That sphere, Regulus Vasilikos, just a man who belongs to a sphere of a king, of a court. And then we want to today speak about the second step that this Vasilikos becomes man at the very moment of the leave And he recognized the glory of the Christ manifests itself there in that word, go thy way, my son, as he. That moment he gives up any attempt to control. to use religion, supernatural powers, his own purposes.

[01:11]

He's lifted up into a new sphere. He believes. That means he surrenders himself. And that is, we saw yesterday, the basilicos is in everyone. Everyone is a... Regulus, the king's man, the courtier. And that fact is rooted in the form, that judgment, in that word, in which God then determines the relation between Eve and Adam, between the woman and man. A woman with secondary wives, per se, for that matter, inferior one. A man, a higher one, the one that is in power.

[02:14]

Then he says, under renouncement, being the he-who-takes, a little sorrow, suffering, you shall bring forth children. that your desire shall be to man. That means you shall lean on man. That your desire shall be to man, and he shall lord it over you. A man is ruler, and a woman is servant. He thinks for her, and she leans on him. which he is, as we see that then later on in the Orient, the old word anyhow, cow, and he brags. That relation is so characteristically

[03:18]

put before us in Genesis 4.23, and Lamech said unto his wives. That's also why man needs more than one wife. The more wives he has, the more the wives cease to be, let's say, human. they simply feel what they call the oriate, the habit, their addition to man's possessions. To Lamech, the first polygamist said unto his wives, Ada and Scylla, hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech. How then unto my speech It's always my voice after my speech, and then comes that speech. God bless you. Who wounds me, I slay him.

[04:22]

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. It's always that. That's the law of putting it on higher and higher, more and more. That verse kind of indicates the consequences, the real historical concrete consequences of that, of the fall of man in which that whole balance between rule and service has been disturbed. Why? Because man of course is, and we look at his nature, man is formed by the Lord God of the dust of the ground

[05:26]

back that God breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life. Stoke now became a living soul. So there are these two elements. There's the dust of the earth. There's God the potter, as St. Paul explains later on, the one who forms this vessel out of the loess. the most cheapest thing that there is on the earth. And then, the other one, he breathes his spirit. He breathes his spirit. So in man is quite a way these two things, the loneliness, the humility, and there is the glory. And he is, in these two ways, he is created.

[06:32]

And that is the whole thing of man, to be one in these two things. But, of course, his disobedience to the Lord and Creator, does it, leads, you know, to the, say, the wah, of God, that supernatural endowment, that sharing in divine nature, is lost. And therefore, the consequence of that is that man is dusted. Dust thou out, and unto dust thou shalt return. Man who wanted to be a king out of himself He wanted to have the glory of God without serving, without asking, without what we call the temor, the fear of the Lord. See, the dust is the element which in mankind is the basis of the fear of the Spirit of God and is the basis of the love of God, the pride of relationship.

[07:48]

And so, therefore, thus thou art, and unto thus thou shalt return, is said to Adam. But then, you know, also so beautifully that in the next verse it says, And man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all them. Such a beautiful thing, we think about that there. Man, the head of mankind, man's glory, is, by God's judgment, then into the dust. And then in this state of humiliation, then man calls in a prophetic way, as a prophet, calls his wife's name Eve, the wife's name.

[08:50]

That means the one that is lower, the one who leads, the one that in sorrow shall bring forth children, the one that has to drink the chalices with. I named Eve because she was the mother of all the living. So the inferior part there is exalted. And the inferior part becomes, as I said, the dawn of salvation. The mother of all. And the church always has seen in this world an illusion and a relation really to the role of the one through whom and from whom the second Adam, the man, Jesus Christ, received his human body, the mother of all the living, taught of the cross then.

[09:51]

So if we consider, you know, man in this way, we see right away these two sides in him, the dust and the glory, these two things, the disobedience of man is rooted, of course, and came out of the Messiah to take the glory for himself, make the glory his own position. Do not wait for the hand of God as friend. That means do not wait for Christ, but do it out of your own, because after all, what does that mean, this... law that God has made about not eating on this tree, he probably just wanted to deprive man, keep man immature, keep man under his feet, you know, keep him a slave, and in that way reserve for himself these prerogatives.

[11:04]

Why should man not He's able to take the fruit. Why should he not take the fruit? And in that way, through his own initiative and his own power, really establishes equality to God. That was the essence of his disobedience. And then, of course, was punished. You know, in this world, dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. So in that way, the glory part of man was lost. Now we have that, if we think about man, and still in a little more theological way, we have, of course, the definition of man, just of this kind of... of man's existence and man's essence in Psalm 8, the fifth verse.

