As Christians and Monks we are bearers of the
Spirit of Jesus. Jesus telling the first disciples "the kingdom of God is at
hand" is giving us the same message today, to allow ourselves to guided by the
Holy Spirit in all that we say and do. This is the life against which there is
no law, for it is living in the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
gentleness and self-control. Jesus sending out the seventy-two "ahead of him in
pairs to every town and place he intended to visit," is telling us even more
urgently than to his first disciples, that he wants the whole world to hear the
good news. You and I are the bearers of this good news, the kingdom of God that
is within us.
There is a huge statue of Christ holding a cross standing on the Andes mountains
between the countries of Argentina and Chile.. Argentina and Chile had been
about to go war with one another. They were quarreling over some land which each
said belonged to them. So both countries began to prepare for war. Then on
Easter Sunday, the bishops of both Argentina and Chile began to urge peace. They
went round their countries crying out for peace in the name of Christ. The
people did not want war and in the end they made their governments talk peace
with one another, instead of war. The big guns, instead of being used for
fighting, were melted down and made into the great bronze statue of Christ. It
now stands on the mountains between the two countries. Written on it are the
words ‘These mountains shall fall and crumble to dust before the people of Chile
and Argentina shall forget the solemn covenant sworn at the feet of Christ.’
What a powerful example of what our lives as Christians can bring about.
Jesus, telling his disciples that whatever house they enter they are first to
say, ‘Peace to this household’ is leaving us a message more needed than ever in
our world today, exposed to so much violence whether it be domestic, social,
national or international. Through our lives as Christians we are bearers of
peace at every level of home and social life. Overcoming the divisions within
our own hearts we carry "The Kingdom of God" to every nook and cranny of human
life. In so far as the Spirit of Christ reigns within us we are endowed with the
power to mediate this presence to all around, in all the circumstances in which
we find ourselves.
The prophet Isaiah presents us precisely with a vision of the world governed by
the reign of God. Jerusalem becomes a symbol of God’s people, a people that will
be fully restored after the terrible exile through which it has gone. God is to
"spread prosperity over Jerusalem like a river, and the wealth of the nations
like an overflowing torrent." Water so essential to life in any part of the
world, as we so recently experienced in this part of Kentucky, will flow in
abundance. Constantly being renewed from its source, this water becomes the
symbol of the living water of the Spirit, of life itself. As a mother comforts
her child so will God comfort this people, making their hearts to rejoice, their
flesh to flourish like the grass. We have only to let ourselves be drawn into
this new world as did the Argentinian and Chilean peoples, to melt down our
weapons of war into images of Christ’s presence in our midst, especially within
our lives. How long will our world have to suffer before it learns of peace?
Maybe as long as it takes for us to allow Christ to reign in our hearts, in our
communities, in our Nation.
The celebration around this altar reminds of just how deeply God is committed to
bringing about a Isaiah’s vision. With St Paul we too are to boast in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world was crucified to him and he to
the world, and become like him, a new creation. To let our lives be transformed
like the bread and wine about to be carried to this altar, is to know beyond any
doubt that the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Isaiah 66:10-14c; Galatians 6:14-18; Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
Michael Casagram, OCSO
Abbey of GethsemaniJuly 8, 2007
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