The man of my peace, in whom I put my trust, whom I hope. And we take these words of the song as the words, the message, which our Heavenly Father addresses to us in the course of this retreat. The retreat master has to be the instrument in his hands, and Mark is the interpreter of his loving intentions for us. And it seems to me they are summed up in this word, the man of wide peace. in whom I put my trust. The longing for that is deep in the heart of a superior.

[01:12]

And this longing is only a faint echo of that infinite desire in the heart of God Now the monk, by nature, would say, responds to that word, to that desire of our heavenly Father. I think that nobody enters into a monastery, especially not into a religious monastery, who does not have this idea somehow in his mind. The word, the key word, of benedictine monasticism is peace, pax. And we'd love to be an instrument of peace in the hands of God.

[02:15]

And if nobody is there who would not from the bottom of his heart say, yes, oh Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. We understand, therefore, all, not only superiors, but every one of them, understands this is all. And this cry, in all things I have looked for rest. These are again the words of the Divine Wisdom, looking for rest in omnipotent, great, ever-gracing. And how eager we are, really, when we look at it, how eager we are to say to our Lord, here, take this, my heart, take it as the net,

[03:23]

as the place of your peace. In omnibus rapier, the Spirit of God hovered over the abyss. That word indicates, shall we say, the whole tragedy, that still the Spirit of God hovering over the abyss, not finding any rest in the abyss. And if we look at ourselves, look around, and we find that notwithstanding all this deep echo that there is in our hearts and that response to God's desire seeking a place of grace, of peace, but still peace, peace, and there is no peace. There is chaos.

[04:25]

There is unrest. There is strife. There is war. Enmity. Hatred. And that is the chaos. And the Spirit of God tries to find you less. But can't. Up and down. Approaching and with joy. And the dove of no-witness. looking, flying all over the earth. And then, how wonderful, the picture of Noah in all attendance. And goodness takes this dog and gives a place of rest. And again, when we see that, our whole heart responds. Yes, that is what we would like to be. Another Noah in the ark, at the ark of the monastery. taking, receiving with tender hands and heart the dove of peace, giving her a place to rest.

[05:37]

But you see, all these offices and these foreshadowings were fulfilled and fulfilled in the divine Lamb. When our Lord Jesus Christ, the Heavenly Father's Son, made man, was baptized in the Jordan. In other words, when the waters of chaos covered him. That which is not indicated in this original phrase, the spirit of God proper over the waters, that was fulfilled in the word of God made man taking upon himself of guilt being swallowed up by the waters of death, and then the declaration, This is the one in whom I am buried, the man of life.

[06:39]

There is my rest. So the rest which our Heavenly Father is seeking, he has found it, First in his son made man, who died for us and rose for us. There on the cross he rose. And then he said, Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing. Then the divine wisdom found a resting place. Then there was peace established. So he extended his arms to a mocking crowd. He was alarmed in this way. He saw perhaps ambition, coward, betrayal, brutality, hatred.

[07:44]

Through his goodness, he conquered evil. This was the man of God's peace. And that peace was a conquering power. It was constructive, creative. The principle of non-resistance, much more than that. Certainly he did not fight on the same level He did not pay back in the same money, but fought in his power of that of the safest sacrificial lamb. That was his weapon. That was to move him to serve.

[08:46]

The others tried to move. And he said to the king of the Gentiles, they lord it over them, but not so with you. On the contrary, let him who is greatest among you become as the youngest, and him who is the chief as the servant. For which is greater he who reclines at table, or he who serves? Is it not he who reclines, but either in your midst, or he who serves? That are the words of the whole righteous deliverer, the man of God's peace. Now these considerations, I just put them before you, because I think that they are of great actuality for us.

[09:54]

That's really is the truth. Any fruit that I hope that this word, this message, somehow will reach your hearts, reach your hearts in their depth, Because that is one of the, I told you before, I'm not here to complain. I don't complain. Still, you all expect it. You yourself, you want the word of truth. And the truth is only here in this community where there is so much Goodwill, there's no doubt about it. Still, there is too much, I would say, heartless people, too many people who are too taken by their opinions. who identify themselves with that particular curse of pride, who fight for this or that way of doing things.