[12:08]

And that is, of course, that has received the commentary in Hebrews 2.5. And there in Hebrews 2.5 it says, For God did not subject to angels the world to come of which we speak, Someone has affirmed this somewhere, saying, What is man that thou art mindful of me? Or the son of man that thou regardest? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou didst crown him with glory and honor and set him over the works of thy hands. Thou didst subject all things beneath his bed. subject all things beneath his feet. Every word here is so important, because this being subject, you know, is of course the corresponding to a natural order.

[13:15]

But now here this, let us say, this description of man in the psalm is by the author of the letter to the Hebrews, is now applied to Jesus as the man. He is. Jesus Christ is the man. And in him we see that our God is man. That means enosh. That means man in his weakness. Man as the product of, and how he becomes under the reign of power. That is enosh. That thou art mindful of. for the son of man that thou regardest him. The son of man, too, is that emphatically stating, you see, man as man in his humanness, so to speak. In that, thou madest him a little lower than the angels.

[14:17]

Now, thou in subjecting all things to him, let nothing unsubject, However, we do not as yet see all things subjected to him, but we do see him who was made a little lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor, on account of having suffered death, in order that by the grace of God he should taste death for everyone. He is the man, and his free destiny is to be reduced to dust, to die. Dust thou out, and to dust thou shalt return. This death sentence is taken up by the second Adam, by Jesus. It became him for whom all things and through whom are all things. In bringing many sons into glory, to be perfect, the author of their salvation through sufferings.

[15:24]

So that you can see here in Christ the Lord, the full man, the man stands before us. He is really the one who in himself fulfills the whole essence of man, as we can see that in the epistle to the Philippians, if you take the second chapter. Though Christ was divine by nature, he did not consider his being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped. That is, of course, the opposition of what the disobedience of Adam meant. He did not consider his being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, to be kept against, that is to say, the obedience to his heavenly Father.

[16:29]

But on the contrary, he emptied himself, took the nature of a slave, and was made like to men. Then, having come in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death. That connection, I think, is very evident that, for example, in the Gospel of St John, where we, in the 19th chapter, at the moment in which the day of the Lord is fulfilled, At the moment in which Christ is being led to death, over there, Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged. And the soldiers, plating a crown of thorns, placed it on his head and threw a purple cloak about him.

[17:34]

Then they came to him and cried, Hail, King of the Jews! And they struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no crime in him. And Jesus, accordingly, came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. And Pilate said to them, Behold the man. I think that is the way, also as it's translated here, This translation, behold the man. The man, and man there with capital. Behold Adam. Behold the man. So there Jesus is the man. And Pilate shows him there. How does he stand there as the one who is reduced by the mocking soldiers, but can do nothing?

[18:42]

all as it were, all in one way, all glory has been taken away from me. The scourging is a reducing to nothing. And at the same time, or to the soldiers too, making fun of him. That means in that way annihilating him morally, one can say, but also the crucifixion means making fun of him. But what kind of fun do they make of him? And there is, as it were, the handwriting of the Father written right in this ignominy of the Son, only extreme and absolute ignominy of the soul. He receives a crown, a crown of thorns, and he receives that purple cloak. And in that way, something tremendously true and deep, you know, is said there.

[19:45]

That in this man, who is reduced to nothing, a criminal and the object of the hatred of the people, at the same time the crown of thorns is a crown and the purple cloak with which he is clothed you know indicates his dignity but in what way in this way that his dignity as it were is his ignominy his glory is his suffering i think one cannot think, you know, deeply enough about this tremendous manifestation, this symbol, the crown of thorns. That is a sign, you know, which went through the whole of Christianity, which deeply has left its imprint on the thinking of the church, the crown of thorns.

[20:48]

Crown means glory. Thorn means suffering, suffering. The two in one, the crown of thorns, that is really man as he is under the will of God, Christ the Lord. Of course, of this same one, then also in the same context, Pilate again, in all sense, Now it was the preparation day of the Passover, say about noon, and he said to the Jews, Pilate, behold your king. I think those two things have to be seen in one. Behold the man, behold your king. One is lowered, you know, the angels. What is Enoch?

[21:50]

That means what is man if you consider him as the victim, as the victim, as the underdog, let us say, of creation, that you should think of him. And still you have exalted him and you have given him that glory, the glory of the king. And I think these two things, to see them in one, of course, they make really the mystery of the Pascha. That is the work of redemption. That is what the new man, Christ, who really has suffered for him and at the same time has become through the hand of the Father. I think we should, you know, if we take that into consideration, then we must say in our context of our life, you know, that what is the monk?

