Monastère Saint-Benoît

A Homily for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost

10/17/2021

+ The teaching of Our Lord in the Gospel of this Holy Mass is loud and clear and difficult: my Heavenly Father will not show you mercy, and indeed shall punish you severely, if you do not forgive your brother who has offended you from your heart. Indeed, this teaching is so harsh and unpleasant that this Gospel passage does not appear in what has recently been called the “unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman rite.” (Traditiones Custodes, 1) It was, presumably, thought to be too negative a teaching for the ears of modern man.

Regardless of this shameful hiding of the Word of God from His people, that we must forgive with the generosity of the king in today’s Gospel remains the teaching of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and by its Truth we shall be judged. It behoves each of us, therefore, to examine our consciences on this point and do the hard work that is necessary within us before we ourselves suffer the fate of the unforgiving servant.

It is a sad and dangerous fact that our times are marked by the tendency to edit or water down the Truth revealed by Our Blessed Lord in the Gospel. The world promotes a cocktail of (usually) polite utilitarianism and absolutist syncretism: believe anything you wish so long as you do not hold it to be true and do not be a burden to others or to society and all will be well is its creed. There is no room here for the definitive revelation of God in history in the person of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, or for His ‘difficult’ teachings.

Most alarmingly, these worldly influences have infected the Church, and even at times her Sacred Liturgy, with the result that instead of being the lumen gentium (the light of the people), the Truth revealed by Our Lord and the clarity that that brings to the nature and destiny of mankind, and the irreplaceable prophetic and salvific mission that this gives to His Church, becomes a discomforting embarrassment to be hidden amongst the shadows of so-called ‘openness’ and ‘tolerance’. Christ, the light of the peoples should be our joy and hope, not a source of awkwardness within His own Church! How are we to deal with this crisis? It is surely far larger than we can tackle.

Through the Church’s liturgical tradition Almighty God addresses us in the words of St Paul this morning:

"Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Our contemporary problems are not altogether new. St Paul, perhaps, experienced worse. His response is instructive:

"Therefore take the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

The darkness of evil powers, of the wiles of the devil, of the unacceptable edicts of godless world rulers may abound, and the light of Christ that should shine in the Church herself may even appear to be eclipsed, but as St Paul teaches, we have the necessary weapons: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. If we hold fast to these, if we continue to seek grace necessary grace for the battle through the sacraments of the Church, we shall ourselves share in the victory of Christ over all that is evil.

In the face of trials St Benedict warns his monks not to be “dismayed and run away from the way of salvation, of which the entrance must needs be narrow.” (Rule, Prologue) Rather, the monk “should with a silent mind hold fast to patience, and enduring neither tire nor run away, for the Scripture saith: He that shall persevere to the end shall be saved.” (Rule, chapter VII).

Mutatis mutandis, St Benedict’s counsel applies to all. If we tire and run away in the face of the difficulties or the dangers we encounter the devil will win, and all that God wills to achieve though our sharing in His Son’s victory shall be lost. “He that shall persevere to the end shall be saved,” God’s Word instructs us (Mt 24:13)—not he who gives up because the going gets tough or the light grows dim. In this holy Mass let us beg the necessary grace of perseverance for ourselves, and also that through our faithful—even heroic—witness, others too may come to live in the light of Christ, even amidst the darkness of our times, and rejoice in the victory He has already won. +

A Homily for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost

10/10/2021

+ There is nothing like a prison cell and the likelihood of execution, they say, to focus one’s thoughts. St Paul’s imprisonment certainly served this end, and his letters from prison to his Churches are a providential fruit of an otherwise undesirable situation. By the grace of God the Holy Spirit his words announce the Word of God to us today through their proclamation in the Sacred Liturgy.