[11:08]

And there have been many unpleasant meetings and moments in the past, and many wounds have been, in that way, also inflicted upon the community as a whole. This unhealing, the knowing one better, and at the same time criticizing, people, other people, and at the same time not be willing to take any criticism from others. So blindness gets a one's own, sometimes very leery, focus. And then picking and cutting up others for things that may be much smaller and much less important. And that is dangerous for communities, bad for communities. These toys are absolutely inconsistent with what you all want.

[12:13]

You don't want that, and you suffer from it. And still you fall into it, and immediately you build up a barrier against the bodhisattva. Because the Holy Spirit cannot stick me to that chaos. And that is chaos. When people in their own, you know, stuck in their own little opinions, you know, just roll it up into one another. That's chaos. That's the nature of chaos. Unreasonable hatred. Disrespect. Contempt. All that is good. And the Holy Spirit cannot waste it. And everybody knows it. And we love it. And everybody is unhappy. And we are not here then. Here we sit at the place of God's peace.

[13:18]

And we know we're at the same time. The Father has loved me. Seek him. place where it could rest. But they cannot rest. It's impossible. So, take them to Iran with them. They're the object of your examination of conscience during this retreat. And also formulate your practical residences. I would say, I would put it this way. Do two things. One thing, just jump into the abyss of the Lord's humble heart. Just be merciful. And read also, read the chapter of humility, because that's the way in which you jump into the heart of Christ.

[14:20]

It's the only way. You cannot sometimes know what says charity, charity, charity. But the first thing is you. No charity without your faith. Sometimes I have a feeling that charity even, you know, the devil and the devil in man can distort and use everything, even the most holy things for his own purpose. and charity in us that can become one of these and be one of these narcotics, these sweet dreams. But what cannot reach it without humility, humility precedes charity. And that's the whole point of the rule of sin. That is on which this is important, it rests on that. And he clearly shows, if you want perfection, if you want peace, you have to do the little steps to reach it.

[15:32]

And the first step is that step of humility, that step of self-abnegation. Therefore, let us... It was us that prayed it every time in the litany. And purposely put it in there for that purpose, that God may deliver us from the hardness of heart. Because, you see, every community is the product, the unrepeatable product of unrepeatable and unique circumstances. And the way God has put us together is just this way. He has allowed that. That we are a community of very individualistic people. That these individualistic people can cause chaos, be a barrier to peace.

[16:39]

That is our first obligation. We think about it. think about it and solve it, ain't you guilty? And that we ask the Lord to give us that humility of heart that he himself has, proclaiming in such a solemn voice the thing that his disciples should learn from him. There is also what can be an instrument at the end of division of chaos. It is, for example, insistence. Insistence on, it's strange, you know, how human nature is. It's all the government of community, the government of death, the habit, and then the first thing is one insists on something else.

[17:41]

precedence of rank. Rank, either one of seniority, or rank even of physical age, or rank of what one thinks is the education, or rank of Existence of the sacredness and untouchableness of one's own personal reality. Things which, when they are, they have on something true and something marked in them. That's true. Seniority should be respected. There's no doubt about it. Juniors should be very serious.

[18:43]

But there can be also sometimes, you know, one can have a feeling that somebody kind of uses seniority as a weapon. And if it's used that way, then what does the senior do? Sometimes, in some way, simply imitates the Gentiles who lord it. Make a question and, of course, I don't know, assume as into these things the spirit of enmity or strife. Then the red light. That's not the whole perspective. St. Benedict Coppola said the right word. These two things. that the juniors should have revels for the seniors, but at the same time that the seniors should love the juniors.