[22:51]

The monk is man. The monk is man, context of him. He is the man. Because he, what does he want? What is the monastic profession? What is the monastic life all about? It's just to the imitation of Christ. Take your cross upon yourself and follow me. That is why in the Orient, monks had this, those who were really monks, had on their scapula the great cross because they are cross bearers. And on this cross in the Orient, always they sit with the crown of thorns. There is, at the same time, that is the position or essence of And, of course, that comes then in all ways.

[23:56]

If you go and maybe you use today, use that and read the rule just under this aspect because it solves to you really so many problems. You know, in our days at the, let us say, the certain unrest that has taken place, you know, there is the, let us say, there is the, the reassessment of the Church, the adornment, the bringing up to date. That is, of course, a thing which in itself is of utmost importance. But, of course, there is a danger in it too. That danger is always the same danger to which man is constantly subjected. as long as he is really down and out. Then, of course, he cries to God.

[24:57]

But at the very moment in which he receives that God's gift and is exalted, then, of course, comes the tremendous temptation that he takes what God has given him as his own. You have that, and that is the The classical example of it is that the Son of God, the Israelitic people, went into dust and ashes in Egypt. And everybody, what looks at that really, what looks at these pyramids as we saw them the other day by Mr. Regan there, and all these immense, you know, these immense blocks, you know, that 750 feet square, you know, and then these two tops, each one, What a tremendous amount of, let us say, slave labor and slave life has gone into it.

[26:05]

It was consumed, really, by the, for what? For the glory of the king. There we see on one hand, we see that Lamech, you know, and if one man hurts me, he will die. Pain was avenged seven times. I shall be avenged seventy times, seven times. And then the woman is here. That woman is the helpless, inferior part of humanity, the poor ones. And they are the slaves. And there are the Israelites right with them. And they were building, and they had to serve there for this enormous effort, you know, that was made, you know, to establish the eternal glory, the heap of stones, a very big heap of stones. But, I mean, if you sat out of a jet plane, you know, and you look down, it's just...

[27:07]

head, you know, and nothing else, you know, so it really kind of compels him to trust, you know, and that's what he's constantly doing. So, I mean, and there we see. And out of that, you know, then, this people, this... I don't want to say gag, you know, but, I mean, this crowd, you know, of helpless humanity, the Israelites under the Pharaoh. They were then led out of Egypt, of course, by killing the land, and then came to Sinai, and there the word was given to them. And there they were declared sons. There the covenant was established. And I think that is the thing that we should always keep in mind.

[28:08]

We should keep that in mind too. For example, in interpreting just these words that I referred to before in the second chapter of Genesis, God falls mad out of the dust of the earth. And then he breathes into his nostrils the ruach. How did he do it? In Egypt, he formed his son, Israel, and Israel is man. Out of the dust, you know. And he breathes into them through the nostrils, breathes it and sends his word. How does it do? Through his word. And then the Jews go on, and then they are warned now. When you get now and when you settle in the land that God will give, Then before long, you will grow fat, and you will feel your strength, and then it will start, you know, jumping around, calling you your own.

[29:13]

And then, of course, what is the answer? The answer for that, that is the day of Jahweh, that day of Jahweh. And the day of Jabir, which is described here, you know, in Isaiah, I just give you that in Isaiah 13, because I think it's very, very significant, that day of Jabir. How would he? For the day of the Lord is at hand. Of course, we should always think, if we read that, the day of the Lord, how that comes to our mind. Yes, of course, that's the Sunday, the day of the Lord. There's this eschatological element in the monk. Just the other day, our dear, because Maria, before she became Sister Angelica, was reading the Holy Rule, and that's so, it was so symptomatic, you know. And there in the beginning, the first chapter of Humility, the first chapter of Humility explains the whole, let us say, spirit of the day of the Lord as it becomes concrete in the monk.

[30:23]

Now, why does it say there, you know, that the first thing is the fear of the Lord? Why does it say that? Why does it say that the first thing is the love of the Lord? Of course, there is absolutely no antagonism between the two. But one thing is sure that the love of the God of the Lord cannot really take a hold in man before he says in fear and trembling, Lord, my God is one, unique. That is absolutely necessary. That is, of course, what the dust cries. That confession, the dust cries, that is what then opens the way to glory. And that is for the monk. And no, you see, anything that we say today, oh, yes, man is maturing, you see.

[31:27]

And because man is maturing, yes, more, you know, let us say, appears, stories. because he has more or less of a story, therefore also, you know, things change a little. The Pope can't do it all. Not even an abbot can do it all. Therefore, you know, comes that. Now, I would say, and of course, we realize that there is, you know, in that way, on the natural level, that develops. There's no doubt about it. And there is no natural, let us say, a greater, let's say, for example, through the whole tremendous work of education, which is being carried on among men. Of course, it is true that the intellectual level is rising. Not rising in some way, yes, it's rising, not rising. It's always difficult. Bring it on a nice formula that everything is on the way up here.

