Readings:
Kings 5:14-17
Psalm 98
2 Timothy 2:8-13
Luke 17:11-19
 At a recent social gathering at St. Norbert College, a visiting woman religious–a Sister well-seasoned in religious life–looked me up and down, from head to toe and toe to head–I was wearing my white Norbertine habit–and said: "So, John, do you like wearing a dress?"...… I attempted a logical explanation, but she would hear nothing of it! She only insisted that I "get real."
I wanted to engage Sister in a conversation about the state of religious life in the church and world today. I wanted to share my experience as a vocation coordinator and what I’m leaning from and about young adults exploring and joining religious life. But there was no room for dialogue; we quickly reached an impasse, and rather than misbehave–that is, respond inappropriately–I changed the subject.
It’s no secret that religious life is in flux, experiencing significant transition and transformation, and that differences of opinion on important and not-so-important issues sharply divide us. In recent years numbers of young men and women joining religious life are significantly down. What was IS no more. What is to come is not yet visible. Some experts on religious life believe that death lurks around the corner for many religious orders and congregations. ……….. But death need not be the end! Death to ‘what is’ can be the doorway to radical transformation and new life in God’s Spirit! ……
The following story illustrates my point well……It’s a popular story penned by Norbertine Father, Francis Dorff……it’s a story that you may have heard before……it’s a story worth telling again……a story filled with hope and life that Sister, I, we need to embrace and make real……….It’s about a famous monastery that had fallen upon hard times……
Formerly its many buildings were filled with young monks, but now it was all but deserted. People no longer came there to be nourished by prayer, and only a handful of old monks shuffled through the cloisters serving God with heavy hearts. On the edge of the monastery woods, an old rabbi had built a little hut. He would come there from time to time to fast and to pray. No one ever spoke with him, but whenever he appeared, the word would be passed from monk to monk: 'The rabbi walks in the woods.' And, for as long as he was there, the monks would feel sustained by his prayerful presence.
One day the abbot decided to visit the rabbi and open his heavy heart to him. So, after the morning Eucharist, he set out through the woods. As he approached the hut, the abbot saw the rabbi standing in the doorway, as if he had been awaiting the abbot's arrival, his arms outstretched in welcome. They embraced like long-lost brothers. The two entered the hut where, in the middle of the room, stood a wooden table with the scriptures open on it. They sat for a moment in the presence of the Book.
Then the rabbi began to weep. The abbot could not contain himself. He covered his face with his hands and began to cry too. For the first time in his life, he cried his heart out. The two men sat there like lost children, filling the hut with their shared pain and tears. But soon the tears ceased and all was quiet. The rabbi lifted his head. 'You and your brothers are serving God with heavy hearts,' he said. 'You have come to ask a teaching of me. I will give you a teaching, but you can repeat it only once. After that, no one must ever say it aloud again.'
The rabbi looked straight at the abbot and said, 'The Messiah is among you.' For a while, all was silent. The rabbi said, 'Now you must go.'
The abbot left without a word and without ever looking back. The next morning, the abbot called his monks together in the chapter room. He told them he had received a teaching from the 'rabbi who walks in the woods' and that the teaching was never again to be spoken aloud. Then he looked at the group of assembled brothers and said, 'The rabbi said that one of us is the Messiah.' The monks were startled by this saying.
'What could it mean?' they asked themselves. 'Is Brother John the Messiah? Or Brother Matthew or Brother Thomas? Am I the Messiah? What could all this mean?' They were all deeply puzzled by the rabbi's teaching, but no one ever mentioned it again. As time went by, the monks began to treat one another with a new and very special reverence. A gentle, warm-hearted, concern began to grow among them; it was hard to describe but easy to notice. They began to live with each other as people who had finally found the special something they were looking for; they prayed the Scriptures with renewed devotion, trust, and hope.
When visitors came to the monastery they found themselves deeply moved by the life of these monks. Word spread, and before long people were coming from far and wide to be nourished by the prayer life of the monks and to experience the loving reverence in which they held each other……Soon, other young men were asking, once again, to become a part of the community, and the community grew and prospered.
…….The Messiah is among us………Take a moment and look around… …….Who might it be?..........Could it be you?!.........
Like the monks who were nourished and sustained by the teaching of the rabbi, we who follow Jesus are nourished and sustained by his wise and prayerful presence among us in Word and Sacrament. In today’s Gospel Story from Luke, Jesus singles out the Samaritan as a role model of faith: "Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" Like Naaman the foreigner in the first reading from the second Book of Kings, the Samaritan leper has much to teach us about healing and welcome and gratitude as members of God’s family. Simply stated, there are no outsiders; we are one! We are all called and chosen to live out the fullness of our Baptismal Call as well as our particular vocational call, be that as married, single, religious men or women, priests or deacons.
For we who are members of the Norbertine Order, that means embracing a way of life that challenges us to be a more authentic community of prophetic witness rooted in the evangelical councils (poverty, consecrated celibacy, and obedience). We are challenged to be God’s ministers of healing, reconciliation, hope, and welcome……called to live what we profess and profess what we live…….radically, completely, wholeheartedly, and full of gratitude. …… This is what OUR particular vocational call looks like in the Church today. What does YOUR vocational call look like?.......
The young men who have asked to try the Norbertine way of life call us to more authentic living. Frater Matthew Dougherty, a second year Norbertine novice and 2009 SNC graduate, says it this way in his blog:
"I believe that the signs of the times call for religious to become more public in their witness………I believe that the way to engage the world is through strong symbols–the habit being an ultimate symbol of ‘being in the world, but not of the world.’ …… One of the reasons I joined religious life was to enter into something greater than myself, to enter into a group identity that will challenge me, support me, and give me life……I long for communion; I want to be part of something, and I believe dressing the part helps me embody that–it helps me pray, it helps me relate, it helps me to see the world through a different set of eyes…….(and) when people can see others living lives of poverty, chastity, and obedience for God, the idea becomes a little more real…..Without that witness, the hope that consecrated life can offer is lessened and the idea of the priesthood, religious life, or the lay Catholic life can easily drift out of sight and out of mind, especially in the busy and noisy culture in which we live."
……The rabbi no longer walks in the woods. His hut has fallen into ruins. Yet somehow, the monks who have taken his teaching to heart still feel sustained by his wise and prayerful presence……
……I hope you do, too!
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