Thank you very much for inviting me to spend these days with you. I'm very pleased for a number of reasons, not the first of which that our houses in some ways are related our foundations because of our founders, that is monasticism in Cuernavaca, Mexico and your own monastery here. Also the fact that there are some familiar faces here for which I am grateful. Monastic life has a way of bringing us together. one time and time again throughout our lives, always to our surprise, our delightful surprise.

[01:03]

And also for many, many years, including when I entered monastic life in 1972, I was always interested in Mount Savior. and your monastic life here has always been a part of my interest. You certainly inspire monastic life and true monastic life and the values of monastic life in many other monasteries beyond yourselves. Today As we just enter gently into these retreat days, we will reflect on Psalm 90 this morning. I offer you this psalm not because I know something more about this psalm than you do, but rather that we can use this psalm as kind of our way of entering into the

[02:15]

The timeless time of retreat time. All of us are very, very busy in our minds. We're thinking about many things, many practical things about the monastery and probably some personal things about our own lives, our own health. we're probably thinking about things that are happening outside of a cloister. There's not a day in my life in the last year that the name Donald Trump has not been mentioned and it's always, because I'm living in a foreign country, it's always with a certain with a certain tack or nail attached because I'm cataloged as a gringo, as an American, and people outside of the walls that America is building are

[03:38]

are aiming at our country with a certain amount of apprehension, fear and because as you know I have a Mexican passport and Mexican citizenship but I don't look very much like Mexicans to many Mexicans and so when the name Donald Trump comes up in conversation it's always with a certain certain apprehension towards me. So, time. What's time all about? What time is it? What time is it on the clock and what time is it in God's eye? How do we tell time? We monks have a way of telling time in a much different way than the people out in the world, you know, People who live very, very deeply in this century tell time by clocks and by calendars and by agendas.

[04:58]

And monks also use clocks and bells alarms to tell time, but we also have, we live in a different time zone. Monks live in Kairos, whereas people in the world submerged in the world live in Kronos. Kronos would be the clock time. Kairos would be God's endless time, God's time which is not weighed and calculated, estimated in the same way as Kronos. Kronos is our high blood pressure. Kronos are health issues. Kronos is our hopes and our aspirations and our concerns about our own community, our own future, our family members.

[06:07]

That would be Kronos. Kronos is, when do you have the next dentist appointment? But Kairos is what we do so many hours a day. when we do Lectio Divina or when we hear the bell and we go into church and we make the sign of the cross or say, God come to my assistance and right then at that moment we jump. It's like a diving board from Kairos, Kairos, Kairos, which makes us sick, into Kronos, Kronos, Kronos, which makes us sick, into Kairos, which makes us well, which puts us in a different time zone. So, this first psalm that we're going to reflect on a bit this morning will be a psalm about time, Psalm 90.

[07:15]

And I would ask, I would invite you some time today to just take 15 or 20 minutes with this psalm, read the psalm a couple times, and think about time. Think about time, because the next five days together we'll be spending, we're trying to put a little quality to our time, quality time. and not just quantifying time as we do on our clocks and on our work hours. This evening we will reflect a bit on the theology of consecrated life with Psalm 16. I'll always tell you the psalm that we're going to take next, in case somebody wants to just read that psalm. We're not going to take the psalms on this sheet in this order, but the first page is today.

[08:17]

That is timing, Kronos and Kairos, and then Psalm 16. During the next five or six days I will be available if somebody wishes to take a little time and just talk or whatever, pray together, talk, receive the sacrament. here for you during these days. All of my prayers and the prayers of my community are with you during these days. Are there any questions or anything that you would like to say right at the beginning of this retreat before we get into the song? I invite you to, at the beginning of the retreat, ask for a gift from God.

[09:28]

Name the gift, be as specific as you can, as specific as you dare to be, because during the next five days we're going to be doing some pretty important business in our own spiritual lives, and God will wondrously grant us the gift that we ask for at the beginning of this retreat. So ask for a gift. That gift may be reconciliation with someone in your life. That gift may be somehow a health issue. That gift may be some spiritual gift that you find that you haven't been able to cultivate in your own community life or in your own personal life.

[10:30]

Ask for a gift that will be given to you for this retreat time. Maybe a gift for your community. maybe a new vision for yourself. It may be something very personal or certainly community or a gift for our world. So think about that, a gift that you wish to receive during these days of retreat. Let us together look at Psalm 90. This translation that we have before you is not the translation that you use in church, it's a translation that I've reworked from my master, Bonaventure Zare, who

[11:44]

who taught me scripture many years ago. So let's read together this first six verses. And I ask you, what of these verses makes noise in your own listening? What catches your attention? What snags your brain? or your attention on these six verses. Together, six verses. O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next, before the mountains were born or the earth or the world brought forth. You are God without beginning or end. You turn men back into dust and say, Go back, children of men. To your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday come and gone, like a night watch.

