Triumph of the Cross - Homily for Profession
We have just listened to the powerful readings for the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross. How do they speak to us?
Today as you, Daniel and Nickolas, profess vows of stability, obedience, and the pursuit of perfect charity through a monastic manner of life, you remind each one of us of our own commitment, and the way in which that commitment gives meaning and focus to our lives.
The great hymn from Paul's letter to the Philippians paves the pathway for Benedict in his connection between humanness, humility and obedience. Of Jesus the hymn says, "He was known to be of human estate, and it was thus that he humbled himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross."
The hymn clearly affirms the completeness of Jesus' humanity.
In his parables Jesus teaches repeatedly that
in the reign of God, the reign of his Father,
that the first will be last
and the last first.
By accepting the cross in obedience
Jesus becomes the very last.
This acceptance is a demonstration of his total trust in the Father,
that he will put aside his own strength, his own ego
to do the work of the Father.
This obedience is humble
because it shows the truth of who Jesus is
and also who God the Father is.
God is not violent.
God will not fight this pathway with a legion of angels
and neither will Jesus.
This is a hard response for us -- for me.
How can Jesus do this? How can the Father do this?
How can the Holy Spirit not rush down to rescue Jesus in fire or a strong driving wind?
Or a volcano of molten fire, or rain that makes the days of Noah
look like an afternoon at a water park?
Jesus does not take this path because
it is not the path of unconditional love,
which is the goal, the process, the beginning of the reign of God.
In his Rule, Saint Benedict also connects
humility and obedience.
He writes,
"The first degree of humility is obedience without delay."
In our time obedience is a hard word,
probably because it has been misused by too many people in powerful situations.
We have lost the original sense of the word
and its fundamental relationship to the word "listen."
Husbands and wives learn that they have to listen to each other
if the marriage is going to survive,
that there has to a lot of give and take --
and it will almost never be 50-50.
Scholars learn that they have to be obedient to the questions they ask
the data they gather,
and the sources they study.
If they do not listen carefully and follow through
their work will be diminished in quality,
and at a certain point become another expression of ego -- just ideology.
As monks we truly believe that the vow of obedience
lived over a lifetime as a monk,
takes us on a holy path, away from the ego and all its traps,
toward true Christian freedom.
By obedience here I mean the true and careful discernment
of God's saving will for each one of us,
for the good of the Church and the good of the community.
Each one of us is called to obedience each day,
to the Gospel, to the community we live in,
to our spouse and family if we have one,
to the work that we are engaged in.
We are called to listen to the Holy Spirit who dwells in each one of us,
and works a slow transformation
in ways we cannot imagine.
Always the most difficult obedience
is to do what we must do right now and not delay.
This homily would be sadly lacking if it ended here.
Because of his obedient service
Jesus is raised by the Father
and given the name that is above every other name.
He who was last is now first;
Jesus truly is life-giving Lord for us.
The cross, which is a cross of shame and failure,
becomes a tree of victory.
Each one of us lives each day in the hope of sharing in that victory.
Abbot John Klassen, OSB
September 14, 2007
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