Father, dear brothers in Christ, we heard today, Sunday 6th of Jezima, the Gospel of the Sower, of the Seed. And the Seed is the Word. And we do this on this Sunday where we in a special way remember Saint Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, and the great servant of the Word, of the Gospel of God. And at the end, the solemn sentence, as for the part that fell on good soil, this is the people who have heard the word and cherish it.

[01:03]

And through their steadfastness they bear fruit in patience in enduring. Now this, as you realize, fits into the scheme, so to speak, of our retreat which is intended to concentrate on the idea of contemplation and to approach the contemplative life from various aspects. Up to now we have more spoken of contemplation as relating the archetype to the image, the two Templar, but naturally where persons are related to one another, this relation is really that and is brought about through the word.

[02:07]

And the word is certainly different from the sign, the material sign. The material sign is neutral. It does not really speak. in the true sense of the word because speaking only a person speaks I would say only a heart is able to speak and the word is exactly this it is the instrument manifests the thoughts and in the case of revelation It manifests the eternal thoughts of God's heart. And naturally for us, the Word is first and comes first in the Old Testament. If we speak here about this whole realm of the Word, we realize that that for our monastic life is central.

[03:20]

We did not, when we became monks, we did not enter the monastery for the purpose of working on this or that. We did not intend to use the monastery as a basis of operations, but the monastery for us the place where the divine wisdom takes its roots, the heavenly city Jerusalem. And with the very idea of the city is in the antiquity is always connected the idea of wisdom. The city is the seed of wisdom. There is Rome as the capital of the Roman Empire, and there is then the seat of the ruling wisdom of the Caesar.

[04:35]

And then there is Athens as the other important decisive city in the antiquity, and there is the city of the Academies, the city of the philosophers. Rome is the center of ruling wisdom, ruling through organization, ruling through command and obedience. Athens is the city in which the divine wisdom freely, as it were, plays its play. The beauty of the wisdom the irony, the full manifestation and development of human liberty, of the human genius, especially then in the arts. That was the idea of Athens.

[05:37]

But then there is Jerusalem, and Jerusalem again. Jerusalem is the city of the law of God. From Jerusalem The Word goes out into the Gentile world. Jerusalem is the city where the Word dwells, and this Word, the Word of God, glorifies in the city, glorifies the heart of the cult, the center of the temple. The heart of the temple is the Debir, and that means, as Saint Jerome, I think, translates it, the Oraculum. It means the place where the law is kept, the Ark and the Law. So it's the Word of God which dwells there.

[06:43]

and which is to man the way in which we not only receive the light from above, but also reflect it in the act of glorification, the act of cult. So it is therefore Rome that radiates in the light of order. ipax romana esti tranquilitas ordinis, tranquility of order. It is Athens, the light of human wisdom. It is Jerusalem, in the light of divine wisdom. And this divine wisdom then is fulfilled in the hymn, the praise of the glory of God. So that is then Jerusalem, that is the idea of the monastery.

[07:44]

The monastery is in that way really and truly a city. Even one can say in some way that the monastery under the rule of Saint Benedict in itself presents and realizes the three ideas. There certainly is the idea of the splendid weapons of obedience through which we, as soldiers of Christ, members of the Militia Christi, return through the labor of obedience to the one whom we left in the sloth of disobedience. There is also, in the monastery, Athens, the Academy. We are not, naturally, a monastery founded by Cassiodorus, a Roman senator and a splendid rabbi, intellectual.

[08:50]

Saint Benedict was not an intellectual. Still, he was a wise man, and he certainly loved, as we can see, from the rule, he loved first of all the Psalter. I think that most of the quotations of the rule are really taken from the Psalter. It's the beautiful thing that our spiritual law, the rule of Saint Benedict, really can be said to be born out of the Psalter. That is, of course, already the spirit, I would say, of Jerusalem, where the rule of life becomes the source of our soul. And so, in this way, the monastery entered the monastery as, and in order to participate, in order to drink from the sources

[09:58]

of divine wisdom. Why? Because it is the wisdom which gives us rest, which really transforms our minds, though so that we are able then also to say the wide word in conspective principis in the presence of the Prince, of our Divine Prince, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the monastery, therefore, is a monastic community that can be taken for granted, is full of the longing for the sublime divine. for those things for the taste of the divine wisdom.

[11:00]

That is our longing. And therefore we have many hours in our life we have reserved for the Lectio Divina. And these three things simply cannot be separated from one another, the prayer, the lecture, and the labor, the work. These three things make the monastic life. Now, and therefore also, are the decisive elements of any monastic formation. Today, as you know, we are struggling very much with this problem of the formation, monastic formation, of those who enter the monastery. Sometimes it occupies us, that question, before God really, and in our conscience and in a wide desire to do God's will and asking ourselves in all sincerity, are we accomplishing what we are really

[12:16]

called to do in the church. There, of course, is one of the greatest problems is that of the monastic formation, and the monastic formation in our context of this conference especially, as it centers around what we call Lectio Divina. In this field, naturally, things have changed a great deal since the days of Saint Benedict and since the days of the Middle Ages. Saint Benedict, a library, was not too much of a problem, I think. And even through the Middle Ages we see that. The place which is given for the Lectio Divina is the cloister. And in this cloud storm you can see that beautiful inscription, those who know Rome, that beautiful inscription in St.

