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HOMILY
THIRD INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF LAY CISTERCIANS
(Abbey of Citeaux, France - June 7, 2005)
Matt. 5:13-16
"Let your light shine before men, so that seeing your
good works they will give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
Light shines simply because it exists. The essence of
light is to shine. It seeks to do nothing else. If it does not encounter any
other obstacle it spreads.
Sometimes it happens that the mission, the
evangelization, is seen as a means to an end, namely, a technique. This
evangelization is another way of doing good, and doing good means to be in the
light, to stand there, to live you're your brothers and sisters, all together,
to display a treasure in the vessels of clay that we are.
In hearing this, how can one not think of the Cistercian
charism? One who is attentive to this humanity that has been reconciled,
restored, and reformed within each of us, when one opens oneself to love by
means of a diligent work on self (self reform), and when one opens oneself to
one's neighbor, one moves towards a final opening in which our lives are
completed, an opening to the wholly other, who is God.
The temptation still remains: the temptation of doing,
of acting, of using goods means, of transforming the world without allowing
ourselves to be transformed. On the contrary, when doing good is no longer a way
of life, but rather, a fire which burns, a light that shines, then men, when
seeing us, will give glory to our Father who is in heaven.
It is good that this God who is Wholly Other should be
made known as our Father of the heavens, this father who is patient in making
the sun rise on the good as well as the ban and who generously provides for the
needs of his children. This is the Father whom we must imitate in order to be
perfect as He is perfect.
There is still a little problem with our Gospel: The
Cistercians hide themselves in the back of the forests, their life is hidden
with Christ in God. How then can we be like the shining lamp placed on a lamp
stand in the house? Perhaps with a good distribution of tasks, the monks and
nuns will be hidden and the laity will be the lamp stand as intermediaries. I
doubt this is a good solution.
The light is ignorant of itself, if it attracts
attention, the light does not see itself. The true good is not narcissistic,
just as love without measure (unconditional love) does not measure what it
gives. Thus the ego, our ego, fades away and the good appears in humility.
Although we are hidden in the back of the forests, or placed on a pinnacle, it
does not matter.
You my lay brothers and sisters, are in direct contact
with a world that lives by another spirit, a narcissistic world that looks at
itself, by means of its skills, its success, its power, and its beauty. It is
not easy not to fall into its traps. A truly evangelical fraternal life is so
very necessary. How necessary is it for you, as for us monks and nuns, to be
constantly fed by the word of God, the Rule and the works of our Cistercian
Fathers.
Today, just as for our Fathers of the 12th. century, the
objective remains the same: to be the pauperes Christi, the poor
Christians who follow the poor Christ. |
