Br. Abraham's Sermon on St Benedict's Day, March 21, 2000
Genesis 12: 1-4a; Ephesians 3: 14-19; John 15: 9-17
We are God's friends. We just heard Jesus say in today's Gospel: "I
do not call you servants any longer...I have called you
friends...." It is good to be with friends. When we are with
friends, we can be ourselves without worrying about appearances. We
can do ordinary, everyday things and find great satisfaction in
them: sitting on the couch, riding around in the car with no
particular destination, goofing off at work, talking about silly or
stupid things, or maybe not talking at all. Friendships thrive on
the ordinary, everyday things in life, not on the spectacular.
Spectacular things may happen; but they cannot be the basis of
friendship, because spectacles don't last, and neither do those
things based upon them.
And our friendship with God is meant to last. Right before
Jesus calls his disciples friends, he says "Abide in my love."
Right after he calls them friends, he tells them to "bear fruit,
fruit that will last." Both abiding and bearing fruit take time and
require stability. They can't be rushed, and they involve a lot of
unspectacular, everyday work. We might not think of abiding as
taking a lot of work, but just think of all the people you know who
can't sit still for five minutes, much less keep the same address
for a year or two. We might have a fuller concept of the labor
involved in bearing fruit from growing a summer garden or, better,
from planting and tending an orchard or vineyard. Abiding in God's
love and bearing fruit are much the same: they take a lot of work,
patience, fortitude, and time. They might not be the most glamorous
things to do, but they are what God our friend has asked of us.
We heard Paul writing to the Ephesians about abiding and
bearing fruit when he prays that they "may be strengthened in their
inner being...and that Christ may dwell in their hearts...as they
are being rooted and grounded in love." All of that suggests a
lengthy process, not a one-shot emotional or spiritual rocket to
heaven. Rockets may go off every now and then, but they are not
necessary, because heaven is not a place we need to get to--heaven
is a place we need to cultivate and abide in. If we abide in Jesus,
and allow him to abide in us, then heaven can and should be
wherever we are, and that is why we need to work so patiently to
bring it to fruition.
We bring heaven to our world in simple ways; making God's love
a concrete thing for those around us. A TV preacher once said an
unusually smart thing by commenting that people don't make love in
bed, they celebrate love in bed. Love is made earlier in the day by
cooking, cleaning, and earning a living. That's what we should do
as God's friends--at home, at work, in the monastery or at our
parish--making love for and with others by doing our simple, daily
round of chores in peace and joy, thereby slowly and surely helping
to bring heaven to those around us. Every once in a while we might
have the chance to do something spectacular, and of course we
should do the best we can when that happens, but we shouldn't be
disappointed if the opportunity never occurs. As Mother Teresa of
Calcutta said, "We don't need to do big things, we only need to do
the little things with love." The big things might seem more
important and heroic, but in the end they are much easier than the
little things, because the little, everyday, ordinary things never
end, and they can easily become drudgery if not done in
thoughtfulness and love.
The story of Abram which we heard today is a good example of
patiently abiding and bearing fruit. It may sound strange to say
that a man who spent his entire adult life wandering around the
middle east is a good example of patiently abiding; but Abram's
home was in God, no matter where he pitched his tent. Abram lived
in God's promise through good times and bad, through doubt and
surprise, and because of his constancy, produced fruit that is
still blessing the world. A lot of spectacular things happened
while Abram traveled (including having his name changed to
Abraham), and we read about them to help us in our life with God,
but it was the ordinary, everyday work that made those big things
possible: pulling down the tents, setting them up again, grazing
and watering the flocks, finding suitable places to camp, calming
family disputes. That's a lot of hard work, even with all his
slaves. We should be thankful for his work and patience, and we
should follow his example.
And so today, in that spirit, we remember one of God's most
unspectacular of saints--Benedict. He is not a popular figure. When
people look for an icon or medal bearing his image, they usually
have to search through pages of catalogues filled with pictures and
stories of several other more glamorous saints, and even then are
lucky to find anything in his memory. However, the work that he did
in setting forth a way of life based on patiently abiding in Christ
and bearing fruit from that relationship has had long term effects
that most of those other more popular figures can't claim. We
should be thankful for his work and patience, and follow his
example, bringing God's love to our world as best we can in our own
time and place with joy, constancy, and peace. And now in his
memory and honor as we continue our festival of the mundane, let us
with thankful and ordinary, everyday hearts prepare to meet at this
familiar table for yet one more meal with the God who calls us
"friend."
---Br. Abraham