The letter to the Ephesians, from which this morning’s Epistle is taken, was written, according to the tradition, by St Paul whilst he was in prison in Rome around the year 62 ad. This epistle is striking for its succinct practicality and its clear call to live a supernatural life in these “evil” times. Normally we do not insult peoples’ intelligence by repeating readings in vernacular languages, but this morning I beg an exception:

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father. Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ."

This homily could justly end here. St Paul has said more than enough. Our task – be we monk, cleric or lay man or woman – is to ponder and digest all that he has said, and all that Almighty God wishes to say to each of us through his words. We would do well to keep this text before us this week – as does the ferial Mass of the coming days – and to allow the Holy Spirit to illumine our hearts and minds through it. For it has much to say.

However, as we know, Sunday Mass is not really ‘valid’ without a homily of sufficient length (and a collection), and so I must at least highlight two elements of this epistle, separated as they are by St Paul’s warning about getting drunk—advice that is clearly not out of date in our days.

The first is his opening injunction, to be wise, to make the most of the time, because the days are evil, and not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is for each one of us.

We have one life on earth and we must give an account of our stewardship of it. Our task is, then, to understand what Gods will is for us in this life, and to get on with doing it, without delay, without procrastination, without self-indulgent ‘other things’ to do ‘first’. How many times do people who believe that they have a particular vocation go off to do something else first (sometimes under the guise of ‘further discernment’) only never to return? We must make the most of the time given us. If we know God’s will, we must do it now.

To be sure, even when we are clear in respect of our vocation and are well down the path of living it circumstances can require further discernment and lead us in directions we never imagined. But in these situations, too, we can find the Lord’s will. What is necessary is that we have that wisdom of which St Paul speaks – a gift of the Holy Spirit, no less – and that we get on and do God’s will and not allow the evils of the day paralyse us—whether they arrive from without or within the Church or are the result of our own sin. For in evil days, we must always be proactive for the good, the true and the beautiful.

Faithful perseverance in our vocation, even in great difficulty, will bring us to experience the second element of the epistle I wish to underline—that state of being filled with the Spirit, of having psalms and hymns and spiritual songs constantly upon our lips, of singing and making melody to the Lord with our hearts, of always and for everything giving thanks to God, and of reverencing one another for the love of Christ.

Men and women throughout the centuries have entered monasteries so as to live in this state more easily than is often possible in the world, and rightly, for monks and nuns are weak creatures who need the discipline of the enclosure and of the monastic rule. It is in living their vocation that they become strong, as monastic history more than ably demonstrates.

But through the Sacred Liturgy of the Church St Paul exhorts us all to strive for this state—it by no means the sole preserve of monastics. We are all called to the life in Christ which he describes. To achieve it we must know and do God’s will. We must make the most of our time on this earth in faithfully living it. Now. For the grace and strength to do so today, and to persevere in so doing tomorrow, we beg Almighty God in this Holy Mass. +

Letter to Oblates and Associates - October 2021

10/5/2021

Our October 2021 letter to our Oblates and Associates, “The One and True King”, may be downloaded here.

For more information about becoming an Oblate or an Associate, please contact the Oblate and Associate Master at this email address.

A Homily for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost

10/3/2021

+ The King whose marriage feast is presented in the Gospel of this Holy Mass as an image of the Kingdom of Heaven must have been a very frustrated, if not at times very angry, man. His invitations were ignored by some and refused by others with poor excuses. His servants were put to death, provoking the King’s just retribution.

In the end, having assembled a group of ‘substitute’ invitees – some good, some bad as the Gospel tells us – even then the King must expel one from the feast, casting him out bound hand and foot into the darkness where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth, because he was present without a wedding garment.

Our very modern minds might think this somewhat unjust: the poor man may have had an excuse (but he presented none when questioned). And after all, it was only a wedding garment. Today many people attend weddings casually attired.

