I don't have to do anything proficiently. My dear son in Christ, this year brings to us this combination of the Feast of Saint John the Baptist and of the Sacred Heart, one following immediately the other. Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, the Feast of the Prophet, and today the Feast of the Sacred Heart. I think between the two there is a deep connection. As all things in Holy Scripture, the things of God always fit together somehow.

[01:03]

So, the Prophet, I must confess that yesterday we should have, I was crushed later on in thinking about it, that we have not really remembered our brethren at Christ of the Desert in a way, at least I haven't been speaking about them and also mentioning in my chapter sometimes the things kind of accumulate. So many things are sent our way, but in some way we should today maybe go back to that, also to the monastery down there of Christ of the Desert. St. John the Baptist presents our vocation, and it's that of the prophet. Today the vigil started with the Psalm 32, if I'm not mistaken, in which those two things and two basic orders, so to speak, are so clearly

[02:15]

outline and presented to us the order of the word of God, the creative word that has put into being this creation and its beauty. And what a wonderful day it is today. We sense its beauty. We are inebriated by it. Such a day of such lucidity and of such sweetness. And it is as if God's goodness would be poured out over all the things that we see and would permeate the the air that we breathe and therefore also shines in our hearts. That is the beauty of creation, the mirror of God's glory. But then there is the other one and that is the concilium, the council.

[03:21]

And the council is the council of salvation. That is God's answer. He had created this beautiful world with man as the priest and as the one therefore he was called to give a free response out of the bottom of his heart to this beauty of God's creation. And then man failed to give that response and he preferred his own service, his own glory, to being a mirror of the glory of his Heavenly Father. Therefore, he ceased to be a son. And so, then this order of the concilium, God's counsel, God's plan, God's design of salvation,

[04:27]

answers this order and reveals to us a new order, more magnificent, an order of absolute liberty, and giving us this possibility of a new response, the order of salvation, the order of God's love. And that is what the Prophet does. He goes into the desert. He leaves, in a certain way, he leaves that world of creation, the beauty of creation. He goes into the desert there, where in some way he is closest to nothingness and to God's wrath. and he fears God's burden. And then there, in the desert, one can say beyond creation, beyond the garden, just opposite of the garden, the desert,

[05:41]

There the concilium, the council, the intention, God's design of salvation is manifested to him. And that is what the prophet is called for. That in this human history, so filled with error and with selfishness and with sin, And in this historical order, he proclaims, and he proclaims not on his own, with his own spirit and own genius, but with the words of God, in the inspiration of God, he proclaims that counsel of salvation, counsel of his heart, God's heart. And that culminates in this beautiful proclamation that we have heard this morning in the epistle to the Ephesians.

[06:46]

That new world is open to us and that is the meaning of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. We enter through the open side of the Lord into that new world of overwhelming beauty, absolute mercy, loving us until the end. Now, Brother Sebastian, I say that because in your own life, as you see it very clearly, those two things, the desert and the opening of the sight of the Lord, are closely knitted. and you yourself, you consider it as a sign. as a sign of God's mercy for you in your whole life. You have tasted the bitterness of the desert. You have also tasted the world and what can become of the world if man does not respond to God's, the Father's generosity to his loving intentions.

[07:59]

You know all that. the experience of your life. And you consider the marks that the war, always the expression of that destructive potentiality which is there where man loses love and therefore turns to hatred. And you carry the wounds of that in your own body. And therefore you understand the sign that God has written there. And that in this way has used the hatred in order to open your heart for love. And why do you come here? Just for that purpose. To live that love. If you then here on this beautiful feast and there was the desire of your heart to do it and we are glad as a community to respond to that desire to have this and to celebrate your profession just exactly on this day where you coming from the desert hear that word of salvation.

[09:23]

You are mine, and you are mine in the order of mercy, in the order of a love that makes an eternal pact, an eternal covenant with you that is a love for good. And to make it possible for you to have that, that sign again, you know, marked so clearly in your life, Now the years will go on, and there are these feasts this day, the 25th of June, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, will then come back. And so that every year is in some way a repetition and of course a deepening of the understanding of this love of your heavenly father for you that he shows to you in the womb and the side of his son.

[10:31]

The word made man. The two orders creation and salvation, they meet in that wound in the side of our Lord. The entrance gate into the new world, the new heaven and the new earth. That is your desire. And therefore you will always, I'm sure, take this act of your profession too as a deep inner renouncement, renouncement of all the things that make life sometimes so difficult and full of sufferings and full of thoughts in this world. the selfishness of man, the self-glorification, these tendencies which are so deep in us, you know, that everybody always looks for some kind of a little title to throw his way and wait around.

[11:39]

And all that you renounce. You realize that you are not the youngest anymore, and you realize that therefore also you have a certain form. And you see it, but you have that confidence that with the grace of God, with his and in the power of his mercy and his love for you, that you will be able to transcend it and to enter through the gate of the Lord's heart into that world of absolute freedom, into that world of the Holy Spirit. a spirit of meekness, a spirit of humility, a spirit in which we are not concerned about our own little titles and positions, but the only thing that matters is really that Christ loves us unto the end. And that is what we want to give to our people, and that's what we want to show to others.

[12:44]

So I wish then, dear brother, that in this new phase of your life into which you enter this morning, that that remains always absolutely clear to you. When you forget it, don't get panicky, don't get discouraged, but go back to it and remember, remember, Remember that in the desert, God has printed his mark upon you, has signed you to a holy service, tremendous service, through sanctity in and through love in the Holy Spirit, the imitation of the Word made flesh. And that becoming a monk means to you to be a prophet, a prophet of that new order, God's infinite love, that redeeming order.

[13:53]

And therefore, enter into that liberty. In your dealings with the members of the community, if they are younger or older in age, what does it matter? In this order of redemption, what does it matter? There where we have left creation and we enter into a perpetual love and a perpetual pact, that's your life. Into that you enter here and you have found that in this community and we all know and we realize that you have in your heart a great love and admiration and respect for the members of the community, not on account of the gifts and so on, or the capacity or capability of this one or that one.

[14:56]

No, but simply because these are your brethren, you realize and you believe firmly that God wants you here, Therefore, every one of your brethren is one of these entrance gates into the freedom of the heart of the Lord for you. And that is what makes you happy. And that is what creates your stability here, and it's the foundation of your life. So remember it. Remember it like God's child, reborn. Not counting the years of your creation, but counting the years of that new order that begins, you know, today. Today we begin to count your years and we hope that we will come to the 25 years, you know, that first silver jubilee.

[15:59]

The golden jubilee probably is kind of out. That's a good thing for you too. You realize that you enter into this really at the evening of the years of your creation. That may only bring you closer to eternity.

[16:22]

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