[19:48]

Those two things go together. If the only obligation would be that the juniors should have revels for the seniors, And the siddhas should then do what they like. That would be then the pay-deal. That would be a power question. And it all boils down to the question of the stronger power. The question of some superiority complex. And that, of course, causes strife. That causes weakness. It causes a reaction. and therefore chaos, and the Holy Spirit withdraws. And there's that nodding word, whom will purchase me in close weather. Where is the man of one peace in whom I hope? That hope is disappointed.

[20:48]

That divine desire isn't sworn. And through some pity, you know, Christian, you know, in that way, of Graham. And that is, as we know it from the Gospels, they were all looking for the first place. They did not find the approval of the Word of God who descended into this chaos and the waters of this chaos covered them. But he died in this and therefore paint the paths of our redemption. And that was the first place of peace, and what we are radiating peace into the hearts of those who believe it. I will say into the hearts of those who die. That's the meaning of the universal law. So let us not give room to that.

[21:54]

because it brings a completely rotten out, false, more destructive into the monastic life. And last but not least, the worldly spirit, which is the spirit of our time, is the spirit of Satan, who in this way injures the monastic community and destroys it. There is also a kind of view of the anesthetist, of what is an anesthetic line. Somebody is more contemplative than the other, who thinks he is. Or the active one, then it is shown that he is better around because he does the work. It's also an old problem in the monastic life.

[22:57]

But again, through this kind of, how should I call it, in the being of the world, some levels which is not and does not radiate the peace of Christ, destroy it. that were in the name of contemplation a flag of morals raised. And yet again a chaos, and the Holy Spirit withdraws. And again that inaugural question, where is the man of my peace, in whom I can put my trust? So let us not fall private victims to the ruses of the devil, who turn us from instruments of peace into his own killing weapons.

[24:02]

What a bad thing it is, you know, in a community. We live here together as souls who have given up that, how can I call it, the warm nest of their family, where the blood takes care and moves the hearts to mildness, to give them a propensity towards forgiving one another, because there is the affinity of blood and therefore are always in some of and therefore is inclined to overlook the faults of the event. Now we have lived that. But then the blood, you know, that pulses in a community, it's the Holy Spirit.

[25:10]

And that Holy Spirit's power is truer than blood. Blood may prove hard to overlook or even to defend it, the evil that the brother is doing in the family of blood. But in a monastic family, that is not possible. But the Holy Spirit is a great variant, than the blood. And as I said before, more true. But let us give room to the Holy Spirit. Let us therefore put off our personal sensitivity, which is only based on pride, only based on vanity. Let us give enough desire Put it on the altar. And if something happens, if the thoughts, the worries, you make me tell you, it has returned into the peace of Christ.

[26:23]

Expressly, explicitly. And let us, why, before another, make the first step, be the first who comes to recognize it. Because chaos has always the tendency to continue itself. So also it is in our heart, and that is that hardness of pride and on what has launched of that Lying, enduring so may be, he comes to my mind. Of course, I am wrong and still will continue. What does one give him? Let us be wishful. There's always in such a moment that the greatest power of peace is the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[27:28]

In His Holy Spirit, I leap over the wall. And in the warm fire of that Spirit, I am able to disturb all frigid coldness, the ice, and so often through province, you notice, around the heart of man. But, of course, the most insidious situation is, and that is nearly always the case, in the monastery, because the devil knows that after all, the monks are people who are striving for peace. So then, as I said before, he gives them opinions. And then there is not, you know, in any way, lack of charity, but just love for the truth. which then drives out in a fight to swing his sword and cut the other's head off.

[28:31]

For the truth, we have to stand for something. Or maybe also toward holiness. Was that the true monastic spirit? In a true monastic, what does it display? Well, certainly not as what is it here for us. Always this kind of thing. And the true monk is one who, of course, is far superior, very thinkable, that is. We are in one's own realm, circle, and way, which are one's own commune, somehow. And right away, then, we say, of course, I am holding on that vow, and that's the end. There is no argument against it. And in that way, one has inflicted definitely a wound on the voluminous wholeness of the community. That mirableness, meekness, and that readiness, you know, to meet one another.

[29:40]

Also that readiness to yield, to meet halfway, you know, to compromise. There are so many questions in monastic life. The innumerable selves are such minimum importance. Very important. But again, the devil, because if we mock, in some ways, the slave to the absolute, you know, and then he doesn't know where to stop. And then he drives, he absolutizes the meaning. As soon as he does that, you know, then again, The unity, the love to that, the life, the joy and the peace are here in us. So take that to heart, think about it and pray about it. I'll read to you at the end that beautiful picture, image of the man of peace.

[30:47]

find in the book of Job. Job describes his own former status as the homo pacem, who will grant me that I might be according to the month past, according to the days in which God kept me, when his lamp shined over my head, And I walked by his light in darkness, as I was in the days of my youth, when God was hidden in my tent, when the Almighty was with me, and my servants wound about me. The ear that heard me blessed me, and the eye that saw me gave witness to me. because I had delivered the poor men that cried out, and the fathers that had no help.

[31:54]

The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I comforted the heart of the widow. I was clad with justice, and I closed my city with my judgment as good robes. I was an eye to the blind and a foot to the lame. I was the father of the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out most diligently. I broke the jaws of a wicked man, and out of his teeth I took away the tribe. And I said, I shall die in my nest, and as a palm tree shall multiply my days. My root is open beside waters, and dew shall continue in my arms.

[32:57]

My glory shall always be renewed." That is the picture of the monk. Let us not forget, dear brethren, that we cannot reach that without following Christ and, again, I tell you, jumping into the water so that the waters cover us. We cannot. We cannot in that way follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. cannot. In a modern style you have to follow the law of non-resistance. Not in a mechanical way. Understand that. Why don't being violent tolerate everything? That's not the meaning of Everywhere where we see a torment, there's always, always waves, and we have what's called as men of peace.

[34:06]

We have to go away to heal it. But we have to heal it by, first of all, our prayer. And then we have to heal it by our own penance. You see, how did our Lord conquer death and chaos, but be the man of peace. I will embarrass him by taking upon himself the guilt, by doing hence. In such, I don't know the extent of the I don't know, but at the same time, I think it's not a secret, because Christopher is not with us anymore, but he was, what we have done, a great, great amount, even of very strong and very hard bodily pains.

[35:13]

for his own sins and for the sins of others, the whole of us, individual members of this community. And one has to live, very often, as it were, planned to go together, what to do in this way. So Jesus certainly in that way has been an instrument of peace in the hands of God. Although maybe sometimes he didn't, on the outside, on the surface, he didn't look that way. But in reality he has done a great, great amount. Only God knows. It's all written in the Book of Life. And that is what I would see. That's what I would like to see. If there were others who followed one of our confederates in that world, if somebody is not satisfied with the standards of the monastic life, he is always invited to view in this way, and take upon himself the burden of others.

[36:28]

In that way he works for peace. I'm very relieved, I must say, that so often in the refectory now one can see whether, you know, coming in here and pitching in is a way of serving, entertaining. But at the same time, I must say, I would like to see not always the same people doing it. And I have quite concrete ideas of some who unfortunately don't do it, but to be an instrument of God's peace, you know, it would be wonderful if they did. So, and there are many, I only mentioned that as one little example. There are thousands of others. There are people, you know, in the community and they want to work at this and want to work at that, you know, while in reality, in the whole, it would be a completely different kind of work, you know, would be more constructive and more appreciated, although it may not be according to the taste of the individual.

[37:39]

And there again is one of these ways in which suddenly can be, should be, a man of peace. So you think about the Jewish state, or you can respond to that divine desire to let quiet of the heavy fire for the man of my peace and wife of my trust. Let us pray. Take away from us, we beseech thee, O Lord, all our iniquities, and let spirit of pride and chemicals, which thou dost beseech, Fill us with the spirit of glee and give us the contrite and humble heart which thou dost not despise, that we may be enabled with pure lives to enter into the Holy of Holies through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[38:40]

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