Let us beware of the trap of reading Sacred Scripture according to our own predispositions. The teaching of this parable does not need to be changed to conform with the twenty-first century. No, we must change to conform to what Our Blessed Lord teaches us through it, this morning, in the Church’s Sacred Liturgy.
And if we can overcome our post-modern egalitarian prejudices, if we can purify ourselves from the polluting syncretism of our age which suggests that every approach to God is of equal value and that salvation is for all regardless, we can begin to understand Our Lord’s teaching that “Many are called, but few are chosen.”

This is a truly frightening teaching. It states clearly the possibility of exclusion from the Kingdom of Heaven in the same manner as the guest expelled from the wedding feast. To put it bluntly, Hell and eternal damnation are realities that are the logical and just consequence of our freely chosen actions that are grave and contrary to God or His Law. (cf. CCC 1033) If we freely, knowingly and willingly choose mortal sin, our choice will be respected by God for eternity. Hence the silence of the man without the wedding garment: there was nothing he could say. There was no excuse. The King’s actions were just.

How are we to avoid such a sentence? How do we clothe ourselves in the wedding garment necessary for participation in the nuptial feast of the Kingdom of Heaven?

The first part of this parable teaches that this feast is open to all, to we Gentiles. Our invitation is our baptism into the New Covenant. Our baptismal garment, kept pure and unstained – or if necessary, “washed and made white in the Blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14) – is, surely, the wedding garment in which we must be clothed when the King comes to inspect His guests.

The Fathers of the Church, who comment extensively on this parable, insist that the baptismal garment must be adorned with charity in order to be acceptable to the King, for – in the words of Saint Augustine – “not everyone who receives baptism comes to God.” (PL 38: col. 559) That is to say, whilst baptism is necessary for salvation, a life of charity lived according to the dignity and duties we receive in baptism is necessary to be worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. And if this is required of the baptised, how much more is required of those whose baptismal dignity is clothed further by the monastic habit or by the sacred vestments of the sacrament of holy orders!

This parable should give us all pause. Yes, God’s mercy is a reality. Christ shed His Blood on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, and no matter how badly we have stained or torn our baptismal garment, it can be repaired and restored if we but repent and do penance. But God will not be mocked. His justice is a reality. Let us not forget our Lord’s injunction: “Everyone to whom much is given, of him will much be required.” (Lk 12:48)

At this Holy Mass let us ask for the grace of the necessary humility to do what is necessary that our wedding garment shall be acceptable in the sight of the King. Let us ask the intercession of St Therese, whose feast we commemorate today, to guide us along the path of humility of which she is so great an example.

“Many are called, but few are chosen.” May our perseverance in the life of charity not only assure us a place at the nuptial feast of the King, but also bring many others to enjoy the eternal life it which it promises, for to be cast out into the darkness, bound hand and foot, is a most terrible prospect. +

Publishing Update: Ceremonies of Holy Week & the Vigil of Pentecost Described

9/30/2021

Production of this volume is proceeding well, but it requires more time and attention to ensure its careful completion. It is thus too early to announce the price of the book in September as planned, or to accept advance orders for it. So too, due to constraints on our printers, the hoped-for November publication date will not be able to be met.

We do, however, expect to be able to announce the price of the book and give details of the pre-publication special offer for advance orders soon after mid-October. The book itself is now scheduled for publication in January 2022 (if not before) and should be with people in good time for Holy Week preparations.

To register interest in The Ceremonies of Holy Week & The Vigil of Pentecost Described and receive full publication details and a pre-publication discount offer from mid-October 2021: please email us.

A Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

9/26/2021

+ For a year and a half now the world and its authorities have been preoccupied with protecting people from a virus which has spread rapidly and has caused much suffering and death. Ecclesiastical authorities have readily endorsed measures enacted by secular authorities and, at least at first, themselves cooperated by closing churches and restricting, or even – incredibly – forbidding, access to the sacraments.

It is surely right, indeed it is a duty, for civil authorities to protect people from deadly sicknesses and for ecclesiastical authorities to care for the human person. Our Lord Himself healed many of terrible conditions, including the bed-ridden man cured in the Gospel of this Holy Mass.

