Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Dom Peter
Alright, time for a Latin review. What are the four principal parts of the Latin verb meaning ‘to bear, carry or bring’? Ready? Go! “fero, ferre, tuli, latus.” Correct! Ten points extra credit. For those of you who haven’t gotten that far in Latin, let me explain that this is a very common verb, but also highly irregular. In the letter to the Hebrews, we hear about Jesus making offerings for sins. This English word ‘offering’ is derived from the Latin ob-fero which means to bear, carry or bring to someone for some purpose. The reason we listed the various forms of the verb earlier is that we see that the word ‘offering’ has in fact the same derivation as the word ‘oblation’. The difference is that one is active and the other passive. I offer an offering, I am called to be an oblate. Jesus is a model for us in that He is both. He offers and is offered, He is an oblation. In fact, he offers Himself, and is offered by Himself.
Today, we celebrate the oblation of Rosalie Katherine Trovato and the renewal of oblation of most of the oblates of our community. Personally, I don’t know the history of oblates and why that particular name was chosen. In a sense, all monks are oblations. The rites involved in the profession of solemn vows make this very clear, from the placing of the written charter on the altar, to the recitation of the Suscipe, in which the monk asks God to receive him. In making this step, the monk is responding to a call from God, a free choice on God’s part. The monk is elect: chosen for a specific gift of self. He imitates Christ by making this gift a radical gift of self which includes a symbolic dying: a prostration while covered with a funeral pall. This death imitates Christ’s death on the cross, with one difference. Of course the monk does not ascend a cross to make this offering. Rather, he promises to consent to the purifying power of perseverance in patience. Patience is yet another good Latin word: suffering [incidentally, another word derived from the Latin fero: here, to bear underneath]. His entire life will now take the form of the cross. Dare we say that the monk is on the cross all the time?
Oblates make an analogous offering of their lives. In doing so, they promise to conform their lives to the cross by the mediating influence of the Rule of Saint Benedict and the example of a specific community. Summing up the spirituality of the Rule is not easy, but this morning, I will summarize a few points from the gospel that I believe are central.
First of all: vigilance. The quintessential monastic office is Vigils. The monk is a watchman, straining with the eyes of his heart to catch first sight of the coming of Jesus Christ in glory. We know not the time or the hour, so we must be clothed and ready to go at all times. A monk must not be frivolous. Frivolity, however, is not the only danger. Often, our own convictions are our worst enemy. We form a picture of how the world should work and then try to fit it into that pattern. This can blind us to what is actually taking place. This often happens when we say, ‘things would be better if…’ We usually then make lists of things that other people should change. If the Lord could come at any time, however, why the worry about supposed fixes? Why not quiet oneself and watch instead? You will find the Lord nearer than you had thought.
This watching presupposes other virtues, namely obedience and faith. Let me treat faith first. No one, not even the Son, knows the time or the hour. Let us not dwell, unfortunately, on the implications of this statement for Christology. Let us rather see that even Jesus Christ had to do His Father’s will in faith. For us in the Benedictine path, this means learning not to intervene too quickly, but to listen; not to propose answers from our own hunches or feelings, but to trust; not to react but to respond. Here is our offering: that we consent to being offered in whatever circumstances given to us.
In this way we imitate Christ perfectly. His offering was not simply at one time on the Cross. Rather, the Cross was the perfect fulfillment of an entire life of faith and obedience. Indeed, the word translated in the second reading as ‘forever’, is actually closer in sense to ‘continually’. Jesus’ one offering is continual: so our lives should be a continual offering in faith. We can’t say, ‘because I don’t know what God wants, I can’t offer myself.’ Nor can we say, ‘I don’t feel fervent today, so I can’t make an offering of myself; I can’t pray.’ In both of these circumstances, we are invited to take a stance of humility. A lack of certainty in particular circumstances should be a spur to a greater certainty in God’s Providence.
Finally, this offering is done in obedience. I would like to suggest that it is only through obedience that we can make sense of God’s choices. The angels will come to gather the elect. This sounds elitist. If God chooses me and seems not to choose others, am I within my rights to refuse with the aim of trying to bring others along? I have two responses for this sort of argument.
The first is that Jesus Himself was criticized in this way. Why did He do such a wasteful thing as die on the Cross when He could have ended hunger once and for all by changing stones into bread; He could have bought peace for the world (at least so it seems) by consenting to working wonders for all to see. If I am sounding diabolical in these suggestions, good—that’s my point. It is only through the Cross that peace comes.
More nitty-gritty is the fact that God chooses different roles for different persons. Christ Himself was chosen to be the one mediator between God and human kind. Each of us is called to fulfill a certain function now within His body and within the workings of Providence. This is perhaps why solemn vows and oblation don’t rise to the level of sacrament: they are a deepening of the offering that all of the baptized are invited to make of their lives. As a monk or an oblate or a layperson, each of us is chosen by God for a certain task. It is by cooperation with God’s choices that we do the most good in bringing about peace. Refusing to cooperate with God’s election on the grounds that we know better the way to happiness is questionable indeed. So we must stick to our particular roles in the church. Oblates are not monks, nor are monks oblates. Let us listen carefully to discern God’s choices for us, and then pray for the courage to follow them.