[12:53]

You sweep men away like a dream, like grass that springs up in the morning. In the morning it springs up and flowers, by evening it withers and And then verse 13, Lord, relent is your anger forever. Act with tenderness toward your servant. What catches your attention in these verses? Brother Dominic? Brother Luke? With me, it's before the mountains were born. It's the time. Before the mountains were born. What else? Ronald? You turn men back into dust and say, go back children of Adam.

[13:56]

You turn men back into dust and say, go back children of Adam. Dominic? Oh Lord, you have been our refuge for one generation. You have been our place or a place for us from one generation to the next. Ronald? Gregory. Gregory, I'm sorry. Without beginning or end. Without beginning or end. Anything else? Refuge. Refuge. Gregory. The Lord opens, the poet opens his prayer with very, very directly, O Lord. Now that snags God into his own life. O Lord, when we start a prayer with O Lord, it's just, we're putting the Lord right there in front of us. O Lord, you have been our refuge.

[14:58]

Now that's kind of strange. We could think of a parent image, A mother or a father in a family for a little child could be a place. It's a place of security. You have been our refuge from one generation to the next, before the mountains were born. What an odd image. The birthing of mountains. Or the hill or the world brought forth, conceived and brought forth. You are God. Why the insistence? Because there's a lot of options for God in the world, in our own consciousness. You are God, without beginning or end. Refuge. God is a safe place.

[16:00]

He's the place we want to be. He is forever. God is before creation. God is before all of our plans and our projects. God is an overarching roof over our heads. God is an overarching roof over all of our politics and economics and all of our worries and all of our joys. The span of earthly life is so swift with surprises, with jumps and starts and accidents. The span of earthly life is so unmanageable and life as earth knows it can appear so fragile and furtive and futile.

[17:04]

You sweep men away like a dream, like grass that springs up in the morning. In the morning it springs up and flowers, by evening it withers and fades. The poet drops a bucket into the deep well of eternity. The poet contacts the author of Kronos, the author of time, the author of our time machines, which is the sun and the moon and all of our clocks. The poet measures his own brief earthly existence against God's timelessness. Mountains and hills are impressive furniture in the created world. But even before mountains and hills filled the horizon, the empty spaces of the horizon, God is.

[18:15]

And after the mountains disappear, God will be. The poet speaks directly to God. You turn, turn, shuv in Hebrew, you turn men back into dust, and you say, return, children of Adam, go back, go back, but to where? Go back all the way to Adam, before sin, after, or after sin. Go back to Adam. Well, which Adam? The Adam before he sinned or the Adam after? Just right after he sinned. God formed the human from clay or dust, the same prime matter of which gigantic mountains and rolling hills are formed.

[19:21]

God's command echoes in our lives, go back, return, children of Adam. This recalls the first parents, Adam's sin, the spoiled dessert of which we have all tasted. The Hebrew verb, shuv, has a double meaning. we notice that it is not only in verse 3, you turn man back into dust, but you say, return, children of Adam, return, go back, or repent. Verse 13 is, Lord, return, Lord, change your mind.

[20:24]

Lord, are you going to be angry forever? Change your mind. Look at how weak we are. Look at how fragile we are. This word in Hebrew, shu, has a double meaning. Return materially to dust Remember, man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return, a reminder of the material substance of which we are made. But also, the word shuv is return. Think of the Greek word which translates this metanoia. Metanoia, what does it mean? Metanoia is change your estimate about things, or rather, change your attitude.

[21:28]

Change your attitude, change your way of thinking. There's different ways of thinking. We can look at the world with estimates of time and investments, or we can look at the world and the reality in terms of eternity. Now change your attitude. Change your way of thinking. Change your estimates about reality. Alter your way of thinking. Focus your sights on God and eternity. God is good about what this verb is all about. Return. Change. alter things so that God may be considered as good and the center of our lives. Later, in verse 13, the poet will ask God to change God's mind.

[22:34]

Change your mind, God. Change your attitude. Don't be angry. God, relent. Is your anger forever? The verb return features very big in this prayer. You turn men back to dust and go back, children of Adam. Now the poet prays with urgency for a conversion of God's intention. Verse 13, return, Lord. Consider us in a different light. I ask myself as I pray this psalm, What do I want to change in my own life? What about the present state of my monastic conversion that needs adjusting? Is there some adjustment, return, that I need to be making in my own monastic conversion with the grace of God?

[23:39]

The poet continues, verse four, to your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday, come and gone, like a night watch. What's a night watch all about? Have you spent that night in the hospital next to the aconfers or parents or relatives agony, after an accident, have you ever worked the graveyard shift and you just can't wait for that shift to be over? To your eyes, a thousand years are like a night watch. From God's perspective, a millennium was just yesterday.

[24:42]

It was just a blink of an eye. It came and went. A thousand years is like that graveyard shift. A thousand years is like spending the night in the hospital. It seems to drag on while the world around is sleeping. But once your shift is over, dawn breaks the spell, the anxiety, the restlessness, the fear of the night. We are children of the resurrection, the new day. but how the days and the weeks may weigh us down. There are stages in life when time seems to just poke along, particularly when we're waiting for the results of that last medical exam. You know, do I have cancer? There are stages in life when time seems to just go very slow.

