Not given to paranoia, I don't think, but I couldn't help noticing that the reading of Tupper was from a document of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, just in case I should want to say something heretical. I'll be very careful what I say about Oriental prayer. I hadn't planned to say anything anyway. And then in the airport this afternoon, I picked up a newspaper, and I don't usually read these things, but sometimes in airports you have to kill a lot of time. So I looked under Libra, which happens to be my sign, and said, all eyes will be on where your career is concerned. And your audience might not be solidly backed with admirers. And then it says, don't supply them with anything they could later use against you.

[01:06]

Well, I don't know what that means, but I'm sure it's not applicable here. We all know what a retreat is, of course, the time when we try to pull away from the usual distractions of life and deal with those things that are deeply real. visiting a cousin of mine, a sister of charity, who was dying, and during December she died on Christmas Day. And she'd been a very busy person, and a very productive person, fine teacher, good administrator. And I could just sense her struggling with coming to terms with the end of life.

[02:11]

You know, there's so much in our culture and so much in our, well, in the air we breathe that is intended to distract us from the realities of life. Now, I don't think we should be thinking every day about death and having a skull on your desk and that kind of thing. You know, it doesn't appeal to me anyway. I don't think it's necessarily a healthy thing to do. However, it seems to me that when we are alive and strong, we should not be totally divorced from the situation when we are weak and barely alive. It shouldn't be like a whole new country. Now, it's going to be different, in spite of all we do, but it's important that we try to keep in touch with those realities which will be valid at that time, and will, you know, be a support to us at that time.

[03:34]

Scripture is full of that kind of reality. It is a reality that is difficult and painful at times, but very promising. I think if one were to reduce the Bible to one word, which is a kind of foolish thing to do, perhaps, but if one had to find one single word to sum up biblical revelation, I think it would be promise. Now, we might say, well, that certainly would be a good word for the Old Testament, because they were looking for the Messiah to come. But it's not just for the Old Testament. Promise is for New Testament people too.

[04:38]

It's true that Jesus has come, just celebrated that coming. But I think we should also keep in mind that Jesus will come, and any one of us may not yet have received Jesus in the way that makes a difference, in the way that really converts us. Many of us feel sympathetic for our Jewish brother, and would like to find areas of common interest and common belief. And, of course, there are many of those. The one thing that seems to be a difficulty is that they're still looking for the Messiah, and we have found the Messiah. That seems to open a gulf between us. Well, of course, it does make a difference.

[05:44]

But I sometimes wonder how much the Messiah has come for us. Is it 10%? 90%? I suspect that most of us think that the Messiah has come 90% and we allow 10% for the second coming. But essentially and substantially it's come. and will come, of course, but it's just going to confirm everything we already know. I'm not sure that's true. I suspect that Messiah, in a very, very important, real way, is still coming, has come historically, is coming presently, and will come. The problem is, have we allowed the Messiah to come?

[06:50]

I can easily affirm the historical coming of the Messiah and live as if the Messiah had not come. In every generation, we must receive the Messiah personally. And it's very easy to do it in our heads. It's very hard to do it in our lives. Let the Messiah come to be ready for the Lord. The good news, the Gospel, is about what God has done. The great deeds, the manyaliya day, the creation, the giving of the law, the prophets, the wisdom, above all, the Messiah, Jesus. Great deeds of God. And so, in many ways, we look back for the good news.

[07:56]

But the good news is also promise. The good news is that which is to come. In many ways, I think we are living between two great gifts, between the Alpha and the Omega. God's goodness dominates the beginning of everything. God's goodness dominates the end of everything. We are between. There's two wonderful gifts of God, two wonderful manifestations of goodness. We look back to the gifts of God, we look back to the gifts that we have received, and that enables us to have the courage to hope, to look forward to the gifts that are still to be.

[09:05]

As I say, we have no control over the beginning, not the beginning of the world and not the beginning of our own lives. And we will have no control over the end, over the time or the manner of its coming. Nor should we. And that is why suicide is such a terrible tragedy. because of radical distrust in God's wisdom for picking the time and picking the manner of the end. Now, what we do between beginning and end is going to, of course, be important for how we receive the gift of God at the end. We must learn how to appropriate the goodness that God has made available.

[10:16]

I had a confere, who's now dead. We used to take long walks together. And he was always sort of probing, questioning. And he would say at times, only half in jest, he would say, It doesn't seem fair. I did not ask to be born, and yet here I am. And now I'm responsible for what I do with my life. I think I should have had a vote on whether I should be born, whether I want to take this risk. I hope he has resolved that question. It got me to thinking though, and I am pretty well convinced now, that the real meaning of baptism, I mean not the pouring of the water on the infant, that theologically is baptism, but existentially that's not the baptism.

[11:35]

The baptism occurs when I personally claim my baptism, when I personally can say what the Sponsors said for me, and accept that, embrace that. Now, this can happen in various times. I used to think this is why the Church had confirmation. The confirmation was the time when the people who were baptized as infants would have a chance now as they acquire freedom and identity to claim their baptism. And in fact I was asked to give a homily one time for a confirmation and I went out to the Abbey Church and I had this all prepared about now is the moment when you have this wonderful opportunity to claim all those things that commitment to unselfishness and all, and I looked out at the children who were being confirmed 12-year-olds.

[12:43]

I quickly had to adjust my homily. They were not ready to claim anything. But there is a time, there is a time, it may be, I don't know, 16, 17, 21, 35, It varies a great deal from individuals, depending on circumstances. The time when you have to claim your baptism, you have to make it your own. And I think that's when you say to the Lord, you know, up to now I've been wondering whether it's a good thing to be, for me to be, And now I agree with you. I agree that it was a good thing for you to make me. I accept that as a gift.

[13:48]

And I'm going to seize this opportunity which you have given me. I'm going to use this life to open myself to the goodness that you have provided, much of it hidden, much of it requiring a deliberate decision to be open, to receive, to be ready. And then I'm going to take the blessing of that goodness, the freedom that that goodness gives me, and I'm going to convert that into goodness for others. People argue at great length about morality, ethics, how to live a good life. I think it's really very simple. Not easy, but simple.

[14:51]

Simple to understand and hard to live. And it is to open oneself at all times, in every way possible, to every sign of goodness. Not only to grudgingly admit that I have been blessed in some way. All right, I guess I can't deny it any longer. That was a good thing that happened to me. No, no, not that. But to be ready for it, to be looking for it, to know that there is much more goodness in life than I have ever dreamed of, to open myself to goodness, and then to translate that into becoming a sign of goodness to others, to becoming part of the goodness, part of the good news.

[15:57]

To live in promise. To live in promise means to live without being fulfilled. To live in promise is wonderful because it gives hope. It gives encouragement. It gives the ability to go on. It illuminates the horizon. But it has a dark side too. To live in hope is to be searching and yearning, aching to be fulfilled. To live in hope is to be homesick. and homesickness is a terrible malady.

[17:03]

I recall leaving my home, a nice farm, eight brothers and sisters, cows, pigs, chickens, all that domestic stuff. Being torn out of that and sent to St. Vincent, Big, high ceiling. Big hallways. Wax floors. I can still smell the wax. Strange. Alien. Being sent there at age 12, while I was going on 13. I felt like 6. That first... About this time, about this time of the year. September wasn't bad. There was football and there was stuff going on, but after Christmas, it was awful. Homesickness, terrible, terrible thing.

[18:10]

You get over it, but it's painful. And so, to be in touch with reality is not to be devoid of pain, but it's got to be the right kind of pain. The pain of yearning, the pain of searching, that's good pain. The only people who aren't homesick are those who have no homes. Blessed are those who can be homesick, who have had an experience of home that makes homesickness possible, have an image of home. To be a Christian is to be yearning, to be searching. Then of course there are those Christians who make a profession of searching.

[19:12]

They're called monks. That's sufficient for them just to be Christian. The ordinary search. They make it the very point, focus of their lives. To be searching and to be singing while they search in hope, living in promise. A wonderful passage in the first chapter of John, chapter 1, verse 37. John the Baptist had just pointed out Jesus and said, Behold, the Lamb of God. Then two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What do you seek? What are you looking for? Now, this is the same kind of question that Benedict says the novice should be concerned about, or the novice master.

[20:25]

Does the novice truly seek God? That doesn't mean, is the novice interested in theology? means something much more profound than that. Does the novice truly seek God? What are you seeking? I would like to attempt to paraphrase that. Have Jesus say, why, you must be earthlings, because I see that you are looking for something. That it is so typical of a human being to be searching, that that can almost be the definition of a human being. It's almost like E.T. turns around and says, oh, I see two earthlings following me. How can I tell?

[21:26]

You got that longing, faraway look in their eyes. It has been said that the only animal on the earth that doesn't know why it's here is the human animal. And if you ever observed, you know, irrational or, you know, non-human animals, you will find that they're not sitting there saying, what am I here for? What is life for? You don't hear those sheep asking these questions. And when it comes time to die, they die peacefully, if they've had the chance to die, naturally. But we are searchers. We are constantly looking for something, yearning for something. And if we aren't, then we're in worse trouble yet, because we don't even know what it means to be human.

[22:30]

So Jesus says, what are you looking for? And they said to him, Rabbi, I think they must have understood that if you know us that well, you must be a teacher. If you know the question that well, you must know something about the answer. Rabbi, teacher, where are you staying? Where are you staying? Recitus appears to be a request for his address. Where are you living? But that would be a mistake, I think, because the verb used here by John for stay is meno. which means to stay, to remain, to abide. One of his favorite verbs, if you look at the back of Ray Brown's two volumes, he has a whole special appendix on meno.

[23:40]

It occurs in John's gospel like five times more than all the synoptics together. and occurs in those wonderful passages, the Father abides in me, and I abide in the Father, and you shall abide in us. So this is not about a place, it's not about an address. Where do you live? The answer to this question is not 5th and Main. I think, again, one could paraphrase this and say, they say to Jesus, where is our home? Where is the place of abiding? Where do we belong? You're right. You have noticed correctly that we are searching and yearning

[24:44]

And if you have noticed that, maybe you know where we belong. Maybe you know where home is, where peace is. And Jesus said to them, Come and see. Come and see. That's not a theological answer. Home is in heaven. No, no, he didn't say. Come and see. Come and walk with me. And gradually you will come to know where you belong, where you can find rest, where you can satisfy this ache in you. Come and walk with me. He says, they came and saw where he was staying.

[25:47]

Oh, that's got to have many levels of meaning. They came with him in Palatine, but they came and saw the whole history of John's mystical community. We have come to know him. Remember, first John touched him, caressed him, the word of life. A lifelong experience. came to know, they came and stayed with Him, and they stayed that day, that day. If today you hear His voice, the today of a lifetime, and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. It's one of those texts that, you know, it just... For it was about the tenth hour, because it was about the tenth hour,

[26:56]

Now, the 10th hour is supposed to give us some idea of what staying with Jesus means. To stay the full day with Jesus is to enter into the 10th hour. The 10th hour is 4 p.m. The cool of the day. The 10th hour was the time When Yahweh God came walking in the garden to rest with man, to bring man into His company, to keep Sabbath with man, and man was hiding because he had distrusted the Lord. It was the cool of the day. Jesus says, come and see, come and walk with me and I will lead you to that time of rest, time of communion.

[28:16]

The fulfillment, the only authentic fulfillment. It's just far-fetched to remember that the whole first chapter of John is illuminated with allusions to Genesis. Things happening on certain days, the third day, the second day, in the beginning. To be searching is to be to be ready, to be vulnerable, to be docile, to be listening. To be searching is not to know at all. To be searching is not to understand. There's a Quaker author, Douglas Steer.

[29:22]

You may have read some of his works. And he wrote an article one time on readiness. And he told a story there about a Quaker minister who was visiting another congregation. and he was preparing to make his little speech or conference, whatever it was, and I've always thought that this is the perfect introduction. I've been introduced many times in many different ways, but this is the perfect introduction. When it came time for him to give his talk to this congregation, the elder or someone, the deacon, got up and I turned to him and said, Reverend Smith, we are ready. Are you ready?

[30:23]

And sat down. Those are the only two questions that are pertinent at that time. And really, those are the only two questions that have any meaning. Because you can get up and say, this person went to school here and wrote these articles, but he's not going to talk about those articles. That's irrelevant, really. The only question that has any meaning for the speaker at that time is, is this audience ready? Are you ready to hear something new? Have you come to learn or to judge? Are you ready maybe to hear something that you have been waiting to hear for many years? It's when we least expect it that the Word comes. And since we never know exactly when it's going to come, we must always be attentive. I've taught long enough to know that students who are not ready to learn cannot be taught.

[31:35]

And those who are ready to learn, well, there's a chance. Then the teacher has a chance. But I don't care how good you are at teaching, They don't want to learn. You cannot teach them. So, are you ready? We are ready, he said. We are ready. We're ready to hear something that can change our lives, that can make a difference. And are you ready? Not in the sense of prepared. Hopefully that too. but ready to speak not just from your head, from the safe place, but to speak from your heart, from your experience. Are you ready to speak to us about how you experience life, which is a dangerous thing to do?

[32:44]

because someone may shake his head, maybe even laugh a little bit. He goes on, he said, Lord, you are always ready, but am I ever ready? You know, we tend to think the Lord is not ready. Where were you, Lord? Where are you? The Lord is ready. There's no problem there. You are always ready. And then he prays, Lord, make me ready. Or at least make me more ready to be made ready. We celebrate the At least at the baptism of Jesus. Baptism.

[33:51]

And this year's gospel from Matthew talks about Jesus protesting, objecting, oh no, pardon me, John the Baptist protesting. I am not worthy. And Jesus insisting. And of course, you know, there have been times when theologians, scripture people wondered, why would Jesus insist on being baptized? Because he just wanted to give a good example, maybe. He didn't need it, we know that. Maybe he just wanted to give a good example. Something like the rabbi used to say that God didn't need to rest on the seventh day, because God can't get tired. But he knew that we need to rest, and so he thought he'd let on he was tired and rest on the seventh day so that we would know that that's the right thing to do. Well, I don't think God does things like that.

[34:57]

I might be wrong, but I don't think there's any need to play act to give us a good example. No, I think Jesus really wanted to be baptized because Baptism is not just for the removal of sin. Baptism does deal with sin. But most of all, baptism is a declaration of readiness. And if there is any sin that prevents your coming, O Lord, I now renounce it. But the positive and the more important part of baptism is, Lord, I am ready. We are ready. And that is certainly what John the Baptist was doing. He was baptizing people who were, in effect, saying, Lord, we have been waiting all these years, several centuries now.

[36:08]

Lord, We want you to know there are no conditions anymore, no conditions. Come in any way you wish, but please come soon. Jesus joined Israel in that symbolic action of readiness, of openness to God. And when Jesus joined Israel, it was the moment of divine providence. It triggered. The times were fulfilled. The jars of time were filled up. And God saw Jesus with Israel. Heavens then are torn open. And the voice from the heaven, the dove comes first of all, the sign of the new creation.

[37:17]

Then the voice says, you are my beloved son. In effect, what God is saying is, I am ready too. I am ready now to respond to your readiness by calling my son. by naming my son, by setting my son on this mission, the new creation. What kind of new creation? Not new trees, new animals. No, the nature of the new creation is suggested in the words of the Father. who are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. The new creation will be a new manifestation of God's love.

[38:22]

No one would ever have dared to believe that God cared that much if they had not seen Jesus. Jesus is the revelation of how much God cares, the revelation of God's goodness. I recall in a theology class with Sanos Soma one time that Cipriano Vaggeni, a great professor, probably the best professor I ever had, lucid, clear, eloquent in Latin too. Cipriano Vagagini, who is living now in Camalboli, spending his last days in contemplation, he said one time, and he was not given to, you know, wild statements by any means, he said, the single most important revelation of the New Testament

[39:32]

is the fatherhood of God. Now remember being skeptical about that. Oh, come on. God called himself father to Israel too. David, he was his father. What he was saying was we had no idea to what extent God shows himself a loving father, no idea to what extent that is true until we see what God did in Jesus. And when we see in Jesus what the love of Father can do in a human being, Jesus as man, extraordinary. result of that wonderful love.

[40:35]

To give him a freedom that would enable him to give himself totally to God, to give him a freedom and a courage to choose a path Total self-giving is an ideal we find difficult to imitate. The goodness of God manifested in Jesus. So when Jesus says, come and see, come and walk with me, he is saying, come and learn about the goodness of God. And he's also saying, come and learn how to turn your goodness into sacrifice and love of others.

[41:43]

Build in some ways by reminding you and reminding myself of the very basic, real human experience of being restless, searching, unfulfilled. Sometimes, of course, our culture suggests that there is no way to be fulfilled and therefore one should settle for something far less than our aspirations would suggest. So you get people who are fatalistic about the possibility of real human happiness. But we believe that the word of God, promise of God, if anything, exceeds

[42:58]

everything that we could aspire to, hope for. The important thing is to know how to search, to know the way, not to be searching in vain, to know the signs that one is on the right path. It will not be lack of homesickness that will indicate that you can get a kind of a false sense of security, security of predestination. As a matter of fact, I think predestination is so attractive because it gives a security. But it's not a very solid security. But there is a way of knowing, a way of being in the right place, looking for the right things.

[44:04]

Perhaps the best word for describing this attitude is that of listening, to listen. The scriptures are full of people who are listening. The psalmist, Psalm 95, if today you hear his word, harden not your hearts. No accident that that was made the invitatory for every day, for the opening of the monastic day, if today you hear his word. Mary was one who listened. The high point, the climax of the stories about Mary in the Gospels is the Annunciation.

[45:11]

That's the story to which the author gives the greatest amount of time and the greatest amount of detail. Because that's the critical story about Mary, how she listened and therefore became mother of the Messiah, mother of the Lord. From a traditional point of view, we look upon Mary as one who was given many privileges because she was mother of God, as Bishop Sheen used to say, What would you do for your mother on Mother's Day if you were God? Well, of course, there's no limit to what you would do if you were God. But this is not the approach of Scripture. The approach of Scripture is not the glories and privileges of Mary. They're not opposed to that, of course.

[46:15]

The approach of Scripture is Mary is the one who heard the word, who listened to the word. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word. Everything then flows from that. And I think the advantage of that is that we can imitate in some ways this obedience of Mary, this readiness of Mary. Perhaps not as generously as she did, but we can at least begin to imitate that. We can hardly imitate her glories and her privileges. We admire them. It's good to admire them, but it's also good to look at Mary as a model of believers. So all through scripture, certainly in the case of Jesus, he listens in the major events of the ministry of Jesus.

[47:25]

He is hearing the Father's voice, hearing what the Father says, that baptism, that transfiguration in the garden. Word of God. Word. Leslie Duart, in one of his books, says a word is the extension of a person into his environment. It's not just a vehicle for an idea. It's a way in which a person reaches out reaches into his environment, reaches beyond himself. In the Word of God, in John's Gospel, Jesus as Word comes from the fact that God must speak himself. The nature of God requires that he reach out the loving nature of God.

[48:32]

And so from all eternity, as long as there was God, there was the Word, God speaking Himself, God reaching out. Then this Word was refracted in many ways, in creation, in law, in the prophets, in wisdom, and finally and perfectly in Jesus. Alexander Jones, who studied with me in Jerusalem, taught me how to make tea. Alexander Jones, who of course was responsible for the first Jerusalem Bible, who wrote a little article in a book, in a yearbook of Jewish-Christian studies, put out by my senior Auster writer, you may be aware of it, The Bridge. I think it's volume one, one of the very first. There weren't that many volumes, Alexander Jones has an article in, I think, Volume 1 or 2, that the Word is a seed.

[49:37]

Well worth reading. It's one of the finest things I've ever read about the Word in the Gospel of John and in its prehistory in the Old Testament. But this Word is not addressed exclusively or even primarily to our heads, to our minds. We tend to be very cerebral. You know, if we were to create a picture of our bodies in terms of the importance we give to things, the head would be enormous. Very, very brain-oriented, especially those of us who are involved in education, scholarship, strong emphasis upon thinking, reasoning, and expression, articulation of thought.

[50:41]

That is important, of course, but the Word of God is not addressed exclusively to the mind, addressed to the whole being. And if anything, more to the heart than to the head. And this becomes evident when we note that the Word of God in the Bible is essentially not a spoken word, but an acted word. It is an event. The single most important thing that I have ever learned about the scriptures is this fact, that the word revelation in the Bible is first and foremost an event. The words, thousands, hundreds of thousands of words

[51:51]

of the Bible are meant to lead us to the event, to describe the event, to draw out the implications of the event. You recall that the shepherds in the old version, Matthew says, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this word that has happened. See this event. Event and word are almost interchangeable. And then suddenly scriptures begin to take some shape. It's not just that enormous amount of material. We begin to see what is primary, secondary in the scriptures. And it's elementary, of course. that the entire Old Testament revolves around, begins with, and is constantly dealing with the Exodus, the event that established Israel as God's people.

[53:06]

We never finish examining and dwelling upon the implications of the Exodus. Everything in the Old Testament was written after the exodus, in the light of the exodus, could not have been written as it was, had there been no exodus. That event in which God met His people, God revealed Himself to His people. What did they contribute to the event? Essentially, their need. And they cried out, in their bondage. Can anyone up there help us? Scholars have pointed out that they didn't cry out Yahweh, they didn't even know the name of God. Can anyone help us? That's a reminder that, to a large extent, our own

[54:16]

primary contribution to salvation is our humility, our acknowledgment of need. Without that, there can be no salvation. If you knew that you were blind, I would make you see. But since you say, we see, you remain in your blindness. Chapter 9, John's Gospel. to acknowledge one's need, to humbly admit that I cannot save myself. It seems obvious, but it's amazing to what extent we still try to save ourselves. Now, we must contribute, but we contribute mainly by receiving the gift

[55:18]

by receiving the intervention of God to help, and then by becoming gift to others. When Israel discovered late in the Old Testament period that there was reward and punishment after death, This was not a new revelation that God whispered to someone post-explicit in the Book of Wisdom 100 B.C. He did that already in Psalms and Job. No, this was a conclusion drawn from putting together the goodness of God discovered in Exodus and the experience of history and concluding that the goodness of God cannot be salvaged if this life is all there is.

[56:25]

Because too many wicked people die comfortably, and too many good people die miserably. And if God is good, there's got to be something beyond this life where the goodness of God is vindicated. So, all through the Old Testament they are examining the Exodus and drawing conclusions from it. The Exodus, the moment when God revealed himself to them to be one who is more powerful than the Pharaoh, but quite different from the Pharaoh, to be filled with chesed and emeth, gracious goodness and fidelity. The power of God was not the new thing that they learned about. If they had felt only the power of God, they would have simply had a change of pharaohs.

[57:32]

No, the new thing that they learned was that with that power, with that extraordinary power, there was combined this wonderful kindness, graciousness, Chesed. Two favorite attributes of God in Israel was chesed and emeth. They were constantly amazed that God should love them, that God should choose them. And they were amazed almost as much by the fact that God should be faithful in his loving, persevering in his loving. So over and over again in the Psalms and elsewhere, they identify God as the one who loves and is faithful.

[58:36]

The corresponding event The new exodus, it's really not another event. The fulfillment of exodus occurs, of course, in the passing over of Jesus. The exodus of Jesus. Luke's version of the transfiguration, which is not a word that is not caught in the English. And he said, and they were there discussing, that is, Elijah and Moses and Jesus, what a group to get together. And they were discussing his exodus, his passing over that was to take place soon in Jerusalem. What else would they be discussing? These men of the Old Testament, except the heart and soul of the Old Testament, discussing it with Jesus, who is now about to fulfill and complete and definitively present the exodus.

[59:52]

So the entire New Testament revolves around, is centered in the exodus of Jesus, the passing over of Jesus. And of course, as we know, The evangelist consciously tries to make it clear to us that there is no concern about historical chronology at any other place except the dying of Jesus. Now it was the time of the Passover. That has got to be in connection with the exodus of the Old Testament. And as we know in the Church, great controversies about the date of Easter. No concern really about the date of Christmas. We have no idea when that happened. I prefer myself the 4th of July. Just as likely as 25th of December. But the tradition has always been concerned about the date of Easter.

[61:01]

Because it's got to be, that's the connection with the Old Testament. So the Exodus event, which in a way recapitulates and recalls the creation event. The first gift of God, Exodus of the new creation. And then the Exodus is continued in that ritual, yearly ritual of Passover. And then on that anniversary, the exodus of Jesus, which continues then in the annual ritual of Eucharist. There is no Eucharist like the Easter Eucharist. It is unique. And every Eucharist we celebrate is an echo of the Easter Eucharist. First there was the echo every seventh day, every octave day. every Sunday, and then in between there are smaller echoes in the weekdays.

[62:07]

But they're all echoes of the great central mass Eucharist of Easter, which then leads into the consummation. And so we see the golden thread of salvation history from creation to consummation. Two critical nodes or points of of reference of Exodus and the death and resurrection of Jesus. Our task is to bring our little strand of life and history into that golden braid, to weave it into it, to make our journey gradually coincide more and more with that flow and that journey, the dying and the rising. I was, when I was a student in Jerusalem, we went down one day to the Holy Sepulchre, and Per Abel,

[63:13]

Great scholar, but terrible teacher. Parabell took us along. He was pointing out different things, and he had no sense of proportion. He'd say, here's a magnificent wall dating from the 13th century, and over there, there's a staircase. Just the same, like they're on the same level. Anyway, When he was there, we were wandering around a little bit, and he took us into the Greek choir. As you know, the Greeks had the central part of the Holy Sepulchre because they were there in the beginning, before the schism. So the Latins had that big chapel attached to the side of the Holy Sepulchre. But the center, the choir in the center, is the Greek Orthodox. So we were invited in there, of course, with great respect for the students of the École Biblique. And so we were wandering around there, and I noticed in the middle of that choir there is a kind of a little marble column, like a holy water font, except that there's no basin in it.

[64:19]

There's a round marble ball in it. It's the opposite of a basin. And so I came over and looked at that thing and I said, what is that? And this Greek monk who was there says, oh, nothing, nothing, rien, rien, nothing important. So I was more curious than ever. So I said, well, no, it must mean something. Oh, well, he says, yes, of course. He says, the simple people, not us, sophisticated ones, but the simple people. believe that this is the belly button of the world. I would go to him and say, I rubbed him. Imagine how many indulgences you get from touching, touching and warming yourself with the belly button of the world. And I thought, simple? No, not very simple at all.

[65:20]

profound, profound insight. Holy Sepulchre, the place of the dying and the rising, the place of Calvary and the tomb, are both under the same roof. The Holy Sepulchre, that is where the umbilical cord between Old and New Testament is found. That's the place where the transfer of life, the transfer of Salvation from Old and New Testament occurred right here, the belly button of the world. Our task is to get into that flow of life, to live into harmony with that vibration of life, the pulse of life. in creation, exodus, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Eucharist.

[66:22]

All the sacraments are clustered around the Eucharist. No question about its primacy. Baptism is for the purpose of making you eligible for the Eucharist. All the sacraments are related to it. If you don't understand the Eucharist, you don't understand Christianity. If you don't understand the death and resurrection of Jesus, you don't understand the Eucharist. And to some extent, if you don't understand the Exodus, you don't understand the death and resurrection. So if you don't have much time to study Scripture, focus on those two parts of Scripture, the Exodus and the passion narrative of Jesus. As we know, the New Testament, as Ray Brown said, the New Testament is written backwards.

[67:24]

The first gospel was nothing but the passion story. The most primitive gospel was a simplified and abbreviated passion story. Well, we have an example of it. In chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, verses 3 to 5, you have the shortest, the most succinct proclamation of the Gospel anywhere in the New Testament. And of course, as we know, Corinthians was written before any Gospel. Written about 55 A.D. And in this passage, Paul refers to this teaching as traditional. And I would remind you, can you imagine what it means to be a traditional teaching in 55 A.D., 25 years after the crucifixion, already traditional?

[68:36]

And what is it? That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised up on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cetus and then to the Twelve. Everything in the Gospel is contained in those four statements. And then they decided to add the public ministry stories. And why did they add those? Because he wanted to show us what led Jesus to this critical moment. What choices did he make that brought him to this end? What was the process by which he arrived at this final moment,

[69:39]

essential moment. And it's very revealing to us because we all are moving toward that kind of moment. And then finally, as an afterthought, they added the infancy narratives. And so, the Word is an event. An exodus event, a resurrection event. And how do we listen to this word? How do we enter into this word? How can we receive it? Well, we receive the revelation of an event by becoming part of the event. By joining experientially in the event. The Israelites understood this already, and even today in the Seder service, in the Passover service, you hear them saying, not to our forefathers alone did this happen, but to every one of us.

[71:01]

They are declaring that there is something about this event in which God is involved, that is both eternal and temporal. Since there is no time in God, and God is an actor, a participant in this event, it is in some ways a timeless event, and every generation can come up to it and join in it, in this threshold between time and eternity. And so every time we approach the Eucharist, every time we come to this critic, we are approaching eternity. We are approaching that timeless frontier and entering into the exodus and resurrection event. We do it not by being physically present at the Eucharist alone,

[72:06]

We do it by bringing the reality of our lives to it. The single most important requirement for entering into this event is personal honesty, truthfulness, the real meaning of humility. Humility is to be truthful. In order to understand the implications of personal honesty and truthfulness, we have to see what the alternative is. The alternative is illusion, or self-delusion, or daydreaming. We try to escape from the reality of our lives.

[73:08]

by replacing it with the illusion. We tend to create a world that is more comfortable, that is more acceptable, rather than deal with the reality of the world that God has given me. Now, the unfortunate thing is that the world that God has given me is a good world. But unfortunately, the first thing we notice about it is not its goodness. We're much more conscious of our shortcomings than we are of our assets. When I was rector of the seminary, we had many ways of evaluating the students. One of them was peer evaluation. It's a little tricky, but it can be very, very useful. So we'd ask the students to evaluate each other, and they would turn their evaluations in to me, and I had to convince them that this was a good thing, that this would be handled in a way that would respect their rights.

[74:25]

I told them, I said, the purpose of this is not so that I can find something to tell the bishop. The purpose of it is so that I can find something to tell you. And I would invite them to come in and I would say to them, well, what do you want? The good news or the bad news first? You know, I was amazed at how ready they were to hear bad news, how prepared they were to hear negative, critical comments, and how surprised they were to find their peers saying good things about them. We are, I guess, a fear of disappointment. But we tend to gear ourselves for the worst, for what is least encouraging, least... And then, of course,

[75:29]

And as a matter of fact, many, many very good things said about them. And the overall effect of this was encouragement. Occasionally you had to say, now then, I agree, you know, this is it. This is something true about you and you haven't faced this yet. And you're going to have to face it. Whether you stay in the seminary or leave, you're going to have to face this fact. You know, like, for example, you tend to manipulate people. This fellow manipulates people. He's nice and friendly when he wants something, but otherwise, you know, as in, you're not aware of this, but you have to learn this is something true about you and it's very dangerous. So, we need to come to know who we are. our strengths, our weaknesses, but what we are, who we are, the truth about ourselves.

[76:44]

I'm convinced that when Benedict asked his monks to take the vow of stability, he was concerned primarily with this critical matter of self-knowledge, I want you to stay in a community long enough to find out who you are. And if you listen in a community, they will tell you who you are. They being the abbot and your conference. If you listen carefully, they will tell you who you are. You don't find it by looking in the mirror. You find almost nothing from looking in the mirror. If you listen to conference, hopefully they will tell it to you in a kind way, in a diplomatic way. But if you listen, they will tell you. Don't be like the jar of eggs, who drove from monastery to monastery, and as soon as someone began to ask them questions, well, how long have you been doing this and doing that?

[78:02]

take off. Questions are getting too embarrassing. They're probing questions. I don't want to be probed. I don't want to know the truth. I want to live in this illusion. Stay put, so that you can learn the truth. And to the degree that we can be honest and truthful and have integrity, to the degree that we can be in touch with our experience, and find the goodness in it, and acknowledge the shortcomings in it, the weakness in it, and learn how to enhance the goodness and to forgive the weakness.

[79:07]

To that extent, we will enter into this revealing event. The most real part of history is in that story that God has told among us. We must try to become real enough and honest enough and truthful enough to become part of that, to interpret our lives according to the interpretation of that story. If we can do this, we will find that more and more we will learn to wonder at the goodness of God, at the gift of God. Instead of thinking constantly about what I don't have, I will begin to see what I do have, and to find the extraordinary opportunity that comes from being myself.

[80:24]

and doing what God wants me to do and not something else. And so, I think one can picture the scriptures as concentric circles. On the outer circle, there's hundreds of thousands of biblical words And I always tell my students, that's what this course is about. The outer circle. And how to learn the words, and know the words, and probe, and examine the words, in Greek and Hebrew if possible, but otherwise, with all the aids that are available, to get to know those words. But the real revelation is not really, not in the words. Real revelation leads us to this inner circle, the circle inside that, which is a circle of events.

[81:33]

The words are meant to lead us to events. Professors help you to deal with the words. Spiritual directors help you to deal with the events. I can give my students examinations on the words, but not on the events. I can't ask them questions like, are you being honest? It's an unfair question. It's not a question for class. It's a question for confession, for spiritual direction. But that's the critical area. That's where you learn what the Bible is all about. Now, as much about the words as possible, but the critical area is the events. Take Teresa, a little flower. said one time, I wish I could be a seminarian so that I could learn the scriptures in the original languages. She wanted to learn more about the words. I used to try to shame my students into studying Greek by telling them that.

[82:39]

Say, Teresa would love to have the opportunity you have. It didn't always work, but at least you have to try everything to motivate them. Anyway, so that's a critical event. the critical circle. Am I entering into the events? And then there is another circle, even deeper, at the very heart of this. And that's the circle of person. See, the person of Jesus is inside the event of Jesus. We try to become one with the event. in a thousand different ways and then we are put in contact with the person. That's the place of contemplation. Even spiritual directors move, stand back there. They try to lead you to that moment of contact, of meeting, of encounter.

[83:41]

That's a place for adoration and for communion. or prayer. And so we deal constantly with all these levels. And the point is to get to know the scriptures, lead them to the events and then to the person of Jesus. Blessed are those who have the opportunity to understand these things. the opportunity to hear the word.

[84:24]

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