and yet was loved by the people. The powers that be were wary of Jesus and they could not buy or entrap him…

A feeling of liberation, a dream of personal freedom, probably buried in his heart for years, flares up in Matthew at the sight of Jesus. Then a look, a wave of the hand, a word and a call—and Matthew is shocked into attention. He sees how despicable his bondage is and how it turned him sour. In the next instant he gambles all for this chance to make something better of his life. Is it really possible to leave all that behind, begin anew, a bit wiser, and learn from the Master?
Jesus invites him and he freely responds. He joins the group of disciples and does not care whether they approve or hold his past against him, or are simply surprised.

He heard Jesus say that it is not those who think they are well and all set, but those apparently sick at heart and still searching, and the so-called sinners, who need the physician’s help or a teacher! Jesus peeled away the rotten bandages and the dead skin of the human wound, to expose the simplicity and beauty of the fragile human heart. Jesus was confident and courageous, a person of knowledge and depth, able to stand up for what he was doing and defend his friends. Truly altruistic, 100 percent un-self-centered, but God-centered and showing the love of God: He was not ethically self-righteous, or a representative of a school of divisive social or religious observances and of conventional arbitrary customs or oppressive standards. He offered to ordinary people the mercy of God instead of a menu of anger and guilt. He desired to shelter them, he said, as a hen with her chicks; he needed workers for his Father as would the harvester of ripe wheat.
In so many ways He says: I am the sign of God, I am the gate of heaven, I am the way to the truth, I am the persecuted and risen, I am with you always, I am the divine Spirit, I gather the marginalized and the poor and the rich. Come to me everyone who labors and is over-burdened… !
Jesus did not fulfill a promise of an easy new life for Matthew, but the life and growth of the soul and liberation of spirit which surpassed political freedom, and where, paradoxically, he said …you will find rest for your souls!

In a recent book called Power, Ambition, Glory, about leadership business secrets, Steve Forbes uses a Christian monastery as the perfect example of right attitude even for the business world: He says the secret is that the monks are not profit-driven people who happen to have a sideline interest in service for public relations purposes. Rather, they are in the business of serving God by serving one another and their neighbors. They are spiritual people who happen to run businesses; He points to charity, or what in its much larger sense the monks call caritas, which means living from the heart: it begins with a transformational change of heart, and this is what they join the monastery to find and what the monastic life provides.

This all overflows into their work and relationships with suppliers, customers, neighbors and visitors.

And so this brings us back to selflessness: the famous poet T.S. Eliot defined life as “one long purification of motive.” Forbes says for monastics this means keeping a watch on my own inner motivations; respecting deeper values until it becomes second nature; intense mutual training for each member and of new members, individual personal accountability; and finally using monastic practices to keep centered and alert within oneself in the middle of the distractions and necessities of life.

This is part of the work of Christ today and an attitude of following the gospel recorded in the name of Matthew: Matthew himself had finally discovered the pearl of great price, the treasure buried in the field.

Christ is in our midst.

Homily at Michael Csernica’s burial service, New Skete 6-20-09.
Glory to Jesus Christ!

In recent years I have been privileged to be present with so many people we know and love as they have passed away. I am always amazed at that journey an ill and dying person travels, especially when surrounded by family, friends, and hospice. I still feel awestruck and a bit hesitant in the presence of this mystery. Maybe only the miracle of birth is anything like it.

Each of us is so different, of course, and it seems to me individuals are also unique in how they act and react in their passing from this life. Tragedy, pain, conflict, anger, denial, and tears, are all a part of dying, but so are love, deep feeling, new ways of acting, peace, and the healing of troubled relationships in the midst of so much sadness and loss. We move a little closer to one another, even relaxing into a kind of forgiveness when that is needed.

Many of us have also seen or felt great determination and courage in those most difficult times imaginable, and how it has been enough just to put one foot in front of the other and remember to breathe. We may have asked ourselves about the things we did or did not do – but also the questions why now, why them not me, why have I survived so much – yet I have also heard in these crises the advise to be kind to yourself and carry a loving attitude toward yourself and toward each other.

All of those who lie buried here at New Skete are a part of our daily lives: and we pray for them and pass by their markers. But at every new death we become more profoundly aware of our belief handed down from generations before us. In a way beyond our senses, as good or not as good as they are, Michael’s life as well as all the others’ continues in another sphere of existence that is so real yet, beyond any words to describe it. The holy apostles knew this after the death of Jesus; believers and unbelievers before us have felt or somehow experienced it.