[13:19]

Paul's outside the wall. So there is The cloister is the place where the monk reads. But then there is a little place, you know, there where some scrolls are carefully kept under the key, the lock and key. But, I mean, it doesn't take much space, you know. Today, if one builds a monastery, one of the greatest problems is what to do about the library. Every monastery has a library, and this library has not 60 volumes, but maybe 15,000. And therefore, of course, also, you see, you can see that right away, the whole character of the Lectio Divina changes. Certainly the monk, as the man of the spirit,

[14:22]

He draws his delights from the spiritual flowers that the pastors of Holy Scripture offer to us, that the Fathers already always considered as the great virtue which is inherent in the virtue of virginity. Virginity is seen as a positive, attitude of mind is naturally and brings with it the deep loving interest in the beauty of the spouse of the beloved. That tradition has always been strong in our monasteries, as you know very well. But today, naturally, it should be stronger than ever.

[15:24]

Why? Because God offers us completely new possibilities in the course of history. And through the variations and various circumstances, it just so happened that in these last centuries, These United States in which we live have taken a very special stand, should one say, or position in favor of what one calls education. I know that the word covers many things, but at the same time let us not, you know, miss the point and remember it, that the whole, one can say, the temperament of this country is based on the supposed and taken for granted interest of every individual, active understanding, intellectual interest of every individual.

[16:43]

That, one can say, that curiosity is an element, a national element. And how can a democracy work if not on the basis of universal education? Otherwise, what is democracy? It's in that way simply the pooling of the wisdom of the nation. I don't say that that infallibly always takes place, but I mean the idea is there, the attempt is being made, pooling the wisdom of the nation on the capital. Like the Acropolis of Athens, the Temple of Pallas Athene, the wisdom there.

[17:45]

brings out of the head of Zeus, in this case, the collective wisdom of the nation. And that is, of course, that is in itself a great ideal. Why? Because it is simply based on the intellectuals, among other things, in a way, the mental responsibility of every citizen. And I don't see at all why, mutandis, mutandis, and on a different level, the monastic community does not work on this same principle, mutatis, mutandis. But the curiosity for every Christian, that is absolutely taken for granted, but has he been baptized What is baptism?

[18:47]

Baptism is the sacrament of illumination, the sacrament of illumination. That was the new thing in Christianity, and it is the new thing up to this moment, that one cannot become a Christian, really in the full sense, without becoming and being a catechumen And that means a student. One has to be a student. Why? Because Christianity is the manifestation of the Word of God, made flesh, pouring out His wisdom over the entire church. So that, as St. Peter says at the day of Pentecost, when Christianity was born, so to speak, he says, no, no, no, don't be wrong.

[19:52]

These people are not drunk. That's what some of the little sarcastically inclined Jews were talking about. No, they are not drunk. this hour at nine o'clock in the morning, but this is what happened, that the words of the Prophet were fulfilled, and that is, I shall pour out of my spirit over the young ones and the old ones, and over all flesh, over the women and the men, the children and the old ones, who were the slaves and the free, they all are mentioned. So what is the Holy Spirit if not a divinely instituted school of wisdom?

[20:56]

And that is the law of the New Testament. and that is the law that therefore governs our life, and certainly also that of every Christian community. And for that reason it then came about this way, that there simply is no church without a pulpit. To indicate that the Word is an essential element of the Christian life, that therefore this holy curiosity to be initiated into the mysteries of the Divine Heart as revealed in the Word of Holy Scripture is absolutely taken for granted or is a must. As Christians, we cannot be in any way obscurantists.

[21:58]

We have nothing to do with that. In that way, baptism puts an end to it as the sacrament of illumination, of enlightenment. And so when we take that, of course, and apply it to the monastic community, what is a monk? A monk is simply a Christian, fully, all around. If he is a full Christian, all-around Christian, then certainly also one of his greatest delights is to dive into the fullness of these riches of divine wisdom that have been given to us in the Word of God in Holy Scripture. And therefore, our monastic formation certainly is, first of all, it seems to me, based on Holy Scripture, and is the cultivation of a deeper knowledge of the Scriptures.

[23:10]

It is just amazing. I mean, if one looks, if I look back on my own life, and I remember, now Maria laughs, That is not a club of obscurantists. And when I entered there, there was great intellectual life. But for some reason, I'm not quite sure, but you know very well that exegetes had a rather difficult time during the modernistic controversies. And I know then at that time, in the beginning of the 20th century, you know, yeah, I think around 1913-14, in these years, there was one father of Maria Lahr, whom the abbot, Abbot Illifon,

[24:15]

sent to study Holy Scripture, and he then unfortunately, I would say, went off the track. And I think that was a great shock to our abbot. and he has a certain anxiety about the study of the scripture, especially as it was being handled at the time on the university. which was to him too much influenced by the Protestant liberalism, and therefore was to him, and objectively, too much of a danger to the monk. And he himself had another approach to Holy Scripture. For him, he was not an exegete.