[32:31]

There is development there, that is certain. But I would say two things are certain. One thing is that the development as such, I mean, the development, let us speak about the human species of man, in that way too, let us say, with more education, more formation and so on, and therefore better possibility of judgment may be, you see, that too is, as far as it is in the nature of man, is a good thing because God saw man and it was good, you see. And therefore, but on the other hand, it is also absolutely true that as far as our salvation is concerned, as far as man in his theological structure is concerned, that there, of course, the eternal truth absolutely remains.

[33:38]

The basic situation of man will not change. always remains the same. Therefore, the basic situation of the monk will not change, always remains the same. Where there is, let us say, a development, Man grows and doesn't always remain a child of six years. It's absolutely true. He becomes 20 or 30 and so on and gains an experience. It would be ridiculous, let us say, for the church or something or ecclesiastical authority not to recognize that. That's, of course, absolutely nonsense. And not recognize that, let us say, for the sake of humility or something. That, too, by and large, is a an illegitimate kind of mingling of spheres. That is not in the order of nature. But at the same time, I was also saying, I think in our days too, if we see there that the church, as I say, is interiorly kind of breaking up, you know, on a new way.

[34:49]

And that, for example, let us say the prerogatives of the Pope are being shared, and that's what we call today the collegiality. That is, of course, not only and should not only be seen, as I say, under the aspect of the church would then better function, in a functional aspect. One should see it in the aspect of the spirit, because what is the church? The church, in essence, is not interested, you know, but working better as a function, as an institution. But the church is interested in the witness that is given to God, the way in which Christ is realized in the church. And there I would say that any growth of the spirit, any real maturity of the spirit, in the supernatural sphere cannot be had without, I would say, greater humility in the soul.

[35:57]

And that is also true for the Church. And if that is not true, we are missing the boat. The real development of the Church is not that one who will say, oh my, yes, now that, always that talk about humility, and man is a world, and so on, and so on. That is medieval. That belongs to a time that man was still immature, you know, had the prior conflicts, etc. You can never say that. And you can never say that also in a monastery. And that is the reason why, to my mind, monastic spirit, monastic institution, you see, cannot and will not be overcome, you know, by any tremendous development, you know, of the church in the intellectual or functional sphere. The monks will always, in that way, remain the heart, provided that they don't get themselves, you know, in the spirit of the institutionalism and in the spirit of efficiency.

[37:00]

And they, you know, begin to keep then, of course, they really lose their vocation and their place in the church as such. And therefore, in what led to my mind, let us say, the deepening in humility, the deepening in obedience, the deepening in the renouncement, the eagerness with Eve to take part in the sufferings of mankind, the pain. to get into a process of travailing. That in itself can only and always be a blessing, but it is not in any way an artificial stratification. That is completely different. That cannot be. This is a matter of the heart. And therefore, also, let us think about that. Let us see that clearly also for ourselves, that we

[38:02]

deepen ourselves, and God will take care of that. God will take care of anybody and everyone who comes into that kind of stage, you know, that he thinks, oh my, now I kind of can do it on my own. The hand of God will come, and it will be brought to the day where everybody howls, you know. and the hands will be free, and the hearts will live. But that is what the monastery is about, to, in that way, to fulfill, to live the spirit of the day of the Lord, that he is, at the same time, that he is crowned with the crown of thorns, and I would say the crown of suffering, the crown of renouncing, the crown of obedience, the crown of renouncing his own will, That is the man, and these thoughts are really and truly a crown, so that this man, in this affliction, is a saint, a really and truly a king.

[39:10]

See the gather of the fragments of that, as well its consideration. Well, a monk, there is man, the man, He has seen as the royal official, you say, standing with man in the state of fallen nature, that he changes into a man as soon as he believes. And that believing, that is the act of surrender. There, in that moment, he becomes a man. Why? Now, because man was created of dust, now it's the rock spirit of God. So the two together constitute man as a living being, as a living totality.

[40:18]

owned by God of the dust of the earth, sharing its spirit, man is turned to God as his living image and likeness. And at the moment of his disobedience, this natural Dust and glory turn together, this living being turns together. God, through his disobedience, that, that inner, you might say, nature of God, is destroyed. And he is divided. Pettus put it kind of roughly into the two elements. as it is so visible in that sentence. A woman with the dust qualities and that man with the emancipated glory qualities, the ruler.