Indeed, men and women are created in the image and likeness of God. The Sacrament of Baptism renders our very bodies nothing less than Temples of the Holy Spirit. Life is given to us so that we can praise and glorify God in and through our very bodies (cf. 1 Cor. 6:19-20) through our cooperation with God’s grace which elevates and perfects our human nature. Life and health are goods ordered to this end. For this reason the Church has, since her very beginning, cared for the sick – centuries before governments established social health care systems – and does so to this day where it is possible without undue secular interference. The powerful witness of St Theresa of Calcutta stands closest to us in a line of great saints who gave their all for the care of the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick so that they, too, could praise and glorify God, even in the very midst of great suffering and physical pain.

It is essential, however, that we remember that life and health are goods ordered to the end so succinctly stated in the catechism: to know, love and serve God in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next. Life and health are not ends in themselves. We are not vitalists. Human life does not need to be prolonged at any cost. One could be forgiven for thinking that not only secular authorities, but also ecclesiastical ones, have ignored this truth in recent times, seemingly caring more for the preservation of the health of the body than for the life of the soul.

For there is a sickness that is far greater than any corporeal malady: the sickness of sin. And as St Paul teaches clearly: “the sting of death is sin.” (1 Cor. 15:56) Thus, sin is to be feared more than bodily death. Sin is the cancer which, if allowed to take root and spread within us, will kill the soul (and perhaps the body also). Sin is the virus which has the capacity to render humanity unable to function according to God’s plan.

This is why, when confronted with a bed-ridden man in today’s Gospel Our Blessed Lord says to him, “Son, take courage, your sins are forgiven.” The sick man is given a reality far greater than physical health: the reality of spiritual healing. He is given life even if his body is physically diseased.

There is no question that we should and must seek to alleviate sickness and suffering where this is possible. But our first concern must always be for the soul, for the eternal salvation of the person who is ill. This is a truth that cannot and must not be masked. The vitalism rampant in our day is nothing less than a heresy. “Here we have no lasting city … we seek the city which is to come,” (Heb. 13:14) – that is, the eternal City of God. It is therefore unthinkable, indeed a fundamental violation of people’s baptismal rights, to deny people the sacraments – to deny them the very life of God which survives bodily death. Where this has occurred there must needs be repentance and reparation.

In Prologue of His Rule of St Benedict teaches that “if we would escape the pains of hell and reach eternal life, then must we, while there is still time, while we are in this body and can fulfil all these things by the light of this life, hasten to do now what may profit us for eternity.” And, drawing upon St Paul and the Prophet Ezekiel, he pleads: “Knowest thou not that the patience of God leadeth thee to repentance? For the merciful Lord saith: I will not the death of a sinner, but that he should be converted and live.”

My brothers and sisters this is the life to which we must aspire and towards which we must work with all the strength of our wills. It is the healing from sin which we must seek first. Physical health and healing are goods, but they are subordinate goods in comparison to the supernatural vocation we received at Baptism.

At Monday Vespers the Church’s tradition has us sing, “Non mortui laudabunt te, Domine, neque omnes qui descendunt in infernum: sed nos qui vivimus, benedicimus Domino, ex hoc nunc et usque in saeculum.” (The dead do not praise you O Lord, nor do those who descend into hell; but we who live, we bless the Lord, from now and until the end of the ages.” (Ps. 113:25-26) For the grace to do all so that the death of sin may not overtake us, and that we may be amongst those who bless the Lord for eternity, let us pray earnestly in this Holy Mass. +

Visite du Cardinal Sarah

9/21/2021

On Friday September 17th we had the privilege, once again, to welcome His Eminence, Robert Cardinal Sarah. It was his first visit to us in Brignoles.

His Eminence spent the afternoon with us, speaking with the community and vocation candidates about the monastic life, participated in the celebration of vespers in the monastery church and joined the community for supper in the refectory. The Cardinal also visited our newly erected shrine of Saint Joseph where he assisted at a local family’s consecration of their newly born son (“Joseph”) to his patron saint.