[25:45]

We just don't know. And then suddenly we wake up to how quickly time has passed. The poet muses, you sweep men away like a dream. Oh, I dreamt last night. But I forgot what I dreamt. But I forgot what I dreamt. I was very much involved in this dream. It was very interesting, and I was solving all kinds of problems, but now I can't even remember what I dreamt about. You sweep men away like a dream, like grass that springs up in the morning. In the morning it springs up and flowers. By evening it withers and fades. Plant life, plant life, is a poignant symbol of human existence on earth. The plant sprouts and flowers, withers and fades. That's earthly life.

[26:47]

It transpires quickly, here today, gone tomorrow. Where is the value of our lives? The poet takes refuge in the beginning. He connects his swiftly passing life with the source of life. Our life is connected with the source of life, which is forever, the eternal one, who is before and after. The poet remembers God's command. Go back, children of Adam. Go back where? It's as if God were saying, think back. Review the brief sojourn of your earthly life. look at things from God's point of view. This reflection on time's passing inspires the poet to confess his guilt and lament the insignificance of the human race in the next verses.

[27:54]

The next verses, perhaps, are a little harsh because we speak about God as being angry, as having rage, as being furious. Let's read together verses 7 to 11. 7 to 11. What catches your attention? So, we are burnt up in your anger, brought to ruin by your rage, You have set our iniquities before your very eyes. The sins of our youth are under the searching light of your face. All our days pass away in your anger. Our years are used up as quickly as a sigh. A mere 70 years is this life of ours, or 80 for those who are strong.

[28:55]

Struggle and toil are nothing else than production. Pleasure races by, and then we too disappear. Who understands the power of your anger? Fears the strength of your fury? What catches your attention in these verses? A word or a phrase? Yes? So, the theologian, the poet, is placing a quantity to the years that we have been given in life. Presently, what is the expected lifespan of a

[29:57]

man, a male, in the United States of America since something like 1972. Women are like three years older, you know, 75, 76. In some countries the span of life, the hoped for span of life was, is 56 in some countries. Anna, that lady in the gospel this morning, she was 84 years old? What's that all about? It's about, you know, it's about 40 years longer than she was expected to live, but that 84 years is all about theology. She is 7 times 12, 12 is 12 tribes of Israel, or 12 apostles, seven times 12, seven is a perfect number, 12 is also a perfect number, 12 is the number of the church, seven times, she is perfectly an image of the church.

[31:06]

Father gave a wonderful, Father Don gave a wonderful reflection this morning, but Anna is more than an individual, she's also a theological person. The value of her theology is she is our community, the perfection of our community. She's 12, and she is 7 times 12. So anyway, why are we doing that? Okay, so you mentioned 70 or 80 years. Then we think about, oh gosh, I'm 65. That means I got about five years left. And then maybe they're going to give me an If I'm strong, I'm maybe another 10, you know. I think of my older brother, who is 94. He was your founder. My older son and brother is Father Benito in my monastery.

[32:07]

He's still very active. He works in the kitchen, works in the coffee production, works in the avocados, carries his buckets of avocados. He's 94 years old. Now, wait a minute. What else catches your attention? Presumption. Presumption. What else? The words anger and fury. Rage. describe the incompatibility of loving God with creation where human creatures can choose other gods. And human creatures, we have the capacity to bite the hand that feeds us.

[33:09]

And that is God. God feeds us every day and we have the capacity to say no. or simply bite the hand that feeds us. We have the option to march to a different beat, to sing to a different tune, or sing off-tune. Human beings are fickle in our love and fidelity, so we measure the distance between ourselves and God in terms of punishment and anger. God does not punish. We punish ourselves. God does not get angry. But when we find that our lives are not in sync with God, we call that God's anger at us. God's anger is a theological anger. It's not an emotional anger. God is not temperamental. The presence of all holy God leaves no room for evil. When we find ourselves in evil, we find ourselves punished.

[34:11]

Time passes swiftly. Time runs out. The poet confesses the emptiness and pain of his own selfishness and sin. Presumption. From our shallow existence in the well of eternity, eternity is very, very big. Our earthly existence is very small. a short span of years, all of our works and prompts, but something of us reaches out to eternity, and it is prayer. Prayer is born in our time, on our clock, and reaches out to God, who is before and will be after all of us. That's wonderful. We're trying to connect our time with God's time.

[35:17]

Finally, the poet raises the tone of his prayer in a crescendo of imperatives. Now I'm moving on to verses 12 to 17. Now what catches your attention in the last verses of these Psalms? How many times do we have an imperative? Fill us, make us happy. Let this accomplishment be of yours. May he favor the work. Let's read together verses 12 to 17. Together. Teach us to calculate the number of our days, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Lord, relent. Is your anger forever? Act with tenderness toward your servants. Fill us at dawn with Your unfailing love, so we may shout for joy and be happy all our days.