[41:36]

But in reality, of course, the two together, man and woman, male and female, make the full man. Now, therefore, for this reason, or the reason of this break through disobedience, through this mutilation of man, through the fall, for this reason Christ did not hold on to glory. He left just that which Adam wanted to grasp out of his own power, emancipated, glory. But he emptied himself, emptied himself, that way, takes on, as it were, the woman element. That was found in the form, that means in the essence of man.

[42:45]

That has a strong accent in the Gospels and also in the letters of sin. The mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, so emphatic of the end of the first letter to Timothy. And our Lord himself calls himself the Son of Man. And then at the solemn moment, When the day of the Lord is there, Pilate points him out to the Jewish people and, as a prophet, says, Behold the man, Egero. Now, the monk is the full man in the sense that he walks in the footsteps of the Egero and in that way tries to... Establish again, reestablish, that original unity of dust and glory, of man and woman.

[43:56]

As the wise father of Bede Griffiths said in his retreat of Animus and Anima, Yet this seems, this is, of course, you must realize that this is the idea of Christian perfection. We remember that that term perfection is the translation of the Hebrew word tamim. Tamim means whole, integral, integral. Within the limits set by God. Tamim is always this connotation of finishing, of ending, remaining there, being complete. That means come to the limits set by God. Development of perfection is there not so much a kind of dynamic quality,

[45:01]

Breaking the record, you know, as we have that today, you know, more perfect, you know, there's always, as there is by records, you know, bigger and better. Reaching the highest degree of efficiency, top of the social ladder, all these things that swing in our concept of perfection. The old concept, Old Testament, New Testament concept of perfection is much more static. It's the wholeness which corresponds to the God-set measure. Therefore, perfection is much more the idea of being sufficient, being complete, come to the end. Therefore, it's so. translated in the Greek by telios. Now, the perfection of the monarchos is not that he tries to work himself into more and more in the line of this virtue or that virtue.

[46:20]

You are listening to this article by Thomas Merton, where he gives a picture of the clash between these two worlds, the monastic contemplative Benedictine world and then the active world, where also I think it's not only the needs of the active world, not the active life, but I think it's also a change of the inner approach, the inner character, the dynamism of the people involved who want to see results, and they get results by setting acts. Examination of conscience is something like that, setting acts, remembering, act of contrition, resolution, and so on, constantly repeated and repeated, three examinations of conscience better than one examination, always this kind of thing.

[47:23]

And so that's on that more and more, more modification, more of this, more of that, more spiritual. then it has colored so much our idea of perfection. But in the old concept that perfection is, in the monk certainly, that he becomes more and more whole. And that means that the basic duality or that dichotomy, that opposition, divergence between dust and water, that that is again restored to a living unity, that nephesh. We call it sometimes also the dualism between flesh and spirit. God is created in the likeness of God, male and female God created them.

[48:37]

And therefore the monk aiming at perfection, he develops both the animosus and the anima. Virginity is to the monk not a one-sided development of male qualities. or the sex of the female qualities. Virginity is not a withdrawing, let us say, of the unique characteristics of the sex in which one is born, but it is virginity that strives for totality. Now, life in the world, of course, to the man naturally a challenge to develop his male characteristics. He cannot make his way without competition, developing leadership qualities, initiative, aggressiveness, efficiency.

[49:49]

every time that you get one of these formulas, formularies that you have to fill out if somebody looks for a position, these are always the things, you know, there's the leadership qualities, initiative, aggressiveness, all these kinds of things, that's what counts. In the world of man, only really his wife and his children are there to counterbalance the one-sided influence of the world as world, and to give him the holiness that he might enjoy in his home. As the father, of course the father is the man who is married, And that means the man who is complete only together with the mother. Whole, the father is whole only together with his wife.

[50:50]

So if the monk would live his monastic life as a career, or as to one side the development of his animosity, I will say in terms of duty, femininity, exemplarity of behavior, efficiency, achievement, or self-sufficiency, then he will soon feel a certain emptiness, his incompleteness. a lack of fulfillment. And it's true he will fall even behind the married man, if he does that. In reality, of course, the monastic life, and especially the rule of Saint Benedict, tries to achieve perfection. That means wholeness. Wholeness, of course, in the monk himself.