[25:17]

But he approached the Holy Scripture in the context of the worship of the Church. That means in the context, and one can say in the atmosphere, in the light of the Ecclesia Orans, of the Church in prayer. And he had, and then of course he was right in that, he had the feeling that liberal exegesis, as it was being taught, in the beginning of the 20th century on the universities was the opposite and destructive of this kind of approach. And that is why he kept away from it. But as a result, I mean, if I think back on my own life, you know, when we entered, and I entered Maria La, and the novitiate, Then we were all studying the fathers.

[26:21]

That was, I still know, I had at this time, I had certainly appendicitis, and I had to be shipped off in a hurry to a hospital there, a little hospital. They did not have too good a job, I must say. But one thing I took with me, and that was origin, origines, origins. On the canticle of canticles, that was about the highest point. I mean, you couldn't go higher in studying the fathers, then come to origin and the commentary of the canticle of canticles. And of course, you always are ambitious in those things, you know, so there I was, I landed you know, with Origen and the Canticle of Canticles.

[27:25]

But the real, let us say, the real reading, getting in later on, I was then shipped off to Rome after this. You know, this appendicitis helped me to get around the exams. I did not I was not an examiner. It was the first year of philosophy, and this Thomistic philosophy and logic was absolutely a closed book to me. I didn't understand a thing about it, absolutely contrary to my whole thing. And still the abbot decided, and fortunately I didn't have to take the exams for some reason? Because that's just the time I was sick, see, so I was then sent to Rome to study philosophy. If I had taken those exams, one would have discovered my abysmal inferiority in this field.

[28:27]

And so, then later on in Rome, we had a course, not all in Latin, Athanasius Miller, he was our teacher, later became Secretary of the Pontifical Commission on Holy Scripture, and I remember we had a very nice class on the messianic prophecies of Isaiah, and then we had introduction into the Old and New Testament by Hildebrand Höpfel, but that was about all that we got. I must confess that a real attempt, let us say, a real reading of Holy Scripture in my life took place only here in the United States, and that was when an Anglican

[29:32]

He was the dean of Dallas in Texas, of the cathedral, the Episcopal Cathedral. It was Roger Woods. And he entered the church, and he was sent by Cardinal Spellman to our little place in New Jersey to be initiated into Thomistic philosophy. So I had to teach him philosophy, and he said he would take revenge, you know, and initiate me into Holy Scripture. So I taught him metaphysics, and he taught me the Minor Prophets. And that was the first beginning, really, of a real, let us say, serious meeting and encounter with Holy Scripture. And then after he died then, and then I continued that simply on my own.

[30:41]

And then had the time, at least in Regina Laudis, with the Benedictine French nuns that had landed there and had to be wanted a chaplain. And there I was. and found myself writing pathways in holy scripture. It was a rather ambitious undertaking if I look back at it now. I can understand some misgivings that the scholars had when they were reading these pages. Definitely the work of a beginner. But my naivete was my greatest support. So, but I mean, there you see, you know, that is that, and I think that in Mario Lardo, we were all concentrated and we all were talking and constantly studying the Mysterium.

[31:53]

Everything was concentrated on the Mysterium. because that was the things that the Jesuits attacked. And of course we had to gather together all intellectual forces to focus them on this thing. And the novices were already right away, of course, initiated into the Mysterium. And so Holy Scripture in that way, you know, at that time was No one can say secondary. But then, of course, the liturgical movement, out of its own inner logic, simply the very fact that, one can say, the nature of Christian worship simply led, you know, forced, as it were, all of us into scripture. Bible and liturgy, you know, the first publications on this field.

[33:01]

And that was, of course, also in many ways the works and various attempts. The more Odo castled, the older he grew, the more he really turned to scripture. But, of course, his interest was mainly focused on St. Paul, the epistles of St. Paul. And later on, when the say that developed, little then he also more and more became better and better acquainted with the prophets. But the Old Testament as a whole one must say, unfortunately, was not up Father Odo's alley. Why? Because he considered the people of the old, the chosen people of the Old Testament, as men of the law, and therefore as that hold the law as the

[34:16]

dominant factor, and that, of course, is then offering sacrifices. And not only one sacrifice, but two are better, and three are better than two, and four are better than three, and five are better than three. Finally, you come into the thousands in the Paschal Night in Jerusalem. And that, of course, was contribution, and that was not in the line of the Mysterium as a memorial of the salvation that Christ once and for all has worked on the cross for all of us and for all ages. That was an idea then that, of course, that Father Odo's whole thinking was centered around, and he always tried at that time, one can still see how these things develop, approach to approach it somehow in the light of Greek

[35:27]

comparative religion, especially religions of the antiquity, the Greco-Roman antiquity as the civilization into which Christianity was born, the cradle of Christianity. And therefore that led him to an underestimation of the importance of the Old Testament really in the economy of divine salvation, also for the liturgy, So for the psalms, now of course we have a book like that by Weiser, you know, on the psalms, and of course he opens up new alleys. Warwinkle had already started that same thing, to look at the psalms, Gunkel II, Gunkel. On the line, and what is the home of the psalms? Kurt, his worship. And therefore, what is the idea also in Jewish worship is that of the theophania, of the manifestation of God.

[36:36]

and therefore we see there too the, however we call it, the vestiges or the foundations of the general idea of the Mysterium already also in the cult of the Old Testament. That is for us now, at this time, it is much more evident than it was at the time when I began to study the Old Testament. We consider the Old Testament simply as the place where the Messianic prophecies were to be looked up. So then, you see, but there you see that now we have, in these last decades, we have developed, we have developed. Now more and more, and that is the beautiful thing, and you experience that, you experience that in among the Cistercians, we experience it, the Benedictines and the Vatican Council, the whole Church experiences it, and the solemn intronization of the Gospel as the intronization of the Regular, the Canon of all canons, you know, the rule of all rules,

[37:57]

under which and in whose presence the council is gathered together. So that indicates there is a new, one can say really, a new age is opening. And that is absolutely evident if one gets accustomed, for example, if one goes around, you know, and sees, for example, listening in Mount Sabaean or listening to the Epistle and the Gospel in English every day, seeing it here, seeing it in all various parishes, that is bound to have a tremendous impact on the Church as a whole, and also on the attitude of every individual Catholic, and therefore also and even much more on monasticism, that in the future the Word of God is in much deeper way than ever before, the center of the attention, where we incline the ear of our heart to listen to the word of the Father.

[39:10]

So let us enter into this whole spirit, you know, with a full heart. The Church wants it, and that means the Holy Spirit wants it, and the Holy Spirit is moving the hearts that we really begin again to listen, There might be, as it is always the case in those periods of changes, there might be some exaggerations. There might be also some things that, after a while, may go on some people's nerves. There are always certain edges that have to be worked off, certain exaggerations that will die down. But what will remain, you know, is really the Word of God firmly, one can say, enthroned in Jerusalem, in the Church, and in the hearts, you know, of Catholic Christians.

[40:20]

And I would say that this thing, you see, what happens now in the Church is completely different from what had happened in the Reformation in Protestantism. I would first of all not underestimate the tremendous effect which what they call the liberation of the word of God, in a polemical way, was in the time of the Reformation. That has had a tremendous effect on the life and the thinking of the people, especially of the people in general. I know it from my experience in Germany. What a tremendous—also the family life and how much in good Protestant families—Lutheran, especially Lutheran families, not so much the Calvinists, but the Lutheran

[41:26]

how much, really, the Word of God, the Bible, had to do with the family spirit, and how it was really creating the Christian whole. Now, in horror, at the same time, we realize that Protestantism suffers. Why? Because the Word is there, but the spirit of unity in which this word is being heard. That, of course, had been deadly violated by the Reformation as soon as it took, in the course of the events—and how much guilt there is, only God knows—the character of a rebellion, which it was not intended to be in the but of a de facto of rebellion. Therefore, in the end, the authority, the teaching authority was lacking, and it was left to the individual, to the Holy Spirit working in the individual.

[42:39]

And that, of course, was the beginning of great confusion. But now, you see, the Word of God, under the guidance of the Church, but in that fullness in which we approach it in these last years. That will have, of course, a much, I'm sure, much deeper effect. The word of God in Protestantism in many ways has been, let us say, has lost its power. Why? Because it was too much approach. from an individualistic point of view. Too much, therefore, the individual and his book. This, by the way, is a typical German attitude. Let all the Venetian blinds down, you know, have the snow outside the storm, have a nice little fire, and then a little lamp, and have your book, and have your mind.

[43:47]

That is what made Descartes say, you know, as his wise principle, I think and therefore I am. Christian mark. So that is, you know, there are the deviations. But imagine if this power of the word, you know, comes into its full right, so to speak, in the legitimate setup, you know, of the Catholic Church. I say legitimate setup. I would say if the Word of God develops its full power in the Caritas Catholica, in that charity which the unity of the Church represents and is, only take only the tremendous experience of the Council and the way in which, in the Council, the wisdom of God proceeds.

[44:55]

One can of course read in the papers, yes, the Holy Father had to pacify this one, and he had to do this one, and therefore it's a compromise, and so on, all this kind of things. These people understand, of course, the things of the Church, first of all, in a political manner. That's the way. It's all power politics. But, of course, one should not forget that behind also various opposing groups and conflicting ideas. First of all, it's the same zeal for the objective truth. And at the same time, too, there's that perfect bond of charity that means the inner determination to do this as one body and not to split up the Church. into simply factions and parties and provoke a schism, the one thing that the Holy Father is really deeply, let's say, afraid of.

[46:05]

But isn't, you know, by the grace of God, we do this thing not to the perfect satisfaction of every individual? That's, of course, impossible. if it were done to the perfect satisfaction of one, or several, or a group of individuals, or to the other people. So, I mean it's done really in an attempt at real, let us say, concordia, as a harmony, as one body. And I think that is in itself an absolutely wonderful manifestation in our days which is incomparable to any other gathering of any other religion or Christian sects of any kind. There is simply no parallel whatsoever with the Vatican Council. No parallel. In that way we are complete, thank God, unique.

[47:08]

Now think, you see, what the Word of God and the role the Word of God plays there at the Council, but at the same time, again, I say, in the unity of charity. And that is our great hope, you know that. And of course, you realize that too, that in reading Holy Scripture, approaching Holy Scripture, you redo it, in the assembly. It is really, for us, essentially a public act. Why? Because it is the word which is spoken out of the heart of the Father, and which really, therefore, can only be understood in the unity of the agape of Christian charity. And therefore, a last little, just wanted to that, you know, tell that too, that the brothers here, you see, that they, in reading Holy Scripture, because there is always the question one can so easily, and that is,

[48:17]

A thing that in our various attempts at formation, you know, so often, you know, frustrates things. And also the reading of Holy Scripture. Holy Scripture is an ocean. It's a kind of library by itself, and can so easily get stuck. Read it, and then you want to understand right away everything. It's impossible. And you usually get stuck at the fourth chapter of Genesis. developed the idea of contemplation as extending, let us say, to the general region of the heart, trying to enter into the thoughts of God's heart from generation to generation. In this way we discover the heart of love, agape, of the Father.

[49:21]

Through the Son He was and is in the Father's bosom, and He has revealed Him and the thoughts of the Father's bosom to us. Who sees Me sees the Father. The Word was made flesh, and we have seen His glory. What is in this context His glory? It is His love, His sacrificial love, the love of self-emptying, of descending, of compassion. This love, this agape, is the bond which brings together, the perfect bond, which brings together ima sumis, the lowest and the highest, the bottom and the top, transforming the heart of fallen man into the image of God's heart.

[50:31]

Jeremiah has described to us the abyss of the heart of fallen man. He knew it so deeply through his own experience. But we also see it, if I may refer again with a certain trepidation, to the lessons. Genesis 6, I don't know if we agree, but anyhow we have read it today or not. There it is. And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man on the earth was great, and that man's every thought and all the inclination of his heart were only evil. He regretted that he had made man on the earth, and was grieved to the heart. And then the Lord said, I will wipe from the earth man whom I have created.

[51:40]

Now, have you read that? Not? What's the matter with the monastic bravery? But I just wanted to call your attention to it because it struck me, you see, just when this morning in reading it, in our bravery, Benedict's bravery. that there are the two, the inclination of man's heart was only evil, that's the abyss. But then in relation, you know, if that is seen and realized, that we speak in human terms, tactus dolori cordis intrinsicus, I think it's one of the most beautiful little sentences in the whole of Holy Scripture, because sometimes we have to, we shouldn't too much, but we have to kind of defend ourselves against people who distort the Christian idea of the father's justice, who kind of glories in the blood of his son or something like that.

[53:01]

And we're here, you know, so clearly the inner heart of divine justice is revealed Again, in a human way, how else can we do it? But still, absolutely divine, a true revelation of the heart of God, that this judgment of condemnation is said by the Father, tactus dolore cordis intrinsicus, interiorly grieved, touched by the sorrow of his heart. interiorly pierced by the sorrow of his heart, the Father says, I will wipe from the earth man whom I have created. That gives us a glimpse, really, of the heart of God, the thoughts of the heart of God, who, of course, then at the end of this story, finds

[54:08]

The ant receives the offering, the sacrifice of Noah, who found favor with God, a just man, blameless among the men of his day, and, the decisive thing, obedient, obedient in building the ark of wood as the instrument of salvation, that floating island on the flume, exactly according to the measures indicated by God. That old picture of the Church. And not only for himself, but for his family, he and his family. Not only he and his family, but the entire animal world with him. So all the living flesh, the seed of flesh, that last seed of hope, survival, for a new future, for a new beginning, floating on the waves of the flood.

[55:27]

And then the dove comes, earns the olive branch in the beak The indication that there the earth is now new, because what is the olive tree? But, naturally, the olive tree stands for the element of oil. What is oil? Oil is the healing. Oil is nourishment. Oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, of the healing, strengthening, consoling, restoring agape of God. In the beak of the dove, the dove always, the symbol of the community of love, of the kolumba, of which Saint Augustine speaks so beautifully, that communion of saints.

[56:28]

invisible as long as we live and pitter and wander here on this earth, but visible once in the future, the communion of saints. And then we know naturally that all these things point to the Messiah, the Anointed One, who rises out of the waters of baptism, and again the dove appears. He is the olive branch. He is the new earth. He is the new beginning, the new and second Adam, the spiritual Adam. So we see, my dear friends, there are all these tremendous perspectives, you know, that the very thought of the Divine Agape, the thoughts of God, is a source of light spreading through our hearts, opening up doors in every possible direction.

[57:40]

So the sacrifice was offered by Noah Newell was the first who built an altar. He builds this altar. What does it mean? It is the representation, so the rabbinic interpreters always explain it, the mountain. What is the mountain? But the symbol, the abbreviation, let us say, of the earth. covenant with Noah was a covenant between heaven and earth, God and the earth. The altar representing this, the sacrifice that is offered there in odorem suavitatis, an odor of sweetness. St. Paul refers to this scene when he later on calls us an odor of sweetness.

[58:43]

And then the Father's heart, as it is said again, as we see that in the ninth, eighth chapter of Genesis, then Noah built an altar to the Lord, he took every clean animal, every clean bird, offered holocausts on the altar, the first time that the term holocaust appears here in Holy Scripture. When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself, and in the Hebrew text he said, he said within his heart, I will never again curse the ground on account of for the inclination of man's heart is evil for his youth. I will never again destroy every living creature as I have done." So that certainly points, it points to the future, points to the sacrifice of the Messiah. It'll be just because I'm so delighted that we're just preparing now for the first time, this community and you, the con celebration, the first con celebration.

[60:01]

I'm so glad I can, able to take a part in it. I think in preparing interior life for it, you would allow me just to continue some thoughts that may help us to understand the inner meaning of of a celebration like this. Guardini has written some time ago a very beautiful letter, probably was translated also into English, about the liturgical act And he warned, and I think it's so true, against superficiality at the present moment. Many changes are being made, and these changes may, as it is only natural, considering our weakness, also the weakness of our hearts, and we get stuck,

[61:14]

either in, let's say, in enthusiastic yes and amen to everything new, or in the reluctance to change old ways. That is the way we are torn in these days. And all that, you know, kind of kindled by the surface, by the newness which is then on the surface of man received either with too much attention to the new form as such or to greater reluctance to leave old form. and there to find the depth that is necessary.

[62:18]

That means to consider and really to confront the liturgical act, the liturgical act which is as such not and never, as we know so well, an external ceremony. As a ceremony, it wouldn't mean a thing. If it remains on the surface, it doesn't mean a thing. But every change, to say it again, has in itself, of course, the great danger just to fix our attention on the new accidentals. Because the way man is, the easiest way is always to get hooked in the accidentals. But of course, the contemplative and the monk does not live, really, on the level of the accidentals. He faces things as a matter of inner profession, of his inner dedication, I would really say, to the heart of God.

[63:30]

dedication to the heart of God, to the eternal thoughts of the love of God's heart. He faces the accidentals with the freedom of the Spirit. We know that there is, naturally, there is a close connection in the liturgy between the external form and the interior meaning, that is sure. But in order to really understand and then also enact the external form, it has to come from within. It has to have an inner echo in the heart. Because these things that we celebrate, they are in the Holy Eucharist. They are, as I tried to indicate yesterday, expressions of the heart of God.

[64:33]

So it's beautiful that we can enter on this day into this for the first time, into the celebration. Now, again, you know, The question arises, will it be a success on the level of the accidentals? But I think that question is already put the wrong way. It cannot be a success, but it cannot be but a success on the level of the heart, in the internal, inner. because it is, after all, also an acceptance of things that have been in the course of the Council. Through the evident inspiration of the Holy Spirit, doors have been opened and forms have been opened, and one of those is the conservation. It is true, of course, again, that every body and every priest has an inner inclination, an inner love for offering, now what we call His Mass.

[65:50]

The only thing, the only question is if the concelebration is less of His Mass. I would say it's more His Mass. Because how is a mass my mass? Only in inner, absolute inner, deep inner harmony with the thoughts of the heart of God. And that is for sure, and that is what immediately also the story of Noah tells us. That redemption and sacrifice are not limited to one person, but they are essentially always community actions. Noah was certainly one, the one favored son of God, so to speak, at the time. But for what purpose? He was loved, and he was the son as the father of a new generation.

[66:58]

Therefore, he was saved together with his family. He was not saved in that way as a solitary, but with his family, as the promise, therefore, and as the reality of a new generation, what we call the third generation. The altar itself that he built, if he built the altar, that very word already indicates that this building is done as a composition of several many stones. Probably, as that is shown in Holy Scripture, twelve stones. What are twelve? Twelve is the number of the communion of saints. That's what it is. So therefore, there the altar was built. And what is the dove that appears? What is the symbol of, again, of the communion of saints? So we see that the act of redemption

[68:01]

is interiorly and absolutely a community act. And therefore this sense of community should be expressed, it seems to me, first of all also in the con-celebration, you know, of priests. Because they are the outstanding centers of unity. For what are we consecrated priests if not, you know, for the church, for the people of God? Therefore, we are in that way, just as our Lord. As individuals, we are representatives of the whole people of God. And therefore, where in the categories of God's heart the individual enters into sacrifice, he does it as the representative of the whole people of God. For what purpose? That really God may be glorified.

[69:04]

Where is God glorified? Through the concordia. The inner harmony of hearts, ascending natures, describes it so beautifully. What are we? What is the Church? But a harp and the various strings on the harp. And on these strings, then, The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is playing. That is the idea of this saving celebration through which the Church as Church, the people of God, is constituted formally and publicly as people of God. When I, years ago, sometime in town hall in New York, I had the the pleasure of assisting at a series of conferences long before the ecumenical age had dawned, on of Jewish church music, cult music, and Protestant cult music, and Catholic cult liturgical music,

[70:17]

And it was preceded every time by an explanation of the essence of the cult. And there came the Jewish rabbi first, and he spoke about the Jewish liturgy. And what is the Jewish liturgy? It is the public proclamation of the presence of the kingdom of God among his people. Now that is a definition of the liturgy which as such is absolutely also ours Christian, in a deeper sense certainly, but the definition as such is there. The Mass is the public proclamation of the presence of the Kingdom of God on earth, and that Kingdom of God is the rule of God's heart, the rule of the divine agape, the actual manifestation of God's love among His children,

[71:25]

uniting them into the unity of one family, and there it is, and there it can be seen. And that is here also the meaning of the concelebration, to give that possibility, to show it in that way, the unity of the priesthood and of the people. So therefore this concelebration as such, you know, is in a deep context, you know, in an essential context. It is really and truly a liturgical act. It is not an external ceremony. It's not something new. It's not a little trimming added, so confusing rather. No, it is a manifestation, a new clear manifestation of the inner glory of the Kingdom of God, present in God's love for us, as shown through the one Lord Jesus Christ to all the members of his family.

[72:34]

So, in that way, if we go a little further from Noah and Noah's altar, just let us take one step and go from Noah, who is the, let us say, the Adam of a new generation, in the general sense of the word, and the covenant between God and the earth. But, of course, later on there is the other, the line of Abah. who is called out of the whole world of Babylon into that country that God will show him, whose builder and architect is God, the city. And that is what Abraham was looking out for, for Jerusalem, searching Jerusalem. And then came his grandson Jacob, and he then was the first father, really, of a family, of a house.

[73:45]

With Jacob, the idea of the house of the Lord enters, as it were, essentially becomes manifest in the history of salvation of the chosen people. There's the house. Jacob rests his head on that stone, God's love for him, the Father's love for him. He sees that communication, the angels ascending and descending between him and his heavenly Father. And he rises and he says, this is the house of God, and I did not know it. a real revelation, the apparition of a new dimension, the house of God. Jewish exegesis has always paid great attention to this term Beth-El, the house of God.

[74:54]

Because it was, what does it mean? It is Again, I simply relate with relata refro. I cannot judge about these things, and I think in themselves they simply are there. They might not always be theologically straight, but there is this interpretation, and I think it is in harmony with the fact that in the Jewish thought, the Old Testament thought, there is a distinct difference between the idea of sanctuary in relation to the Gentiles. The Gentiles, there is the temple. This temple is the place where religion is being cultivated in a ritual. But this ritual does not have, I wouldn't say anything, but is not essentially related to the everyday life.

[76:08]

The temple, at least in the eyes of rabbinic tradition, The temple is a form in which religion is isolated and separated from life. The house is and indicates, let us put it this way, a form of religion where the individual encounters God in his family circle. where God makes his abode in the circle of the family. Beth, the house of God, in that way is simply the indication of Jacob's family. God will be with Jacob's family. Twelve sons, they certainly make a house, and for that matter a perfect house.

[77:10]

And so the house, you know, is the home. The home. I think it was always the Jewish idea that religion is not a matter for a ritual celebration, for a feast, which is then also as time and the character of time separated from the everyday life. But the essence is that the glorification of God is done through and in the circle of the most intimate community of man, the cell, as we say, out of which human society is built. And this essential cell is the family. Therefore, this is the house of God. Is, of course. I know there are theories, what's this place where Jacob was, an old sanctuary or something.

[78:16]

I don't enter into that. I simply take it in this relation, you see, that house is the term of the home for the family. The God who manifests himself in this way is the God of the family, and that means a father, and that means on the part of the family a life dedicated in all its inner relation, and especially through the concordia, through the inner harmony of hearts, you know, to the glorification of the Father God, of the God who has a heart, who has the thoughts of his heart from generation to generation accompanying the family. That is also, I think, the meaning why then later on, on Sinai, the people enter into the picture.

[79:21]

whereas the people but a confederation and a union of families. And again, if God chooses a people to be his son, what does it mean? It means, again, that religion is not something that is separate and that is simply, as the Marxists, Socialists, concept wants to have, that it is a private matter, it's a private affair. Religion is a private affair. That, of course, immediately relegates religion into the realm of dreams, into the realm of subjective emotions. into the realm, therefore, in which man is isolated in himself with his God. And how much illusion and deception can enter into such a private relation?

[80:28]

It is, in fact, a public relation. It is if you want something political, at least, that is in the Old Testament clear. And therefore, God's economy of salvation proceeds in this way, that his law is offered to the chosen people, not to an individual. The intermediary, yes, of Moses, but Moses is absolutely and completely not only the servant of his God, but also at the same time the servant of his people. He is therefore a public figure. And in that way, the religion of the Old Testament is really and truly, let us say, a total penetrating all various human relations, entering into the daily life, and in that way really transforming man interiorly.

[81:39]

In other words, it is then really and truly a spiritual religion, while the pagan religion was a magic religion. And magic simply means a relation to God, based, you know, on the knowing, the knowledge of certain formulas, the many words, you know, that the priests as experts keep as their secret and then bring, say, practice in their temples. And then later on, you see, of course, we have then as soon as the people enters into the picture, later on, you know, we have the temple in Jerusalem. But this temple, what is it again? It is really there, the cosmic, a cosmic image.

[82:39]

It is just like the altar of Noah. It is a representation of the whole universe. And what? What is the idea? It's the idea of want-em. Therefore, it's the idea which is brought into the fore by the idea of the kingdom, also the political kingdom as such, centered in one king, the idea of unity, and, as a prophecy, the idea of unity of the entire cosmos, the whole universe, mankind as well as all the various, let's say, regions and sections of the universe. The temple, in that way, is simply an anticipation of the restoration of the whole earth under God. And in that way, again, goes back, it seems to me, and takes up and incorporates the idea of what we call the covenant of Noah.

[83:44]

But again, you know, it is, of course, the idea of the temple is again a total consecration and dedication to God of the whole of the universe. And in that way, the universe is then an extended and last form of the house, of the house of God, family of man, in unity with the restored cosmic order, offers places to the creator of the universe. But again, if you ask, you know, and if one they reads the dedication of the temple under Solomon. What is it? Of course, and that is, I think, is the beautiful thing again, that in the establishment of the temple, the idea of the house is in no way lost, even emphasized, because there is that specific relation and covenant

[84:57]

which accompanies the erection and dedication of the temple, I mean between God and David, and David and his house, David and his house. So that the idea of the family, in some ways you are knighted and reaffirmed in the idea of the people and also the universality of the temple. Then again, what is the temple there? It is the place where, as it is so expressly and beautifully stated, where my heart will dwell, where the heart of God dwells. heart of God, of course, there is and lives for the whole of his world, of his creation. and thereby my ear will hear the prayers.

[86:01]

Therefore, what is the temple still is the place where the heart of God meets the heart of the people, but of the people also as the representative of the whole of mankind. Later on then, of course, we have the fulfillment of the temple And again, you know, there is that idea of contemplation, of course, often evident in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Destroy this temple. and in three days I shall build it up again." Therefore he spoke of the temple of his body. And therefore the idea of the temple in the Old Testament fulfilled in Christ the Word of God incarnate who dies for the sins of mankind, who therefore with his gills, his heart, and has his side opened, so that water and blood may pour forth, and that in that way

[87:07]

whole of mankind may be reconciled to him in water and in blood through baptism and the Eucharist. And then the new church arises, and where does this new church then worship? They will certainly take part in the public worship of the people in the temple, but the fractio panis, the breaking of the bread, Again, I think that word in itself is so beautiful. to describe, you know, the inner essence of this worship that is taking place now in the name of Jesus. That means in the presence of the Word of God made flesh, who died for us, who was broken as it were for us, so that his Spirit may fill the hearts of all. The breaking of the bread as the as the communion rite, therefore in itself as an inner synthesis of sacrifice and the unity of the Spirit.

[88:20]

And that was done where? That was done in the homes, from home to home. And there they came together for the meal, and now the meal already indicated in some categories of the Old Testament sacrifices, the peace offerings, but now fulfilled in our sacrifice, the peace sacrifice. And what is the essential note of a peace sacrifice already in the Old Testament? It's simply this, that in the peace sacrifice, the homage paid to God is inseparable from the unity and happiness of the community, of the family. That's the essence of the peace offering. Our New Testament offering is a peace offering. and therefore it is offered in the house of God. We, in Christian terminology, have never taken up, at least officially, and in the language of the people, you know, the idea of the temple.

[89:33]

But we have always stuck the idea of the house. The house, the church, is the Kyriaké Oiké, that means house of the Lord, the house of the Lord. Why the house of the Lord? Because what is the parish? It's the family. What is the Lord but the father of the family? Into his house he invites us, not as individuals, but as a family. And the inner, if one looks and tries to kind of explore or formulate Now, what one would call the inner spirituality of the mass, let us say, cannot be explained better than in the terms of the inner intimacy of a family gathered in the house, in the best room of the house.

[90:40]

And there is the table. And what is a table? But a means of communion. Table is that place where people take their food, but in common, as a unity, as a family. The meal itself, you know, as the source of the unity of family life. Now, we know very well that in the world outside, these ideas today are fading away. Why? Because the family unity is gradually being lost under pressures of trends I would not think that they are irreversible. Very often one is too much inclined to consider certain trends which invade a civilization. That's absolutely irreversible, especially today one has this tendency.

[91:45]

We are progressing, there are new forms. Because there are new forms, all the old things are lost. Depends on what is lost. The essence of man will never be lost. Wherever the nature of man is deeply acted against, the nature of man will also revolt against. And the destruction of the family is simply not a symptom of progress, it's a symptom of disintegration, and therefore a reaction will set in against it. But thank God that the monastery offers us the possibility, through the enclosure, through that, let's say, getting out of Babylon. and setting up a setup for what purpose? For family life. That was evidently the idea of Saint Benedict, otherwise he wouldn't have called his superior an Abba, a father, if he did not think in these basic question categories.

[92:51]

And therefore, thank God that we today, you know, can celebrate this Mass really and truly as a family celebration, so that there the inner unity of the Holy Spirit becomes, in a new way to which we have been accustomed up to now, but in a new way becomes visible. And so let us also enter into it with this inner joy that we in the enclosure, let us say, have taken out of the pressure and of the various accidental influences through which the world constantly clashes with the thoughts of God's heart. That is the tragedy. that the inclinations of man's heart are of fallen nature, are evil, and therefore constantly clash with the initiative and the thoughts of God's heart.

[93:57]

The monastery is there that the two may be really reconciled, that we may live completely in the thoughts of God's heart. And there is no greater, no deeper thought in God's heart than that of the unity of a family. And for that we live in a monastery. And the greatest manifestation of it certainly is the celebration of the breaking

[94:28]

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