It was a great joy to welcome the Cardinal who, as ever, has encouraged and inspired us to greater fervour and devotion in our vocation at this moment in the life of the Church.

Le vendredi 17 septembre, nous avons eu le privilège d’accueillir une nouvelle fois Son Eminence le Cardinal Robert Sarah. C’était sa première visite à Brignoles.

Son Eminence a passé l’après-midi à discuter avec la communauté et les candidats à la vocation à propos de la vie monastique. Il a participé à la célébration des vêpres dans l’église du monastère, puis s’est joint à nous lors du dîner au réfectoire. Le Cardinal a également visité notre nouveau sanctuaire à saint Joseph, au pied duquel il a assisté à la consécration du fils nouveau-né d’une famille locale à son saint patron.

C’était une grande joie d’accueillir le Cardinal qui, comme toujours, nous a encouragés et inspirés à une plus grande ferveur et à une plus grande dévotion dans notre vocation à ce moment de la vie de l’Eglise.

A Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

9/20/2021

+ Catholics read Sacred Scripture in the Sacred Liturgy – at Mass, in the Divine Office and in the other liturgical rites. Indeed, in this context -which is the Bible’s “native habitat” as it were – the Word of God is alive and active at the heart of the living tradition of the Church, which we encounter in a singularly privileged and fruitful in the Sacred Liturgy. That is why the Church teaches that the liturgy is “a constitutive element of the holy and living Tradition” (CCC 1124). And it is why, in respect of the Sacred Liturgy, even the highest authorities in the Church may act only “in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the liturgy.” (CCC 1125)

In this Holy Mass St Paul speaks to us: “Lead a life worthy of your vocation,” he insists.

Let us be clear: the epistle was not sung this morning so as to increase our knowledge of St Paul’s writings. No. It is sung this morning so that Almighty God, through his instrument St Paul, by the Power of the Holy Spirit, may address each and every one of us. And this He does, saying very clearly: “Lead a life worthy of your vocation.”

Who amongst us does not need to hear this exhortation? St Paul was writing about our baptismal vocation as Christians, but in placing this injunction before us in the Sacred Liturgy, the tradition of the Church challenges us to apply these words also to our differing particular vocations as Christians.

Our baptismal vocation requires of us all that St Paul lists: humility, patience, gentleness, forbearance, unity, etc. To that (non-exhaustive) list we can each add the fundamentals of our particular vocation, be we monks, parents, secular clergy or lay men and women serving in particular ways.

It may be that we have allowed vice to erode or even conquer virtue in respect of the fundamentals of our baptismal vocation. We may have gone down wrong paths in respect of our particular vocation, or perhaps have even refused to follow Christ in the living the life to which He calls me. “Lead a life worthy of your vocation,” God says to me in his Living Word this morning.

It is necessary, then, for each of us to examine our consciences in the light of God’s Word.

We would be remiss, however, to ignore what God’s Word teaches us in the Holy Gospel: to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. These two “great” commandments are well known. And yet we very often do not understand them at all because we forget that one is the consequence of the other. To love God necessarily comes first. And love of our neighbour is consequent to our love of God. To borrow the words of Frank Sinatra’s famous song about two other inseparable realties, “You can’t have one without the other.”

For if my life is consumed with love of neighbour but not of God, I am at best a social worker. When difficult situations arise my natural compassion and the activities it inspires may well have no objective point of reference. I may do, or counsel, what seems loving in that particular (but subjective) context. This is how, out of supposed love of neighbour, many justify sins and crimes against the sanctity of life, the God-given nature of human sexuality, the right to ownership and other freedoms, etc. It is perfectly clear why, out of simple human compassion, one could tolerate abortion or euthanasia or same-sex relations or the attempted change of gender. All of these things can, in certain contexts, appear to be the loving and compassionate thing to do.