[51:55]

And that means a balance between man and woman, animus and anima. There is, for example, therefore, in the monastic life and the whole plan of the monastic life, there is that distinction between the Lectio Divina and the Opus Dei. Now, the Lectio Divina, the reading, that is more Mary sitting at the feet of Christ. required, recollected, ruminated, pondered, all these words in her heart. The opus Dei is different and has to be accepted as such. It's more labour, it requires attention, it requires coordination, volume. discipline all these things meal qualities but one cannot say now here this is for me I have to get to the open space one cannot say one says something one throws a whole life out of balance one loses the totality enough pictures

[53:22]

There is also, as the author, balance between prayer and work. Prayer, of course, that is the anima part. There is our soul being thrown upon the Lord. The pouring out of our soul. There is the feast in that spirit. There is the celebration. There's the tremendous importance of singing, of this contemplative joy that the feast brings. All that is the anima. In that realm, the anima flourishes, can unfold, is nourished. Belongs, therefore, to the totality of the monk. On the other hand, there's the work. Manual or mental, it's hard work.

[54:27]

It's effort. It is planned. It aims at something. It has to achieve something. Therefore, that's the man. The two belong together again to make and create that fullness of that perfection, which is the complete man, the man. Or, for example, there is the balance monastic life between the obedience and responsibility, sonship and fatherhood, disciple and teacher. If one goes through the Holy Rule, and it would be maybe good for you to go through the Rules of Time with that in view, and you will see, of course, Naturally, that the accent in the rule, as a normal school for beginners, for men, in the state of purification, certainly is on the surrender of the animals.

[55:40]

Who does not surrender in that way does not fulfill the rule. And that is, of course, this aspect, because the animus aspect, that means the independence aspect, the achievement aspect, the perfection aspect in the sense of achievement and career, is, of course, that's natural to man. And therefore, the other element, the transforming element, comes through faith into man. the transforming factor, through the surrender of the self-will, the monk attains to the wholeness of the actual home. In the very act of believing, all this wholeness is possible only in the general sphere of faith.

[56:43]

By nature, of course, man as man tries to get wholeness either by intensifying his efforts or by expansion. Expansion, either horizontal or the vertical. Vertical, better, better, better. The expansion, more and more and more. providing tea, eating it all up. He wonders. Man is that way, like a butterfly. I haven't seen enough. I haven't been around enough. Sometimes things like that come to man, you know, when he thinks about it over his life. To the monk, you know, my chances are Something like that, you know, because that man has that, you know, he wants to extend his realm.

[57:53]

Instead of that, the ruler asks for stability in the congregation. Same old place, same old face. That's how the woman's have it. She stays home. She loves to stay home. She doesn't have that expansion. She likes and loves her little world. The man is not her little world. The world can't be big enough for him. And her chores, that's another chapter. So the rule, therefore, in these ways, develops in man, as you see, and that's the aim of it. The dust, so I tell you, in the central housekeeping room, goes into that field.

[59:03]

Or there is, in the rule, tremendous accent on obedience. Of course, the obedience of the rule is something which is completely seen and looked at as a part of the, as we say, as a mysterio of spoken about in the past. It's judged according to the place it has in the economy of salvation. The economy of salvation, obedience, simply has that key importance because of this, of Adam's fall, and the parallel between Adam and Christ. Disobedience and obedience. The royal man wants to get up, you know, to the same height as the Creator, and Christ, the Son, made flesh.

[60:06]

obedience natural to the woman whose desire is to the husband leaning as the Hebrew word He gives God thanks. There's another, you see, there's one of those acts where the kingdom of God is one with him, you see. Thanksgiving, that's one of these acts of freedom and of rule, of dominion in the Christian sense. And the abstainer abstains with reverence to the Lord and gives God thanks. For none of us lives for himself, and none dies for himself. For if we live, we live for the Lord. Or if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, because we are baptized, we have died for the Lord.

[61:11]

If we live, we live for the Lord. If we die, we die for the Lord. therefore whether we live or die we belong to the Lord for this reason Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord over both dead and living so the huskite here our Lord's transitus is the the basis for our anticipation. Thank you. truth brought in our moral and moral peace of mind must not be made to be bent on another square which cannot possibly be subject to our authority but it lies rather in our own control so the fact that we are not angry but not

[62:32]

to result from another's perfection, but from our own virtue, which is acquired not by so many irresistances, but by our own longsuffering. In connection with that, the verse just came to my mind of Psalm 17, with the cum sanctus sanctus iris, the holy, you are holy, The innocent brain. The chosen one, or not chosen. With the perverted, you are perverted. Now, maybe just as a verse that has long, but I don't know. It's always a kind of a mystery to me.

[63:40]

So interesting if you take the, again, the question of interpretation of translation, take the Piana or Pio, most techniques take Pio. towards the highest man, you show yourself pious. Act in a good way. Aga purum te mostras purum. So it's a pure, you show yourself pure. Aga versutum te prebis utente. Against, you know, against the, what God says, culperverso perverteris. It's very interesting to see the collection of various attitudes in the translations that it shows.