Now the Church calls forward our oblates to renew their promise to follow God’s role for them in the Church.
Today, we celebrate the oblation of Rosalie Katherine Trovato and the renewal of oblation of most of the oblates of our community. Personally, I don’t know the history of oblates and why that particular name was chosen. In a sense, all monks are oblations. The rites involved in the profession of solemn vows make this very clear, from the placing of the written charter on the altar, to the recitation of the Suscipe, in which the monk asks God to receive him. In making this step, the monk is responding to a call from God, a free choice on God’s part. The monk is elect: chosen for a specific gift of self. He imitates Christ by making this gift a radical gift of self which includes a symbolic dying: a prostration while covered with a funeral pall. This death imitates Christ’s death on the cross, with one difference. Of course the monk does not ascend a cross to make this offering. Rather, he promises to consent to the purifying power of perseverance in patience. Patience is yet another good Latin word: suffering [incidentally, another word derived from the Latin fero: here, to bear underneath]. His entire life will now take the form of the cross. Dare we say that the monk is on the cross all the time?
Oblates make an analogous offering of their lives. In doing so, they promise to conform their lives to the cross by the mediating influence of the Rule of Saint Benedict and the example of a specific community. Summing up the spirituality of the Rule is not easy, but this morning, I will summarize a few points from the gospel that I believe are central.
First of all: vigilance. The quintessential monastic office is Vigils. The monk is a watchman, straining with the eyes of his heart to catch first sight of the coming of Jesus Christ in glory. We know not the time or the hour, so we must be clothed and ready to go at all times. A monk must not be frivolous. Frivolity, however, is not the only danger. Often, our own convictions are our worst enemy. We form a picture of how the world should work and then try to fit it into that pattern. This can blind us to what is actually taking place. This often happens when we say, ‘things would be better if…’ We usually then make lists of things that other people should change. If the Lord could come at any time, however, why the worry about supposed fixes? Why not quiet oneself and watch instead? You will find the Lord nearer than you had thought.
This watching presupposes other virtues, namely obedience and faith. Let me treat faith first. No one, not even the Son, knows the time or the hour. Let us not dwell, unfortunately, on the implications of this statement for Christology. Let us rather see that even Jesus Christ had to do His Father’s will in faith. For us in the Benedictine path, this means learning not to intervene too quickly, but to listen; not to propose answers from our own hunches or feelings, but to trust; not to react but to respond. Here is our offering: that we consent to being offered in whatever circumstances given to us.
In this way we imitate Christ perfectly. His offering was not simply at one time on the Cross. Rather, the Cross was the perfect fulfillment of an entire life of faith and obedience. Indeed, the word translated in the second reading as ‘forever’, is actually closer in sense to ‘continually’. Jesus’ one offering is continual: so our lives should be a continual offering in faith. We can’t say, ‘because I don’t know what God wants, I can’t offer myself.’ Nor can we say, ‘I don’t feel fervent today, so I can’t make an offering of myself; I can’t pray.’ In both of these circumstances, we are invited to take a stance of humility. A lack of certainty in particular circumstances should be a spur to a greater certainty in God’s Providence.
Finally, this offering is done in obedience. I would like to suggest that it is only through obedience that we can make sense of God’s choices. The angels will come to gather the elect. This sounds elitist. If God chooses me and seems not to choose others, am I within my rights to refuse with the aim of trying to bring others along? I have two responses for this sort of argument.
The first is that Jesus Himself was criticized in this way. Why did He do such a wasteful thing as die on the Cross when He could have ended hunger once and for all by changing stones into bread; He could have bought peace for the world (at least so it seems) by consenting to working wonders for all to see. If I am sounding diabolical in these suggestions, good—that’s my point. It is only through the Cross that peace comes.
More nitty-gritty is the fact that God chooses different roles for different persons. Christ Himself was chosen to be the one mediator between God and human kind. Each of us is called to fulfill a certain function now within His body and within the workings of Providence. This is perhaps why solemn vows and oblation don’t rise to the level of sacrament: they are a deepening of the offering that all of the baptized are invited to make of their lives. As a monk or an oblate or a layperson, each of us is chosen by God for a certain task. It is by cooperation with God’s choices that we do the most good in bringing about peace. Refusing to cooperate with God’s election on the grounds that we know better the way to happiness is questionable indeed. So we must stick to our particular roles in the church. Oblates are not monks, nor are monks oblates. Let us listen carefully to discern God’s choices for us, and then pray for the courage to follow them.
Now the Church calls forward our oblates to renew their promise to follow God’s role for them in the Church.
posted by Prior Peter, OSB | 12:29 PM
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