[36:19]

Make us happy as many days as You let us be afflicted, as many years as we evil. Let this accomplishment of Yours be evident to Your servants, Your dominion, parent to their children. May the gentleness of the Sovereign Lord our God be upon us. May he favor the work of our hands for us and favor the work of our hands for himself. What snags your attention? What catches your attention in these verses? It may be a phrase, it may be an image. Yes. Interesting. We are participating, we who are the work of God's hand. now place the works of our hands in God's hands.

[37:44]

Verse 17, may he favor the work of our hands for us and the work of our hands for himself, but at the same time acknowledging that we are the work of God's hands. Thank you. What else? Wisdom of heart goes beyond our estimates and calculations out there. Wisdom of heart, what else? Okay, dawn, and every time we see dawn in the scripture, we're going to think about the resurrection, which is the glorious dawn of, it's putting us in contact with the resurrection of Christ. It's not, death is not the end of the story, the resurrection is.

[38:48]

Thank you. Oh yeah. Thank you very much. Yeah, we got four, three or four words for anger and rage and fury and then gentleness. The last verb, the last verse, may the gentleness of our servant Lord, our God, our God be upon us. Gentleness, gentleness. The imperative mood catches your attention. Make us know. What is it? Teaching. Teach us. Relent. Act with tenderness. Fill us at dawn. Make us happy. Let this accomplishment of yours be evident.

[39:53]

favor the work of our hands. May this accomplishment of yours be evident to your servants." Verse 16. You know, that's what monastic life is all about. Who are these servants that the poet is talking about so very often in the in the Old Testament, in this altar, the servants are those who work at the temple. They're a primitive monastic order. They are the Levites. Now, the Levites were not the high priests in the Old Testament. There was difficult politics between the priestly class, which was kind of an upper class, and the Levite class, who were the monastic, the people that took care of the chanting and the liturgy, the acolytes, the people that kept the temple, took care of the temple, cleaned the temple, but they were sort of second-class citizens.

[41:02]

They were from the farms, from the province, and the priests were from the city. and they had their own places to live and all that stuff. But the Levites were kind of this primitive monastic order, we're going to talk about that tonight, that dedicated themselves to the liturgy and to keep the sanctuary in order. And so we got this verse Verse 16, now that this Levite, who's kind of a second-class citizen in the religious society, let this accomplishment of yours be evident to your servants, to your monks, your dominion apparent to their children. We are the servants, we are the Old Testament Levites who took care of the sanctuary and the liturgy when the whole world is going at breakneck speed in politics and economics and even war, we monks are consecrated to the service of work and prayer, prayer and work.

[42:18]

The interests of time, kronos, labora, and the interests of eternity, ora, oratio, are put together. We try to keep an equilibrium in our life, a balance in our lives, because we're concerned with time, Kranos, and we're concerned with eternity, Kairos. Help us see the shortness and emptiness of our lives when lived outside of your protective presence, of your providence. Lord, let us drink of the source of eternal life. Bless us. Bless the work of our hands and bless the work of our hearts with your favor, for we are the work of your hands. We are your servants. We are your ministers. We are your monks by our consecration.

[43:22]

Our Blessed Mother is our spokesperson. Behold the handmaid, behold the servant of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word. My dear conferors, people may experience life as empty drudgery, as fleeting and as temporal, earthly death, Death to the present, passing world, is as certain as the fading flowers on the graves. But Christ has conquered sin and death. Christ has infused our earthly life with eternal value. Christ's resurrection inaugurates a life without end, infuses our lives with infinite value, eternal value. Our purpose in the present life is to connect our thoughts, our words, our actions with the resurrected life of Christ, infused with the Holy Spirit to infuse everything we are, everything that we have, and everything we do with eternal value.

[44:39]

This prayer, this psalm, for God's favor becomes more urgent under the consideration of the brief span of life that we have been given on this earth. We add it to St. Paul's exhortation in Colossians, if then you are raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think about what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. I'm in Colossians 3, 1 to 4. Saint Benedict exhorts us, yearn for everlasting life with holy desire. Keep death daily before your eyes. Chapter 4, verse 46. And Saint Benedict tells us in the prologue, we must run and do now what will profit us for eternity.

[45:47]

We must invest now in what will be a profit for us for eternity. My dear conferers, read, homework time, read Psalm 90. Read it again. Note what catches your attention. That's probably what God is working on in your life right now. Think about the verb return, change your direction. What about your present attitude or conversion that needs adjusting according to God's value? At the end of the psalm, we hear a series of imperatives and desires for God to make his presence more palpable in our world, in our community, and in our own lives.

[46:51]

And I invite you to make that part of your prayer today, those imperatives. Show your favor through the work of our hands. Hurry up. Let us prefer nothing to the love of Christ. May God bring us all together to everlasting life. Heaven and Earth, let's begin with with the last statement that Brother Bruno made, and that is, this is a little key that overarches the entire Psalter, and I don't know your translation, so let's talk about this unfailing love.