[64:50]

In the Bible of Jerusalem it says, you are a friend with a friend. So, reproach without, reproach with a man, not the pure with the pure, but not exactly wicked, but I mean, what the hell. Resolve, that means, you know, in that way, but in that theory of six with the wicked one. So there is the, I think the truth that the psalmist wants to express, and I think that for us is very important, that we, with the holy, you may be holy, with the holy God, that means everybody in some way has the God whom he deserves, say.

[66:08]

It means our own inner attitude of how it influences the picture which we have of God, and also the way in which we react to the things that come from the heart of God. If somebody is deeply rooted in Tassilius, of course, Sanctus here has seats. We have two words in Hebrew for Sanctus. One is the kadosh, which means the sanctity in a sense of God's majesty and his complete separateness from all imperfection, from all, let's say, from the or the range of all the created beings that that all inspiring divinity and then on the other hand you have uh that means the one who is a member of a covenant that means who takes part in the cases

[67:20]

is the, uh, [...] And, of course, this kind, the pious man in the Jewish sense, the one who stands in God's charity, is the one who, interiorly, in whom charity has become a living wellspring of goodness, is the one who loves God, and in God loves his neighbour, is that creative love that dwells in him, which he pours out into his environment. For him who lives in this friendship with God, To him, then, God is a friend, and all of the things that happen to him are seen in light of friendship, as St.

[68:26]

Paul says, in all things give thanks. So, I mean, the inner attitude of a man, and that's, of course, for us monks, is then and opens up, in one way, the depth of God's... corresponding perfection, and at the same time also lets us see the things around us in the light. As the Guru says, if your eye is filled with sunshine, then everything around you is such. And that is such an important thing. You see, also with the . There comes that concept of . When you are whole, therefore you, God is whole. If you are interiorly not whole, then, for example, you get into all these problems, you know, that all the other pagan religions are constantly fighting with.

[69:41]

You attribute the good things, what you see as good, you attribute that to a good God. What you see as evil, you attribute that to the evil principle. And in that way, the unity of God is destroyed, and what you have about yourself is then a history which is a battle between light and darkness, and you as human beings, you are yourself caught in that battle between light and darkness. while for the one who is established interiorly in the love of God, things and everything becomes light and becomes an expression of God's love so that he can give thanks to God in all things. And that, I think, is so important for our whole attitude towards God as well as towards

[70:42]

Our country is as well as to us everything that happens to us in life. We must be conscious that where it is not only this way, what I tried to express yesterday, that one's own attitude is strongly influenced from the outside by the attitude of those with whom we are associated. And our attitude very often is a reaction and only in some way a passive, uncreative reaction towards what we have around us. We have, in recreation or so, we are together with somebody or we associate with somebody who kind of is superficial kind of going around, you know, that we are affected by that, you know, in our own attitude, and then we are apt to give in, to be to everyone what he expects us to be.

[71:46]

And against that we must, of course, react, we must stand, you know, in that inner independence of what we may call perfection. Our inner perfection does not depend on the things that are about us. But on the contrary, we can go a step further and we can say, out of our own inner attitude, also call us the judgment that we have, let us say, about the circumstances in which we live, about the people with whom we live together, that even our idea of God, is affected by our own inner attitude. If we are established in love, we believe that the more we are established in love, the more also we kind of taste the goodness and the love of God. The more we are friend to God, the more also God becomes friend to us.

[72:51]

And the more we are established in this creative realm, the more we also grow in that inner possibility and that inner creative force in which we penetrate through the imperfections of others and go into their depth and see what is positive in them. So let us all see, you know, that monastic life and monastic affection really tends to this participation in God's creative love. And that leads us really into the depth of friendship with God and also clears up the desire, changes the picture of the thing that we have around us. I think, in some way, this whole mutual relation which is there between God and man is in the most perfect way, really, this whole verse here, with the jaseet, you are jaseet, that means with the frame, you are our frame,

[74:09]

It's in the most perfect way fulfilled in the mystery of the Incarnation. Through there, God has sent his Son. And where we can see, really say, perverso perverdeis. That means, with sinful man, he has, as St. Paul says, become sinful for us. With us, he hangs. For us, he hangs on the cross. And what he is on the cross is really, in some way, the mirror of our own human misery. But, of course, not as something that we project into God, but as something that God really becomes for us. And in that way, in this way, by incarnation of the whole work of knowledge in Christ Jesus, there is suddenly the fulfillment of this mystery, it seems to me, that is indicated in this verse.