However, if I love God first, if my love of my neighbour flows from my living worship of Him and is informed by His Word speaking to me in and through His Church today, I shall see such compassion for what it is: a falsehood which leaves people enslaved to their lusts and desires and which glosses over any manner of evil with a varnish of counterfeit compassion.

More importantly, my love of neighbour, when rooted in my love and worship of God, becomes prophetic: its witness calls others to themselves share in the life God. It shows forth the truth that suffering and evil are limited, and that they are not the ultimate end. It opens the gates of the prison of subjectivity to which so many are condemned and offers them the freedom, light and life of God’s Truth.

Yes, we must certainly lead a life worthy of our vocation. But we can only do so if we love God and the things of God – including His teaching – first, and ensure that our love of neighbour flows from and reflects that primacy. This is our baptismal duty, each of us according to our specific vocation in the Church. For the grace ever more faithfully to fulfill it, let us implore Almighty God before His altar in this Holy Mass. +

A Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

9/12/2021

+ “I can’t do it. It’s beyond me. I am too weak. I don’t have enough strength to endure this. My faith is not that strong.” How many times have we experienced these sentiments, or have perhaps even given them voice? How often have we felt the weight of the cross press us down to almost our last hope and breath?

The answer to this question, unless we have been singularly privileged by Almighty God, is that we have experienced them often enough – too often – and we know that we may well do so again. For this life is lived in the shadow of the cross, in which shadow even the Blessed Virgin Mary had to kneel and suffer as sword of anguish pierced her Immaculate Heart. (cf. Lk 2:35) The Salve Regina rightly sings of this “lacrimarum vale”, this valley of tears. There is much in our world and in our lives about which to weep. And sometimes it can seem that striving to persevere in the Catholic Faith simply increases our sorrow. We are unable to deal with the difficulties that confront us.

And that is perfectly true: alone and isolated we are inadequate. The crosses that are laid upon us are impossible to carry. Their weight is capable of extinguishing breath and life from our mortal bodies.

My brothers and sisters, our Holy Mother the Church knows the sufferings of we, her children, only too well. But so too she knows the reality of which St Paul teaches in the Epistle of this Holy Mass: “the power at work within us” which “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” For through our Baptism we have been given a share in the life of God, won for us by the infinite merits of the excruciating suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, so that we – weak men and women that we are, continually labouring under the effects of original sin – may in fact be able to draw upon His strength in bearing the burdens of this day, and of every day. We have been given God’s grace: His very life and love dwell in us.

As we know, we can place obstacles in the way of the operation of God’s grace in our lives. Sin eclipses it. Mortal sin kills the life of grace in the soul. And we must have constant recourse to the sacrament of confession to clean away all obstacles to the operation of God’s grace in us, and when necessary even to resurrect it.

So too, we must optimise the working of God’s grace in us through daily prayer and works of charity and self-denial. This coming Wednesday, Friday and Saturday are the traditional September Ember Days: they are God-given opportunities for a renewal of the life and love of God in our souls and our bodies.

For if we are attentive to the removing of obstacles, if we have the humility to seek God’s mercy and the restoration of His grace when we have sinned, if we are diligent in our prayer and charity and self-denial, we shall indeed experience the power of God at work within us, even – especially! – in times of great suffering and trial. For this is how the “great” saints about whom we know much have endured persecution and martyrdom and all manner of difficulties in persevering in the faith. It is also how the innumerable “hidden” saints whose names are known to God – and who are equally celebrated in heaven – have borne the crosses that have been theirs in this life.

All of the saints have lived according to the truth that the darkest shadows of the Cross are cast by the light of Easter morning. Accordingly, they have persevered, no matter what has confronted them. So must we. We do not seek suffering. Crosses are laid upon us; we do not seek them out. But the victory of Christ over suffering and death that is the Resurrection has ensured that the power of God can work within us in carrying them if we but remove the obstacles that are it its path. And in so doing, in carrying the cross today, and in embracing it again tomorrow – indeed in sharing in the sufferings of Christ Himself – we shall find our salvation.