[48:01]

Now, unfailing love, I'm going to teach you another Hebrew word, and I think it's going to be the last Hebrew word. The word is hesed. Hesed is H-E-S-E-D. Now, if we pray the Psalm 135 in your liturgy, it says, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Okay, for his love endures forever, for his hesed endures forever, and that's in about five psalms. The word that is often translated as unfailing love, or love, is really, here it's unfailing love. Fill us at dawn with your unfailing love. What's that all about? Well, okay, it's 3 o'clock in the morning and I just wonder, 4 o'clock in the morning, it's 5 o'clock in the morning and I wonder, is the sun going to rise today? Is the sun going to come up today?

[49:03]

And the fact that the sun, that we know the sun is going to rise today and give us light, is hesed. It's unfailing, it's God's fidelity to us. God is faithful to God's creation. God is always faithful to God's creation. God being God cannot lack in fidelity. We are also, creation is contracted to God, and God is contracted to creation, to human beings. God owes us fidelity. We owe God, according to the contract, we owe God fidelity or loyalty. God being God cannot fail in loyalty. Human beings being human beings are programmed to fail in our loyalty to God.

[50:09]

We call it sin. We do what we don't want to do and we don't do what we want to do, in the words of Saint Paul. So what happens when two people are bound in loyalty to a contract and one person breaks that bond? Well, if it's two people, we have ways in our judicial system or in our sentimental system to Well, one person breaks the bond, and so that means the bond can be cancelled, or is cancelled, or somebody is punished, or somebody has to pay extra. But what happens when the two people, the two parties of the covenant, one is divine, eternal, and infallible, and the other one is fallible and human? So God's faithfulness, we are bound to God,

[51:11]

we have a contract with God, the human party breaks that covenant, is unfaithful in some way, big or small, and how does God's faithfulness manifest itself? Is it broken? No. God is faithful. And so God's faithfulness extends itself, expresses itself as grace, as forgiveness, as unfailing love, as undeserved love to keep the covenant together. That's what the crucifixion is all about. How far will God go to keep this covenant active? So, I hope that in the Psalms that we have chosen for this week, that we will come across this notion of grace, or unfailing love, or love, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his

[52:20]

Some of the translations say, for His mercy is everlasting. Well, the word there is hesed, it's faithfulness. But we translate faithfulness as mercy. We translate the word faithfulness, hesed, as love or grace. unfailing love. It cannot be broken. It keeps us up. And so you say, you quoted Brother Bruno, fill us at dawn with your faithfulness. Every morning when the sun comes up and the light lightens our world, when God lightens our world, it's God's faithful, God is faithful. yesterday, the day before, today, and God will be faithful tomorrow. Fill us at dawn with your hesed, with your faithfulness. Now, it's just an introduction into a Psalm, Psalm 16, which I mentioned this morning that when we talk about the consecrated life in the Old Testament,

[53:37]

Well, what are the roots of our consecrated life? But I would say for us monastics, for us monks, the roots of our monastic life is in the Levitical order. The Levitical order, which they didn't live in the big cities, they came to the big cities to take care of maybe the sanctuaries, but most of the Psalms were written by Levites, by the monks of the Old Testament. They were middle-class families that took care of the liturgy. They were the acolytes. They were the cantors. Brother Pierre would be a Levite there, canting. And they were They were the ones who kept the human part of the contract going. by the celebration of the liturgy and by our attention to something that maybe some other people don't have time to take care of.

[54:49]

They took care of some of the minute recipes of the sacrificial system, like throwing incense on the incense altar or the butchering of some of the animals So, let's read together, in Psalm 16, the first four verses. The first, verse 1 to 4, together. Watch over me, O God, because I have entrusted myself to you. I make this generation. You are my God. My happiness lies in you alone. As for those gods of the land called holy ones and princely ones, they used to be all my delight. Those who choose other gods increase their sorrows.

[55:53]

Never will I offer their offerings of blood. Never will I take their name upon my lips." Okay? The first part of the psalm is actually a pledge of allegiance to God and a denial. of every false god. What catches your attention in this, in these first four verses? Just a word or phrase or a concept, an image. Yes, Ignatius? Brother Ignatius? Again? Something else? I have entrusted myself to you. I have entrusted myself to you. I have offered myself to you.

[56:57]

Watch over me, God, you, because I have entrusted myself to you, to your care. Thank you. What else? Sushi pay. Sushi pay. You are my God. What else? I have made this declaration. Do you remember what it is in your Psalter? Okay, I don't remember. You're using the grail, are you not? In church. I think you are, yeah. You're using the Liturgy of the Hours one. Okay. Actually, it's quite beautiful. I was struck in bloods this morning by your translation. So, I make this declaration. That's right.

[58:03]

Yes. I say to you, you are my God. Yes. What else? Then it's sort of like the idea of saying, I'm declaring that you are my God. My happiness lies in you. I may be the one that falls away. You are my God. My happiness lies in you alone. There are other possibilities for superficial happiness. There's a lot of things that catch my attention, but you And he says that in verse 3. As for the other gods, your translation is actually pretty good on that one. As for those optional gods who people call holy and princely, they used to be all my delight when

[59:05]

when I was living in another place, when I was living with another set of values, when I was going through a stage in life and I called divine or divinities, little gods, what is really false. False searchings for happiness. And then he says, those who choose other gods simply increase their sorrow. And just as he said in verse, Brother Luke, I make this declaration, he also says, never, I vow never to offer offerings, false offerings to false gods, never will I take their name upon my lips. saying that those who want to be enamored,

[60:14]

The poet, the psalmist, the poet or theologian here is saying, I really want to be faithful. I really, I vow myself to be faithful. I'm not going to do that. I propose that an Old Testament Levite poet is praying in tune with the monk of today. Those who choose other gods increase their sorrows. Never will I offer their offerings of blood, never will I take their name on my lips. A monk recites these words at his monastic confession, consecration. This is the pledge of allegiance to God. the source of true happiness. In verse 2,

[61:29]

I make this declaration, you are my God, my happiness lies in you alone. In verse 11, the last verse, you will reveal the path of life to me. You will fill me with happiness, the same word that we found in verse 2, you will fill me with happiness in your presence, with delights forever at your right hand. The poet prayed, my happiness lies in you alone. And the poet, theologian, the psalmist will claim, you will fill me with happiness in your presence, the end of the psalm. The poet promises to avoid any strain from this allegiance. Do you renounce Satan and all his works and all his seductions? As the Levite monk pledges loyalty to the one and true, he renounces idols and false gods.

[62:35]

He vows to refrain from private devotions to the mercantile or political gods of the day, like the New Age, like self-seeking belly-button psychology, like the stock market, or like Wal-Mart. A basic value of our monastic life is perseverance in our service to the ever-loyal, all-holy God to which we are contracted. God cannot be disloyal to the covenant guaranteed by chesed. Chesed is faithful, unfailing love. covenant love and loyalty. It's against God's nature to break a contract. It's against God's nature to betray His fidelity.

[63:40]

Our response to God's indissoluble chesed loyalty and holiness is gratitude expressed by the conscious effort to be faithful to our commitments made on the basis of God first loved us. What do we do in return? Well, we not only want to love God in return and be faithful, but we make every effort to do so. Fidelity to God excludes idolatry in every form. Jesus said it well. You cannot serve God and money. or the psalmist says in Psalm 61, do not set your heart on riches even when they increase. Oh, but who of us would be so crass as to set our hearts on money?

[64:44]

The reality is we don't have a lot of it and the community takes care of our expenses Management of our personal resources is not a priority for most monks. But let's make an inventory, an inventory of the other little gods, the other deities that haunt our lives and our sanctuaries, mental gods or environmental gods that compete with the one and true God. I might make a list. Name the other idols and false gods that seek a niche for themselves in my own inner sanctum. How do you pamper yourself? What are your usual excuses?

[65:47]

What wise counsel do you ignore? What are my usual shortcuts in monastic liturgy, in monastic Lectio Divina, in service to the community and to the Church. At the beginning of this liturgy, this every psalm is a liturgy. That's kind of new in psalm studies, but every psalm is a liturgy. They're not private. A psalm is not a private devotion. Even though many times, in many psalms, we do resonate with the verses of the psalm. Oh, that's mine. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But when we pray that psalm, we are praying that as the voice of the church. We're giving voice to our afflicted humanity and we are giving that the eye of that psalm is afflicted humanity, it's the church, it's the suffering people all over the world.

[66:59]

a lament or a complaining song. We're not talking about ourselves. Oh God, my God, the waters, save me God, the waters have come up to my neck and I almost can't breathe anymore. Well, who are we talking about? Well, we're talking about people in our own society that we know and we don't know who are suffering horrors. We're not just talking about ourselves well-fed and decently clothed in the monastic church. That psalm is for the suffering humanity all around us. Every psalm is a liturgy. It's not a private devotion. What's the difference between a liturgy and a private devotion? Who's the beneficiary of a devotion? the individual. I am the I or the person for whom I pray.

[68:03]

The rosary is the beneficiary of the rosary. Who's the beneficiary of a liturgy? The whole world and the us, in us. At the beginning of this psalm liturgy, The poet categorically rejects any rivals to the one and true God and pledges to stand firm under social pressure. He meditates on how divided are people who worship phony gods, and that includes the God that we know as the Divine Self. And the poet contemplates the disgrace of those who look after phony gods. Those who choose other gods, they increase their sorrows, he says. In the monastic life, we know people who are suffering, and in many cases we cannot know the cause of their pain.

[69:14]

But there exists suffering for the cause of Christ, and there is suffering, may I say, for the threat of the loss of the Divine Self. What do we do with our suffering? Is it a private devotion? Do we make, do I make my pain and my suffering psychological, spiritual or physical? Do I make of my pain a private devotion? Or does my suffering have liturgical value? I would say for us as monks, and I've lived and died with many monks, when I was living in the States in Mount Angel, I lived in one monastery for 23 years before they asked me to serve in Mexico, I attended the death bed of many

[70:15]

many of my brothers, and I found beautiful deaths because their pain in the last years of their life was not, did not belong to them. It belonged to the church and it was pain. What does St. Paul say in In Colossians chapter 1 verse 24, what's the meaning of our pain if Christ has saved the world? Well, there's a theological, mystical meaning to our pain, psychological pain, physical pain. It's to make up, St. Paul, I don't know how he did this, to make up what is lacking. in the suffering of Christ. Now, what's that all about? St.

[71:17]

Paul is not writing this letter with a clock. He's writing about Kairos. So when we suffer, when I suffer after the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross, I'm putting myself on the cross with Christ 2,000 years ago for the salvation of the world. It is no longer I. but Christ in me." It's marvelous. It's too deep, that theology. So, the loss, we suffer the loss of our divine selves, one of our gods. It might be beneficial to take some time this evening to assess the suffering in your personal and your monastic life The pain that sometimes is terribly sad and lonely separates ourselves from the people around us because who else is suffering like I am suffering, like you are suffering?

[72:25]

But find in this suffering also a transcendent service. After pledging allegiance to God and renouncing idolatry in the first four verses, the poet, theologian, psalmist, muses on his patrimony, his inheritance, and he finds this unique personal wealth in a theological place. Together, let us read 5 and 6, verses 5 and 6. What do they say, and what catches your attention? O Lord, you are my portion and cup. You are the one who decided my lot. The boundary lines mark off a pleasant estate for me. The Most High has determined my inheritance. Now what's that all about? What catches your attention?

[73:30]

And this, it's for these two verses that I would say, this is a Levite, we know that. And it is the forebears of the monks of the monastic life and monastic consecration. What catches your attention in these two verses? Yes. All of a sudden his intention besides from meeting us, we ought to share in His eternal life. Yes, okay. And that is by a decision of God. Okay, good. That's marvelous. Now, when we talk about lot here, let's get this on the table. The lot is the lottery. We'll talk about that in a second. It's, it's, but you, God has decided who wins.

[74:31]

What else? The reward of having been chosen by God and having responded to the choice of God. There's a tremendous reward You are my portion and my cup. It's marvelous. What else? The Most High has determined what belongs to me, my patrimony, my inheritance. And my inheritance, yes.

[75:35]

Perfect. What else? I need an understanding of where the gods, the lower gods, are sort of on the minds of all those dynamics. Yes. Where, if you look at a lot of the gods of Lankan and the Benijan, there's sort of allegories and things, you know, where the highest god is the Kairos god. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. There are gods which offer us pleasure and happiness

[76:39]

for a while. Somebody took me into one of the most magnificent department stores in Mexico City. And one time we had to walk through there for something and so we went in there and he said, this is not a benefactor or anything, I wasn't going to buy anything, but he said, does anything attract your attention? Do you want any of this stuff? I said, I want it all. I want it all. for about 24 hours, but then I'm going to get really bored by this whole thing. And that's what happens, you know, we have these chronological gods that are all around, including things about ourselves, but they get boring and then we have to get new ones. But there is a Kairos God. Thank you. Greg, it's absolutely legitimate now and what we're doing in scripture studies right now is we're actually trying to make the connections within the Bible itself.

[78:05]

The Bible comments itself. Why? Because when this was written there were no books. There were only this text and stories. And so So it's completely legitimate to make those connections between different psalms and different scriptural texts. We're appreciating that now after 50 years now of Catholic biblical study. We're finally getting to the text and reading the text as it was written. Thank you. So the poet pledged allegiance to God, renounced idolatry, and now he muses on his patrimony. The Levite is speaking about his inheritance in terms of land description. Now, I'm talking about the book of Numbers and the book of Joshua. The book of Numbers in the Bible and Joshua talk about how the land is to be, how the Holy Land is to be distributed among the Israelite tribes.

[79:17]

According to the book of Joshua, the land is divided among the people. Every tribe is awarded an equal portion and every tribe receives an inalienable inheritance. It goes from one generation to the next, and that inheritance cannot be passed off to another tribe. We've got the Naphtali and Manasseh tribes up in the north. in the mountain region. Then we've got Manasseh and Ephraim in the center there. We've got Judah down in the south. He's got a big portion, but it's mostly desert and so he needs a bigger portion to live on. And then we've got a couple tribes that had some trouble in their history and so they're kind of assumed by the tribe. But every tribe receives an equal portion. receives an inalienable inheritance. Once the parcels are mapped out and the boundary lines are drawn, distribution of the family plots is determined by the lottery.

[80:26]

Lots were drawn from a cup of pebbles or little balls, or maybe drawing straws. Proverbs tells us that God controls the luck of the draw. The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is the Lord's alone, Proverbs 16. In the New Testament, on two occasions, the lottery describes the outcome. Once, when the soldiers cast lots for Jesus' clothing, or for his tunic, And again when Matthias was elected to complete the number of the twelve apostles after Judas defected. Back to numbers and Joshua. The tribe of Levi was excluded from the lottery. Do you know that the Levi fashion company or clothing company

[81:32]

is this tribe?" Yes, yes it is. Truly, yes, it is a Jewish operation. The tribe of Levi was excluded from the lottery. The Levites, like a primitive monastic order, exercise the liturgy for which they were exempt from agrarian and other tasks. The law in Numbers singles out the Levites and prescribes I'm in numbers 18, 20. You shall have no allotment in their land, nor shall you have any share among them. I am your portion and your possession. God is the lot, is the parcel. God is the inheritance. God is the privileged lot. And we talk about a plot of land to build on. God is where the Levite builds.

[82:33]

The Levites lived on the sanctuary stipends and the sacrificial offerings. In the psalm, the Levite receives his cut of God's portion, and thus he prays, O God, you are my portion and my cup. You are the one who decided my lot. Or in a translation, perhaps, the translation that you read, you are my inheritance, you are my patrimony. God, I build on you. That's a marvelous statement. The Levite's portion, or the monk's portion, is a particular friendship with God. The Levite, or the monk, lives not on the land, but on the Lord, his patrimony. Elsewhere, the psalmist will pray, you are my refuge, my inheritance in the land of the living. Psalm 141.

[83:37]

You are my refuge, my inheritance in the land of the living. Inheritance means a plot of ground where I will build my life. What fortune. Life with God is its own reward. Life with God is a winning lottery ticket. The Levite is thus singled out to attend to God's interests. In return, God will take care of the Levite. Chesed. Fidelity. God will be faithful. And we make every effort to be faithful. Another psalm bears this out. It's a psalm that we pray in vigils. Psalm 73, 72 at the end of the psalm, what do I need in heaven? If I am with you, I delight in nothing on earth. Here he talks about happiness. If I am with you, I delight in nothing on earth. Though my flesh and my heart waste away, God is the mountain of my heart, and my portion is the eternal one."

[84:46]

The last verses of Psalm 72 catch our attention. The Levite monk is not a functionary who lives on a fixed income. The Levite monk For the Levite monk, his social security is not just his salary, not the benefits that derive him his labor and his personal investments. The Levite lives an intense friendship with God, who amounts to the best social security and an awesome life insurance policy, because it lasts forever. homework. Take an x-ray of your monastic commitment. Take an x-ray of your baptismal and your monastic consecration. Other people have received a more or less fertile plot of ground, a profitable inheritance, often based on fluctuating market concerns or just plain luck.

[86:01]

possessions, positions, promotions, marriage and family, responsibility and perks. The monk has been awarded an incomparable inheritance, the absolute best. God, our homestead, our portion, How many monks find it difficult to accept and live by the spiritual ideal of our monastic consecration? Yet, in truth, every time we detach ourselves from false gods and idols and make a sincere, generous self-offering in our baptismal and monastic life, we place God once again in first place, and we do it over and over again, all throughout our life.

[87:03]

That's what our vow of conversion is all about. The vow of conversion of life, oh yes, yes, it took place once in our life, in big ways, perhaps before we came to the monastery, but it happens every day of our life, and that's a beautiful thing about our monastic consecration. Every day is a new day in our monastic consecration and our conversion. Every day we can decide once again to put God in first place. The Levite poet's testimony is amazing. It's as if he were telling us, stop trying to ensure your security or immunize your life from trials. Stop hedging your bets. Let God be God. Only then will you be free from anxiety and enjoy an eternal possession.

[88:05]

The poet contemplates gods controlling the gambling operation, spinning the wheel of fortune, dealing the cards, drawing straws, awarding the prize. Those who choose other gods increase their sorrows, he declares. If only we could refrain from calculating our investments and setting limits in our friendship with God. In the end, the poet confirms, God is enough for me. Whoever has God lacks nothing. A parable The days I spend on the dusty roads, begging, awaiting a gentle word for some show of kindness, for human comfort and human dignity.

[89:20]

The nights I spend in my shabby, empty room, thus the years of my life have passed. But one day was different. In the glare of the noonday sun coming towards me on a lonely highway, the driver of an SUV slowed down, caught my eye, and suddenly my hopes lifted. Had my big day finally arrived? My true benefactor? The payday for all my misery and all my destitution? And I thought, as the vehicle stopped at my side, now misery meets mercy. My drudgery has come to an end. And now, now that this kind benefactor has noticed me, But, oh, to my terrible surprise, as the window of the SUV lowered, a hand reached out and a voice asked, gentle monk, what have you to give to me?

[90:37]

Oh, cruel, ironic, pampered hand, how could you beg of me, a penniless monk, some token of humanity? I rummaged through my rucksack, selected the smallest grain of corn, and begrudgingly placed it in my benefactor's outstretched hand. That very evening, to my terrible surprise, I was even more amazed. As I emptied my sack on the floor of my cell and took inventory, I found among the old newspapers, the old food scraps, bottles and cans of my daily collection, a single grain of gold. And then I wept the bitterest of tears and regretted that I had not given that generous benefactor a potato, a squash, bottles,

[91:39]

a watermelon, an old worn-out pair of shoes, or better, all of my valuable junk. Did you get that? Let us prefer nothing to the love of Christ. Let us prefer nothing to the love of Christ. May God bring us all together to everlasting life. Let's try that again. May God bring us all together to everlasting life. Let us prefer nothing to the love of Christ. May God bring us all together to everlasting life.

[92:24]

@Transcribed_v004
@Text_v004
@Score_JJ