The Abbot’s Notebook for February 21, 2018
My sisters and brothers in Christ,
Blessings to you! Already we are in the middle of the First Week of Lent and moving towards Holy Week and Easter. Time always keeps moving! In the past I seemed able to keep up with the movements of time and even to be a bit ahead. These days I am still challenged to keep up with things. Lent is a time to accept ourselves as we are and to see how to respond just a bit more to the love of our Lord.
In the community, most of the brothers have recovered from the cold and the flu that is going around and so the choir is once more almost full. Brother Gabriel has returned from helping in Saint Benedict’s Abbey, Polokwane, South Africa, for many months. Father Gregory, who also is helping in Saint Benedict’s Abbey, came home for a short visit and has already begun the return to Saint Benedict’s Abbey. In time we will be having other brothers help there as well. The challenge is to help a community survive and to begin to grow once more, but with all of the needed elements of a community in place.
Last Friday, February 16th, our Vietnamese brothers were able to go to Albuquerque to celebrate the Lunar New Year with the Vietnamese community there. This celebration of the Lunar New Year is an incredibly important element of Vietnamese culture and of many other Asian cultures. It is a time to renew bonds of family and friendship and relationships.
On Saturday, the Vietnamese brothers arose early in order to drive some three hours to Blanco, New Mexico, to share in the solemn vows of Sister Agnes Le Doan. Another two cars of monks drove from the Monastery to be present also for the vows. We were 22 monks present at the vows of Sister Agnes Le—almost half of the community. Bishop James Wall of Gallup presided at the vows and the monks helped with the singing. Then we all returned back to our own monastery following the banquet after the profession. There were four cars of us monks and three of the cars got lost on the way home, including the one which I was driving!
Lent…. What can a believer do in Lent? When I was really young, all the rules of fasting were still in effect and most Catholics that I knew still kept them. Fasting was simply accepted as something that most Catholics did. Today there is very little fasting in our Catholic Church. Not long ago, in our refectory reading, we heard a statement from the Patriarch of the Coptic Church that said something like this: where there is no fasting, there is no Church. Many of us monks were struck by that statement. While we might not ever say anything quite so strong, we also notice the difference in our monastic life when there is no fasting.
Always we need to think of the Scripture from Isaiah 58:6-7: “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.”
That passage from Isaiah always puts fasting in the proper perspective. If any bodily penances that we do are unable to help us love others better, then they are useless. The purpose of bodily discipline, of penance, of doing good, is always about loving others more. Whatever we do that does not help us love others more is just wasted.
Should we do penances? Of course, but only with the proper motivation. All parents know about penance, especially when their children are young. Penance is giving up my own will to do the will of another for the sake of love. Can we fast? Yes, of course. But we should confuse fasting and dieting! Fasting is to give up something that I want very much in order to gain a mastery at some level over my own being, both body and soul, in order that I can, both body and soul, give myself better to loving others.
Penance and fasting really make sense when we live in a community or in a close family. We all know that we cannot do just as we want but always have to take into account the needs of the family or of the community as a whole and the needs of others as individuals.
Living Lent is a challenge. Saint Benedict wants the monk to give of himself in a special way during Lent so that when Easter comes, there is cause for celebration. That makes sense to me. It is not easy to work serious on the inner life and it takes effort and patience and a deep commitment. Living with others is not easy. Living with oneself is not easy. Yet the Lord calls us to live with others by learning how to live with ourselves in peace. Saint Benedict says that the life of the monk should be Lenten at all times but that most of us don’t have the capacity for that.
There is a great deal of joy in the time of Lent when we begin to see that it is all about loving. Even when we fail, we can be confident that God is still there, loving us and drawing us deeper into the mysteries.
As always I will celebrate a Holy Mass this week for your and for your intentions. May the Lord help us all in this time of Lent so that we can respond more completely to His love. I send you my love and prayers and rely on your for me and for the women and men in our communities.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip
