To quickly recapitulate, we have been thinking about two words, about God and about I and I myself. All that we had to say about God was just an unfolding of that Psalm verse 63, 1, Oh God, you are my God. And that was a verse that was very dear to Kuala Damasis. And the more I think about it, the more it contains everything. It has these two aspects also. first simply, oh God, oh God, that is this confrontation with that tremendous mystery that we are surrounded by on all sides and immersed in, this actuality that we cannot grasp but that takes hold of us and so we can understand it in

[01:29]

And then, oh God, you are my God, you are my God. So, within this mystery, there is that relationship to the eternal Thou. It's all in there. And in that mystery, we have what frightens us, and this, oh God, is at the same time what frightens us, and at the same time what delights us. And the two come in that strange mixture together. Rudolf Otto, whom Father Damus has very frequently quoted, wrote this book The Holy. It's called The Holy, and he understands the holy, what we call here mystery, as that which makes us tremble and at the same time fascinate us.

[02:34]

Tremble and fascinate. It frightens and delights us at the same time. And that together with this I-Thou relationship, that's all in that one verse, O God, you are my God. And then the second, also a psalm verse from Psalm 8, what is God? What is man that you take notice of him? What is man that you pay heed to him? What is man that you think of him? That is now our littleness as humans, why should this great mystery be concerned with us? So, all we said about that was unpacking what is man, but God should be concerned with us.

[03:37]

And this we I asked the first question with the creation myth, who am I? what is life all about, and this myth led to the ritual, as expressed in the ritual, that enacts the hero myth. The ritual of sacrifice enacts the hero myth. That was what we spoke about this morning. And now we have to face the danger that this ritual becomes ritualistic. It remains there. So that's what we do. But it isn't really a translation into our lived everyday life. And that is where the homework comes in. That is why I asked you, how do we let the power of this daily Eucharist flow into our day, our moment-by-moment living, every moment of the day?

[04:55]

Yes, it is the translation of the stichiae enactment of the hieronymus, but then this enactment must not just stay in its ritual form, but it must come alive in every moment. That is the great question now before us. The answer to that question, how can I keep rituals from becoming ritualistic, flows out of what we have already said. We've already said our hero is Jesus Christ. Our sacrifice is the Eucharist. Eucharist means Thanksgiving. So, if we live gratefully, this Thanksgiving will, through grateful living, that is the most concise answer, through grateful living, this mystery will flow into our every moment of the day.

[06:13]

And that we need to see now a little more clearly and flesh it out. We can again start with the first phase of the hero, where the hero is set apart. for identification, and we saw that this is expressed and enacted in the sacrifice, in our case in the Eucharist, through the offertory, where the gifts that represent everything are set apart for identification. That means for each one of us, I am gift.

[07:19]

It's not just these gifts of bread and wine that are now brought to the altar. They present myself and they present the community and they present the whole church and they present the whole world because they are fruit of the earth, nature and work of human hands, we have said, no, it goes also the other way around. I am gift. I become gift. If I really enter into this ritual, I become also gift. I become blessing. The gifts are blessing. And each one of us is meant to be gifted also in the sense of being a blessing. I heard a very beautiful explanation of a beautiful imagery for this notion of blessing from a rabbi once.

[08:26]

I fortunately forgot his name. He was from Washington State, I'm pretty sure. And he said, For Jews, the image of blessing is the River Jordan. It comes down, it's fresh, cold water that comes into this rather deserted area and comes down as a wild stream from the Lebanon mountains and it flows into the Lake of Galilee, and that is a paradise. The lake is full of fish and is surrounded by orchards and by gardens and everything's blooming there. Our monastery of Tabka is there, and that's one of the most beautiful monasteries, little monastery. So this is the image of

[09:28]

joy and blessing with the Lake of Galilee. And then the same water of the River Jordan flows out of the Lake of Galilee and not very far and flows into the Dead Sea. And the Dead Sea is the absolute opposite of the Lake of Galilee. It's all around this desert. There's not a single fish in it. It's dead and stagnant. How can this be? And the answer is, in the Lake of Galilee, the blessing flows in and flows out. And in the Dead Sea, it only flows in and gets stagnant. So if every blessing that we receive, we pass on, it will be paradise. If we hold it and don't pass it on, it stagnates and

[10:33]

leads to death, dies. And in that sense, blessing, which the word blessing has actually comes from the same root as the word blood, you see, blood, blessing, we still hear that with the BL, the blessing is the bloodstream of the universe. Not only a bloodstream of the human family, you can say that too, but it's more, we are blessed by the animals, we are blessed by the plants that we eat. And we are blessed, of course, by one another, and our only task is to become blessing, to become blessing. so that others can say of us, I had to have brothers so and so in the community, that's really a blessing. He's a blessing for the whole community.

[11:36]

That's the ideal, that's what we should be, a blessing for the whole community. And that is what we sort of say, commit ourselves in the offertory, and we should be conscious of that as the gifts are being brought up to the altar. And that means, with regard to grateful living, that we learn to see that everything is gift. The gifts are called fruit of the earth and work of human hands, that means everything, and everything is gift. And again, you can turn this around, not only I am gift, each one of us meant to be gift, but you can also turn it around and say, I should look at everything I see as gift.

[12:38]

I should be alert to the fact that everything is gift. And we have a long way to go to that until we really do that. With big things, it's obvious. If you're sick and then you get well again, well, that's a great gift and you appreciate that. Or if somebody gives you a wonderful present, easy to see. But when you squeeze out the toothpaste and put it on your toothbrush, you most of the time are not thinking, this is a gift. You can say quickly, I have to brush my teeth. An opportunity lost. If you realize You could never in your life make a toothpaste or a toothbrush. If you left alone, I mean, dream something up with which you can somehow clean your teeth, but what a wonderful instrument that is.

[13:40]

And millions of people have probably worked on that, making the material out of which it is. First of all, inventing it, designing it. All these different designs nowadays that you have for toothbrushes have been fabricated transport it. Somebody had to pay for it. The money had to come somewhere and it's bought. Somebody gave it to us to live in poverty. So there's this toothbrush and then there's the toothpaste and again it's a total marvel. It's a healthy toothbrush and you put it on. At that moment, for instance, We should wake up. This is a gift. And this is just one little example. When you put on your shoes, could you make a pair of shoes? Innumerable labors were necessary to make this pair of shoes.

[14:43]

And we simply put it on quickly and have a shoot. stop and see this is a gift. Everything is a gift. Paper is a gift. The pen is a gift. The table is a gift. Quite apart from your health and you having learned to read and write, there's no end to it. Everything is a gift. Everything is a gift. And this is one of the great challenges In this line, from what is life all about, the hero being separated, the offertory, and recognizing everything as gifts. It's all in one piece. And we can say something very similar to the next step, the consecration. The hero encounters mystery, that means God, and in the book of Exodus 33, it says very clearly, Moses says, Moses wants to see God, and God says, Moses wants to see God's glory, important in the context of the transfiguration, glory is a key word, so Moses wants to see God's glory, and God says,

[16:07]

I will show you my back. He's sort of mooning Moses there. You will see my back, but you can't see my face. No one can see God and live. No one can see God and live. It's not enough. to imagine that if you, whatever that could mean, saw God, and then you would drop dead. That's not the idea. That isn't very much. It's like the Wizard of Oz who's a zap and you're dead. This is not worthy of God. What it means is no one can see God or even just catch the slightest glimpse of God and live happily ever after as if nothing has happened. That's what it means. It's absolutely life-changing.

[17:10]

And every time we come close to God and every time we lift up our eyes, and that was another favorite expression of Father Damascus, lift up your eyes. When Abraham sacrificed Isaac, God wanted him to sacrifice Isaac and he was bound and he had already lifted up the hand to slaughter Isaac. And then the angel calls him, don't do that. And he lifts up his eyes and he sees the lamb in the thorn bush. mythically speaking, the Lamb of God there really, but lift up your eyes. And he said, our trouble is we don't lift up our eyes, lift up your eyes. And so every time we lift up our eyes in the sense of looking a little beyond just the toothbrush to what all is in this gift of God,

[18:13]

We see God. We can see God in and through everything. Of course, it's just a tiny little glimpse, but it does not allow you to live afterwards as if nothing had happened. You die. The more you see, the more you die. Die simply to your accustomed ways, the ways in which everybody thinks and everybody does things. Actually, this is a good way of putting it, you die to deadness and you come alive. Because not being aware of the mystery is being dead. dead to the extent to which we are not aware of the mystery, we are alive to the extent to which we are aware of the mystery. So, dying to that deadness by lifting up our eyes and catching the smallest glimpse of that mystery

[19:17]

means coming alive. And that is why in the consecration we celebrate the death and the resurrection of Christ. We cannot even separate the two. It's not correct to separate them. We separate them in the celebration of Holy Week because There's so much to be celebrated about Good Friday and so much to be celebrated in the silence of Holy Saturday that we can't do it all at once. It's too much. But in the reality of the mystery, is one. Death and resurrection is one. And St. John's Gospel expresses that very well. That was also something that Father Damos has always pointed out to us. He says, Christ is lifted up. He speaks of Jesus Christ being lifted up.

[20:21]

And this lifting up is at the same time the lifting up on the cross, and the lifting up in the resurrection. And, he said, the ascension and Pentecost, because he, with a loud cry, he hands over his spirit. It doesn't say he gives up his spirit. It's a very deliberately chosen expression there in the Gospel of John. Christ hands over the spirit. He could have said he died. No, he wanted to say something very specifically, that in dying, He rose and ascended and handed over the Spirit. And then the other gospels tell us to take it apart. But John is still this one compact mystery. That was something that Father Damascus often came back to. That is what we celebrate at the consecration and what we should be aware of at the consecration.

[21:26]

And what corresponds to this in grateful living is the insight that under no circumstances can you give a gift to yourself. You can't buy it, but then it's not a gift. Or you can trade it in, it's not a gift. You can steal it, not a gift. It's a gift only if somebody else gives it to you. And that means death to our notion of independence. We die. We die to our notion of independence. But that notion of independence is anyway an illusion. No human being can survive more than a few days without other human beings.

[22:33]

We could have never survived when we were born if there wasn't somebody who nursed us for years before we could even be totally dependent on one another. But we have this notion of independence, and it's very dear to us. In general, maybe we acknowledge, yes, yes, everybody depends on everybody else, but this is an area in which we can check ourselves and look to what extent do I really fall prey to that notion of being independent. We are all, in each one of us, there's this little Mr. Independent who just treasures that independence. grateful living, we suppose that we die to that notion. And the reason why it is so important to us, there's a good reason.

[23:38]

We think that the opposite of independence is dependence, and we don't want to depend on others. Depending on others is slavery. It can be slavery. It can be something very unpleasant, and it's not something to be wished. But independence is also slavery because it's enslavement to an illusion. So what sets us free is the is interdependence. That's something very different. We die to our notion of independence and in that very same moment we rise to the joy of interdependence. Interdependence is mutual. Everybody belongs in everything and vice versa. And when we realize that,

[24:42]

Then, we have already passed from death to life, and the third phase is then the communion. And communion is communal celebration. Again, we saw it's the hero coming back as life-bringer to the community in the myth, in the story. It's the communion in the as the third phase of the sacrifice, communal meal, the communal celebration. And in grateful living, it is the joy of interdependence. Yes, yes, I want it. I say yes to this interdependence. And that Again, we should take with us from the communion service into every moment of the day.

[25:45]

The communion is too short this time, it's too short to celebrate this sufficiently. It takes a whole day until the next Eucharistic celebration to just really celebrate that. And the simple ways of celebrating just smiling, just smiling at somebody else, is one of the best ways of celebrating it. Exchange of a smile can say so much more, or say a good word when it is needed, or keep silence when it is needed. The gift of silence, very often we give one another the gift of a good word, but we overlook the fact that giving the other one silence can also be a real gift at the right moment when the other one doesn't want to be. disturbed and doesn't want to talk, I have a need to talk, then I can give the other one the gift of silence. But that is celebration.

[26:45]

That is the third phase of the sacrifice and the climax of grateful living. And all this is very nicely expressed in this French word, which, of course, Pierre will know, je suis reconnaissant. Je suis reconnaissant means three things. Je suis reconnaissant, I recognize that. It means, on the one hand, Simply, I recognize. So the intellect recognizes the gift as gift. That takes some intellect. That takes some intellect. Some people are just too dull to really recognize that everything is gift. You have to do a little thinking.

[27:46]

You have the intellect to wake up a little bit. But it also takes a measured intellect, because some people are so intellectual that they can never accept that anything is a gift, because they always think, oh, maybe it is just a bait, and somebody has a hook on it, or maybe it's just a bribe, or maybe there are some strings attached. So, too much thinking can also get you on the wrong track. You have to just have the right amount of intellect, and you will see you'll be reconnaissant I recognize the gift as gift, very important aspect. The second meaning of Je suis reconnaissant is I acknowledge. I acknowledge. And that is that death, you see, to our independence. Because to acknowledge the gift as gift, as we said, means under no circumstances can I give it myself.

[28:49]

The little child that brings a flower to the mother, The mother has given the child absolutely everything, a life, the education that makes the child want to give, the love that wants to be requited by this little flower, everything. And yet, under no circumstances can the mother give herself this gift. It's the greatest gift on earth when this child gives you this flower. And this is a little bit an image of what God, how God, the mother, feels towards us, or the father, because the God whom Jesus calls father behaves in every way like a Jewish mother anyway. The story of the prodigal son, he behaves like a mother. He sees the son coming from afar. The father is too busy in the office. The mother stands by the kitchen window. He runs to meet him. No self-respecting father will do that. The mother runs and embraces the child.

[29:53]

First thing she says, look at your shirt. You need a clean shirt. put the green shirt on him. We have to cook up a storm. Which father would think we have to cook up a storm for him? This is all a mother, you see. So God behaves very much like a mother towards us. And this mother, we can bring her that little flower. And it is a real gift. But The second aspect is dying to our independence, by acknowledging the gift as always getting it from someone else. That means acknowledging our interdependence. That's really what it means. And the third meaning of shuśvīda koneśa means simply, I'm grateful. And that is now not the intellect, not the will, the will that has to acknowledge our interdependence, but the emotions, the emotions are grateful, the emotions celebrate that gift.

[31:02]

Now, just one more brief aspect of this. This grateful living is, on the one hand, the fulfillment of what we were looking for, what is life all about, because it is something, it's an attitude that we can have moment by moment, grateful living, receiving and giving, becoming gift and receiving gift, and that means, this is now the new aspect, that we are really activating what we have called our immersion in this great mystery, in this divine mystery, because the great, what we call the divine virtues, faith, hope, and love, are activated by grateful living.

[32:04]

Again, these three phases that we have had, the first one To recognize the gift as gift presupposes faith. To recognize that everything is gift, that presupposes faith in the sense of trust. Faith isn't believing something, that is a little part of it that comes at the end. But faith is first and foremost trusting God, courageous trusting God. And we have an option as human beings We can either trust life or we cannot trust life, and that is fear, a resistance against life. And when in our childhood we have parents who Shall we get parents who show us faithfulness, then it is easy for us to grow into trust in life, if they show themselves trustworthy.

[33:18]

And the second thing is trust us, because both aspects belong to bringing children up in faith and in trust in life. You have to show yourself trustworthy and to have to trust them so that they learn to stand on their own two feet. If you only show yourself trustworthy, they become dependent. But if you show them trust, then both comes together. If we have the great blessing, and I have had it and I hope that all of you have had it, of having an upbringing that gives us trust in life, then that's relatively easy. There always come the difficulties in life where your trust is tested. That's why we spoke of the narrow spots and where you have to trust them instead of resist fearfully. But there are more and more people in the world, more and more children today who are not given this trust.

[34:23]

They do not have trustworthy parents. And it's very difficult to show yourself trustworthy if you have to go and work. Most mothers nowadays have to go work, and not only the fathers. So the children are alone, they're with strangers. And some of them, especially the poorest, are very, very much alone and left to themselves. So when you have then adults or young adults who have not been given that trust and shown that trust, then it's very difficult. They have no trust in life. They find that very difficult. The only way we can do, the only thing we can do is show ourselves trustworthy and show them trust, exactly what they should have gotten as children. But it is so much more difficult with adults, so much more difficult.

[35:28]

But for us at this moment, the only important thing is faith, trust in life is one aspect of life and everything that life contains as gift. And hope, religious hope, is openness for surprise. good definition that works. Our hope is openness for surprise, and that means a kind of dying to our independence because it means a dying to our hopes. Not dying in the sense that we have no hopes. A person of hope has many hopes, but when the hopes are shattered, that person isn't shattered. The next day he has a whole crop of new hopes.

[36:31]

she holds it very lightly. And why is that necessary? Because hopes are always things that we can imagine. We can't imagine, we can't hope. But religious hope is openness for the unimaginable, for surprise. And in that sense, surprise is the only name that we can dare to give to God within this mystery, because every other name boxes God in. But surprise leaves it completely open. So I like to call God the great surprise. If we open ourselves to that, that means we hold our hopes very lightly, and in that sense We go through this dying, through this encounter with mystery that the hero had to do in death, that the consecration is celebrated, and that in grateful living you also have to do.

[37:35]

You're open to surprise, and that is mystery in the middle of it. And the moment you open yourself to that surprise, you are led into that everybody belonging to everybody else, that blessing that flows through everybody, and that is you are led into love. Because love is the yes to belonging. That is, again, a good working definition for love. Love is the unconditional yes to mutual belonging. Unconditional yes to mutual belonging. Everything belongs to everything and I say yes to it. And that is celebration of life because when we think, if you think for instance of the last family party or party with friends or

[38:36]

Any real party that you had, any real celebration in the full human sense, not sort of a very pious celebration, but a real one with the dancers. What were you really celebrating? Birthday or anniversary or something? That was only the occasion. What you celebrate whenever you celebrate is togetherness. There's nothing else. We just celebrate. We celebrate together. And when we celebrate as a monastic community, there are also different occasions for which we celebrate. But what we lastly celebrate is that we belong together. That's our joy. That's the joy of human beings, to belong together. That is why in the Holy Word, the punishment that is meted out to false is excommunication.

[39:40]

In various degrees you are told, well if you do that you don't quite belong, you don't quite belong, and then the worst is you're completely excommunicated. So belonging is what it's all about in human life and in the community, and that belonging is If we see it correctly, the flow of faith and hope and love also belong to that great mystery of the Blessed Trinity, and there we are back in our doxology. I always get very excited and delighted when I talk about these things, because that's really our joy, you know, and on the one hand it's all so simple, and on the other hand it's so rich, it's so rich, so let's sum it all up in our Dexology again.

[40:51]

Glory be to the Father, who the Son, in the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Thank you.

[41:10]

@Transcribed_v004
@Text_v004
@Score_JJ