Homily for the Exaltation of the Cross and First Profession of Vows
Paradox — a statement or proposition
seemingly self-contradictory or absurd
but in reality expressing a truth.
Paradox.
The feast that we celebrate today,
the Triumph of the Cross,
is the central Christian paradox.
The character of this paradox is expressed
in a multitude of ways.
The stone rejected by the builders
has become the cornerstone.
Jesus, emptied of life,
becomes the source of life for us.
The cross, a sign of shame and rejection,
becomes a sign of God's victory in Jesus,
and, as such, a sign of Jesus' victory over sin and death, for us.
Today novices Peter Sullivan and Peregrine Rinderknecht
make first profession of vows.
These vows participate in the paradox of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Monastic vows such as obedience, stability,
and a commitment to live a monastic way of life,
carry profound implications for all of us.
Making a vow, whether to be married,
or live a monastic life,
is a "free embrace of limits."
There is also the commitment, albeit unvowed,
that single men and women in our time demonstrate.
Paradoxically,
these commitments do not constrain life and love,
but create the conditions for human flourishing
create space for the Holy Spirit to work.
With the vow of obedience
I commit myself to listening to the voice of the Spirit,
to the voices of community members,
and to superiors,
in guiding the course of our lives.
At its most basic,
obedience is a path out of narcissism,
toward the God who loves each one of us beyond measure,
toward being able to put the good of others
ahead of my own,
to think of others before I think of myself.
This is not low self-esteem;
it is about being a mature follower of Jesus.
We are obedient because Jesus was obedient.
This battle is never done.
The ego constantly tries to reclaim territory.
With the vow of stability,
I am committing myself
to deal with the gyrovague tendencies in myself,
that desire to keep moving when situations become too challenging,
or things are not going my way.
I am committing myself to love and forgive specific people,
not humankind in general.
I am also trusting the stability of God's promises,
God's unconditional love in Christ,
for me, for you, for the cosmos.
God's love and mercy endure forever,
in good times and in bad,
in sickness and in health.
With conversatio morum,
the commitment to a monastic manner of life,
I am committing myself to be a part of a cenobitic community,
to pray together and support each other in prayer,
to stay at the table,
that is, to be part of the common table,
but also to be part of community talking, thinking and deciding.
Conversion is an important dimension of monastic life
because any time we listen to the scriptures,
we are being called to orient ourselves more towards the love of God,
away from our sins, toward the freedom of sons and daughters.
We brush up against each other, hard,
and hurt each other.
We realize that we need to change,
not to be so clumsy, not to take up so much space.
To stay engaged in this call to continual conversion
is not easy task, to keep walking.
We get tired, we want to sit down.
In all of this,
we do not vow ourselves to an abstraction.
We vow ourselves to the living God,
in Christ,
through the Spirit,
but these vows are enfleshed in this community,
or in a family or other community,
which is also not an abstraction, a general idea.
And each community, each family imposes its own limits upon us
even as it changes over time.
The Good News is that in this "free embrace of limits"
we find true freedom.
That freedom is rooted in the focus of our energy,
physical, emotional, and spiritual.
It is rooted in the grace and call of the Holy Spirit.
A vowed, a committed life gives us an internal sense of mission,
Spirit guided,
of the way in which God is calling us to enflesh
the grace given to us in our baptismal commitment.
This celebration invites us to ponder, to celebrate, to hymn
the marvelous paradox of the cross of Jesus Christ.
As Saint Paul writes so eloquently in 1 Corinthians,
"For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to Jews
and utter foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are called,
Jews and Greeks alike,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God
is wiser than human wisdom,
and the weakness of God
is stronger than human strength." (I Cor 1. 22-25)
Abbot John Klassen, OSB
September 14, 2006
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