At one time or another we ourselves might have been witness to the certainty and unusual signs and signals that those we love who have just died are here with us. But we know too that they are going into the light and love of Christ that is greater than space and time as we know it.
All of us have a limited time to pursue new and wiser ways of living together on this earth. This can be both liberating and painful. And like those whom we mourn, we too can learn how crucial it is to get it right with the people we know, and with ourselves, and with God. Then when our own final moment of lucidity comes, we might even faintly smile and whisper in the hearing of whoever is present, “I love you.”

Scripture Readings: 1 Pt. 1:18-25; Acts 9:1-19; Jn. 4:3-42

Reflections from a Monk

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Today’s gospel brings to mind a remark by Van Jones, the founder of Green for All based in Oakland, California. He was the inspiration for the federal Green Jobs Bill that the U.S. Congress and the president incorporated into law a few years ago. He remarked that “I’m not looking for the points of difference. I’m looking for the points of commonality. I’ve trained my mind so that people can say twenty-seven things that might be objectionable, but as soon as they say one, that twenty-eighth thing, that’s in the right direction, that’s where I’m going to go in the conversation. I think that it’s really important in a country as diverse as ours, to listen.”

In our gospel this Sunday Jesus is thirsty, tired and hungry and meets a sort of outcast from a country and village of outcasts from ordinary Jewish society. In those times there were three reasons he should not be speaking with the Samaritan woman: her gender, her religion, and her social status. But now they both needed water, and the practice of hospitality to strangers seems to be the final code of behavior here.

The setting is not your ordinary street corner or café but a place called Jacob’s well, which in those days was already around a thousand years old. Its name makes it culturally significant, and it is 100 feet deep; usually only the women would gather here to draw water. It was also outside the village, in a somewhat isolated spot, and so in this story it is a sort of sacred location charged with a sense of expectancy for something wonderful and beyond ordinary everyday things.

The story was included in a gospel for an early Christian community only fifty years after the death of Jesus. It was crucial for them to hear how Jesus personally enabled a community to overcome its deep tensions and long-lasting differences. This particular community of St. John was somewhat like the crowds listening to St. Peter speak on that first Pentecost eight decades earlier. Here were women and men of very different social, religious, or ethnic backgrounds. They too were filled with deep religious and political tensions like in the gospel.

An infinite flash of enlightenment came to those crowds and to the Samaritans from the one person in the whole world who you could say never did merely what he liked but always what was consonant with what God likes. Forty-four times in the gospel of St. John it says that Jesus was sent to accomplish this. Not only did he bring the message of John the Baptist and the prophets but he actually enabled them to become open, to accept and to accomplish what is right and good and healing.

Beneath the surface of the miracle portrayed by this story is the reality of the living water springing up to the fullness of life we yearn for, and the bread of communion and unity, along with the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. The experience of the Samaritans with Jesus is really a sacred example of listening and discussion, of redemption from isolation and bitterness, and also of salvation from the dark prejudices that poison and justify our opinions of each other both as individuals and as members of social groups. Through Jesus they were liberated from a certain kind of imprisonment or isolation from centuries of antagonism, persecution, and defensiveness.

I think this sounds a little like our world today. We are living now with war, terrorism, religious tensions and political injustices, famine, disease, over-consumption and the vast consequences of industrial growth and pollution, with social inequality, clash of cultures, and corporate greed. The gospel work of dissolving religious tensions and separation is pointed out for whoever has ears to hear.
This also reminds me of the stories of Gandhi from early in the last century. He went to England from India to study and become a lawyer. His experience of the western world filled out his knowledge of the religions and spirituality of India. Included in this was his knowledge of the Christian gospels. By reading the words of Jesus—and of course this story of the Samaritan woman—he developed his ideas of unconditional love, compassion and justice and how to live them. Martin Luther King once remarked about his own ideas that Jesus supplied the spirit and Gandhi the strategy.

Thirty years ago the composer Philip Glass wrote an opera about Gandhi called “Satyagraha.” In an interview he says most people including King were not aware how extensively Gandhi was influenced by the teachings of Jesus. He is referring to the gospel works of mercy such as feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, visiting the imprisoned and sick, and the words “Even as you have done this to my brothers and sisters you have done this to me.” He says, “…that is the most powerful statement of compassion that I know of. I think that that’s where Gandhi’s understanding of justice as love came from. And finally he mentions right behavior toward your enemies as a model of the practice of non-violence.

These great individuals, in spite of their own limitations, powerfully embody the strength of this light from Jesus today. Neither was assassinated because he was only a reed blowing in the wind, or from inaction or lack of courage but from taking action to do what is right and needed. You can see on film how they acted on their unbending intent to love, to seek reconciliation, and to practice compassion for everyone. They help keep these alive for us in each generation. By their words and deeds they truly and deeply identified with their fellow human beings and our essential oneness with each other in Christ.

Christ is in our midst!