The author of the ancient collect of this Holy Mass (it was in use by the eighth century, as the Gelasian Sacramentary attests) asks that God’s grace may always go before us and go after us, that we may be continuously zealous in good works. Let us revisit this collect and daily beg an abundance of this grace for that necessary good work of perseverance in the face of all that threatens us, so that with St Paul, in this Holy Mass and always, we may be able to worship Him, “who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think...”

“To Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.” +

A Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

9/5/2021

+ As the Epistle of this Holy Mass makes very clear, St Paul was nothing if not a realist in respect of the daily living of Christian life. As the founder and concerned father of many particular Churches, he knew only too well that Christians in the world were not immune from contamination and sin; – and let us be clear, the world in which St Paul lived was in many ways more hostile to the faith than our own.

St Paul’s advice to his people demonstrates a paternity that is as loving as it is wise: “If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”

St Benedict, too, is patient and loving towards his sons who commit faults, even grave ones, devoting no fewer than seven chapters of his Rule (23-29) on how to deal with erring brethren. The abbot is instructed to implement these measures with “the greatest care and to exercise all prudence and diligence, so that he may not lose any of the sheep entrusted to him.” (ch. 27)

Temptation and sin is a reality with which we must all deal. St Paul and St Benedict knew this only too well. Neither baptism nor its sublime renewal in monastic profession renders us immune to either, though the cloister certainly serves to protect us in some respects. Christian life is messy. It is a gritty battle. It involves continual repentance, the ongoing demand of further conversion of heart, mind and soul, and daily perseverance in these tasks.

So too, the burdens – if not blows – that fall upon us at different times that are not of our own choosing, be they medical emergencies, ongoing physical or psychological illnesses, the loss of employment, grief at the loss of loved ones, harsh treatment by authorities from whom we rightly expect better, etc., can bruise us and weaken us, leaving us more vulnerable to temptation and despair. Many who once followed Christ no longer do so because they have suffered too much. They come to the point where they feel that they simply cannot go on. Perseverance in fidelity to Christ and to the teachings of His Church, they think, is simply too much for them. And so they choose no longer to even try.

My brothers and sisters, this reality abounds in our day. It is a reality in ourselves, in our families – monastic or otherwise. We know only too many relatives and friends whose lives no longer draw pure living water from its source, Our Lord Jesus Christ, but who drink from polluted streams that will make them sick unto death. And it is to this very reality that St Paul speaks to us this morning: “If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Monastic liturgical tradition has us contemplate this exhortation frequently through its use of its last sentence as the short chapter (reading) at the Office of Sext daily (outside of the seasons which have proper texts).

It is significant that – despite his somewhat underserved reputation for harshness – St Paul looks to the restoration of the sinner. He calls for a mutual bearing of each other’s burdens. He does not concern himself with outrage at the lurid details of the sins committed but prescribes gentleness and a healthy self-awareness that I, too, could very easily fall into sin.

The humility and charity St Paul demands of us here are fundamental. Without them our Christian lives become pharisaical, and our faith becomes little more than a gnostic cult. Monastic life lived without these virtues rapidly descends into a formalism that produces sycophancy. When this happens the grace of baptism or of monastic profession, in effect, dies. It is a sad fact that there are many dead monks and dead Christians walking around in our world today.

In the face of this reality, let us not forget what the Holy Gospel of this Mass teaches us: Our Lord can raise the dead! His pity for the widow of Naim can be extended to us in respect of those we know and love who have died to the faith of their baptism, to those who have died to the vows they have professed.

At this holy Mass, as we beg for the increase in humility and charity we need, let us not fail to ask for the raising to life of those who have died to the life of grace, perhaps even through the humility and charity St Paul insists we put into practice. +

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