Abbot Cletus is retiring soon.
He has to retire.
He has reached the age where retirement is mandatory.
The task now falls to the brothers to elect the next Abbot
at Saint Bernard Abbey … no small matter in the ongoing life of the monastery
and of the monks whose lives are spent living, working, and praying the Hours
at the abbey … no small matter in the lives of those (we Oblates of Saint
Benedict) affiliated with the abbey … no small matter in the life of the global
Benedictine community … no small matter in the life of the Church.
I remember the first time I saw Abbot Cletus in 2005. It was
on my first visit to the monastery.
I was there to visit with Father Thomas O’Connor, O.S.B.,
who was, at that time, the Oblate Director. If memory serves me correctly,
Father O’Connor was also the Prior. With Father O’Connor supervising my
novitiate, I made my Final Oblate Promises a year later and became an Oblate of
Saint Benedict.
I walked into the secretary’s office to announce my arrival.
Abbot Cletus happened to be sitting behind a desk in the
office. We exchanged polite head nods before he dialed a phone number and
waited for someone to answer. Father Abbot explained to the person answering on the
other end that he was calling about an insurance issue. Whoever it was on the
other end must have asked Abbot Cletus if he was the person in charge of the account. Father Abbot replied with a calm assertiveness that immediately won my respect. “Yes.
You might say that I am the one who is in charge here.”
Two words come to mind when I consider the Abbot.
The words are role
model.
The Abbot is not only a role model for the monks that live
under his abbatial authority. The Abbot is a role model for every person …
especially for every man … double especially for every married man and for men
with children. The Abbot is the leading figure in the monastery who says to us,
like the Apostle Paul says to us, “Be
imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”[1]
Imitating Christ?
What we have to own up to, when we think about it, is that
our role as followers of Christ is an awesome and terrible responsibility.
Not only are we to follow along as he shepherds his sheep
toward the still waters and verdant pastures of our eternal home. We are also
called, through our continual conversion (conversatio morum), to take on the
character of Christ whereby we are equipped to honestly and convincingly imitate
his actions as representatives of his in this world that so desperately needs
to see the actions of Christ being lived out.
Christ came to save us from ourselves and the destruction
caused by our sins. He came to restore to us what was lost in the Garden when
the First Couple fell from grace. Saint Benedict’s conversatio morum (continual
conversion) addresses the process of restoration whereby we are initially saved and receive salvation through faith, and through daily surrendering to
conversatio morum, we grow in grace in the direction toward the perfection that
was part of the original creation.
Adam and Eve were created entirely perfect. Their sin marred,
disfigured, and corrupted their perfection. We inherit their marred, disfigured,
and corrupted nature and are born in sin.[2]
Christ saved us from eternal condemnation, instills his Spirit within us, and
calls us to a journey of continual conversion that, this side of eternity, will
always be incomplete regardless of how we pridefully view ourselves.[3]
I cannot help but to think about what the Apostle Paul wrote
to the Philippians where he quilled, “Let
this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”[4]
Jesus knew who he was. Yet, though he was God come down in the flesh, he
lived his life as the Sacrificial Lamb showing us how we, too, are to live.
The Apostle also tells us, “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self,
corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your
minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the
likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”[5] There is a lot of challenge in what the
Apostle is saying. We would all do well to take up this challenge.
The world has largely turned a deafened ear to the
verbalization of the Gospel. Evil is being touted as good. Good is being
branded as evil. This same world, though its ear-gates are closed, cannot help
but to see and make note of the difference made by the Gospel when it is
joyfully and vitally lived out in our lives.
Talking about the Gospel is important. Living the Gospel is more important than merely talking about it. Living the Gospel,
imitating the actions of the Good Shepherd in our day to day lives and ongoing dealings
with people, prepares people to hear what we have to say.
I cannot help but to
think of something that Saint Francis of Assisi “supposedly” said. There is no
solid evidence that he said it, but the quote is regularly attributed to him.
“Preach the Gospel always. If necessary, use words.”
The way we live will always trump what we say.
It is true for us outside the monastery. It is true for the
religious brothers and sisters inside monasteries. The Abbot (or Abbess) is the
central role model in the monastery. His (or her) life must be an exemplary
example.
"The Abbot who is worthy to be over a monastery, ought always to be
mindful of what he is called, and make his works square with his name of
Superior. For he is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery, when
he is called by his name, according to the saying of the Apostle: “You have
received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry Abba (Father)” (Rom
8:15). Therefore, the Abbot should never teach, prescribe, or command (which
God forbid) anything contrary to the laws of the Lord; but his commands and
teaching should be instilled like a leaven of divine justice into the minds of
his disciples. Let the Abbot always bear in mind that he must give an account
in the dread judgment of God of both his own teaching and of the obedience of
his disciples. And let the Abbot know that whatever lack of profit the master
of the house shall find in the sheep, will be laid to the blame of the
shepherd." [6]
… to be continued …
[1] 1
Corinthians 11:1
[2] 1
Corinthians 15:22
[3]
Luke 18:9-14 The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector
[4]
Philippians 2:5
[5]
Ephesians 4:22-24
[6]
Holy Rule 2:1-7
