The epistle today, as you know, taken from the Canticle of Canticles, various parts there, third chapter and the eighth chapter. So, it ends on a note which is kind of emphatic and And Aum Sila Setch sums up the situation and that is that and if somebody would give his entire substance, all the money he has at his disposal and would want to buy love, he would just make a fool of himself. That is why, on the other hand, that is the voice of the wise one, you know, who sums up this, as I say, the mystery of love.

[01:11]

But naturally, you also hear the voice of the bridegroom who expresses that in his own way, let my beloved one sleep. until Dodek Ypsa will it, until she herself wants it, until she herself opens up. And that is the mystery of the Agape, in distinction to Eros, and that's the theme of the days. The love as a passion, love as a way of asserting oneself, love as a means, as an instrument for personal gain, what we call possessive love.

[02:21]

That is the kind of love that somebody thinks he can buy, and in that way may be able to buy, but naturally that is not The divine agape is not what we call the real love, that heavenly fire that Christ the Lord prayed for, that it may descend upon us and that it may kindle our hearts. That is on a completely different thing. There is no possessiveness, nothing that can be, you know, kind of demanded. neither from above nor, let's say, from below. It's impossible. But that is simply a matter of the free mercy and the free grace that the descent, that the Father

[03:24]

the son of the Heavenly Father made flesh, gives himself to us. And where we, on the other hand, have that inner corresponding attitude, that openness of which is necessarily in our state of all nature, that openness of St. Mary Magdalene, that inner surrender the tears with which she would wash the feet of her saviour, of her beloved saviour. Penance, that is the conversion more that is demanded of the monk. Therefore, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene certainly is our feast in a very deep way. So we must keep that in mind, you know, that love, the creative love of God, is free. Love as a gift is free and cannot be demanded.

[04:30]

And at the receiving end, too, there must be that room which is able to receive this free love. In our part, that can only be repentance. It confers you more. Just in these days, I read a discourse of Kierkegaard, the Danish, you know, how can I say, prophet of the 19th century, on the theme that the edification or the edifying value of the fact that in our relation to God we are always wrong, that God is always right. How often do we kind of get, you know, in our human untouched and untransformed way, you know, get our teeth into something, you see, like a dog who bites and then gets a kind of a cramp and he just can't get his teeth out of it anymore.

[05:52]

He's just kind of stuck in it. I am right, you know, I am right. Right? What's wrong? So, that's, that's the, that is the Kierkegaard so beautifully says that we really go to the depth and if you really think, you see, we, somebody who loves, always is confirmed in his love, is edified, as he puts it, edified, when he knows that the beloved one is right and that he is wrong. Love, he says, suffers from the fact that it is right and the beloved one is wrong. God suffers from that, wants it the other way. Why? Oh, of course, that's created love, that's our love. Because to be wrong before God is to be confronted with God's infinite love.

[07:01]

That's what it is. And therefore, thank God, you know, we feel that in relation to God we are wrong. so that we do not get our teeth, you know, kind of cramped into our own right, and then start complaining. That's what Saint Benedict always says, that the monk, you know, may do many times, many things wrong, and many much very imperfect And what he does, you know, and even what he's asked to do may not always be the most perfect thing. And still, you know, the main thing that the monks should be aware of and keep away from is murmuring. That is the main thing. That is always, you know, this violation of love, you know, based on, I'm wrong, I'm right, the other one is wrong.

[08:05]

What one does is there, one really kind of cuts into the relation of charity. So, that's a very important thing for our, you all realize, you know, that the whole mystery of our spiritual growth depends on that, you know. There cannot be any growth, there cannot be any development, you know. As soon as in some kind of rigidity, you know, that hardens, I am right, the other one is wrong. In the end, one ends up, you know, I am right and God is wrong. And then that's the end of development. We realize that. The mystery of blessing is destroyed, you know, by that. And of course, that is what we look for. And what the monk looks for is to be blessed, you know. That is the monastic life, to be blessed.

[09:10]

But in order to be blessed and open, one has to have that inner freedom of conversion more. The courage to be wrong and even rejoicing in the fact that one is wrong in relation to the one who is the beloved one. That are things which are so, I think, absolutely vital, you know, and also for us as a community. Today when I came to breakfast there, I found little notes and Father Benedict reminding me that today is the day 14 years ago that he came to Mount Saviour. And a thing like that, you know, of course, that makes you think, you know, 14 years of a life, monastic life, a life which is based on this mutual relation, under which and in which and through which Saint Marie Magdalene then flourished, so that her prayer as the penitent one became so powerful that Lazarus,

[10:37]

poor day, old, stinking corpse, you know, was transformed by Christ's mercy into the reality of the resurrection. And the years for us, you know, are that, you know, and are counted, I think, before God through this, under this aspect, you know. How deeply we look into the mystery of divine love, that God who is always right in his dealings with us, and the freedom in which we look into our own failings and limitations, and that inner acceptance of those failings that the love of God implants and motivates in our hearts and out of that then rises a renewal, a resurrection, a transformation.

[11:45]

in the monastic life and we should pray for that, you know, it should be a constant, really, every day another transformation. But let us be aware not to get stuck in what we call the hardening of the hearts.

[12:05]

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