[75:13]

And there is that wonderful, if we transfer that to us, we have, such as before, we have as baptized Christians, buried in the death of the Lord. He therefore has taken upon himself our salvation. And through this that we have received the Holy Spirit. And in that Holy Spirit, then, our whole attitude with the Church, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Wisely Savior, and in the light of the Spirit, as the light of the risen Christ, there we see all things, and also in that light, in the Easter light, and that is, of course, the beauty and the beauty of the earth. perfection, one can say, of our holistic life, of our mutual relations, of our contemplation of that, where our friendship with God is friendship between the Father who has sent his Son

[76:29]

who is always living to intercede for him, for us, and for our Father, that we, as his children, may have a feast of the Lord. Let me see the water here. The saints, that means those people that through the grace of Christ are dying and rising again, have reached their own personal fulfillment, have become their true selves of the Only when we realize that and keep it in mind, we can understand the tremendous tribulation which fields that mouth today. In other words, because what is tribulation? Tribulation is the expression of the... full realisation of the deepest, purest self that God wanted to see in God's image you have.

[77:32]

Learned where this goodness is then, with thanksgiving it would be a good act. a creator for all good things. At the same time, it is the communio santo. So the other words that really dominates this feast is that of community, unity, and at the last, glory, glorification of God. So self-fulfillment, unity, and glorification of God is a great element of Christian sanctity. I have for a long time already lying on my desk over here. I don't know what that was. Too many different things, very vast kind of droughts in the field. It shouldn't be drowned, really, that it's the preface to the edition of the Second Story Mountain that Lucas has just published.

[78:38]

Jack would be a dreadfully rude, but they were hugely serviceable. The rest served one another in a way which washed one another's feet. That is such a, we realize, actually, important, essential feature, really, of the monastic love. Jack has always apologized for this. about preaching on a Sunday. It's a ground which angels don't live to pray. Only can you come around us. We could also have it come about. It's, uh, it's a question, you know, which, of course, is so alive in us, but, um, it made this whole connection, thinking about the, uh, of, of election and, uh, uh, retrobation, election and reprobation of the, um,

[80:29]

was in different people and different persons. The Old Testament goes into one person, then our Lord Jesus Christ. It makes by that, you know, visible that the election here on earth is really that meaning in the land of salvation. instrument in the hands of the universal will of salvation on the part of our Heavenly Father. But in order to bring it about, in order to let that work here in history, it is really necessary that the Church is formed. unity, fraternal unity, that also of course within the church are these various distinctions or these groups, these unities.

[81:41]

One of these unities, I think, is one of the motives that really brought about the monastic life, the therapeutic life, that's held people to go into the desert, really not that you find that always again and again emphasized in all the sources that we have, sayings of the Desert Fathers and so on. This separation or this withdrawal is not a linguistic one. not kind of bending over to oneself, but it is reaching out, reaching out in that aloneness in which our Lord found Himself on the cross. This aloneness, of course, begins with universal salvation, that where ye alone

[82:47]

on the cross died really for all to be the war dying for all then brings about that as they need the breaking down of the wall and instead expansion of god's love that infinite offering Here it is for all, so that it, looking at it with our eyes, the eyes of faith, the eyes of beings, of human beings who long for salvation or are faced with the problem of reprobation. That, of course, in these days is such a question that is seriously close to us. We are faced with God's judgment, faced with that ultimate division.

[83:53]

Of course, why is that revealed to us that we may now feel invited and impaled to as if they are anticipated in a select and monastic attitude. Our withdrawal, our fact that we are The virginity is, of course, that we don't look into a human future. We look immediately, we face the divine judgment, we face the last things. But for what reason? Not only for ourselves, but really for the whole of the Church. The Church, again, stands for the whole of man. And what is more, in what way can we better anticipate or take upon ourselves the, how shall we say, the curse of rejection?

[85:04]

become in that way the objects of the divine wrath to our monastic life. That's what monastic life is really geared to. We say that we as monks, of course you all know it, you're all aware of it. For example, the other day we read about the He is sleeping in dormitories, sleeping together, and there's the light burning and personal readiness and so on. It's because of all this kind of anticipation geared to the second coming of Christ. Anticipation, the eschatology of the same man he speaks about. He says he should have that judgment of God with him. to say this, for the apathy should live in that seriousness of God's last judgment. But how is it, I mean, in a concrete way, where it's not only thinking about God's last judgment, but it is already in some way experiencing.

[86:17]

Now, in this hour of life, the earnestness of that last and final judgment revelation of Christ's glory. So beautiful. Yesterday we celebrate the feast of the true thee, not by arch, not like Saint Martin that And to him, we are here, that's the second coming of our Lord, who is done in, he comes in poverty, he comes in humility. It's probably, you know, in this time, there were all these churches, the Gloria, the Maestas, Domini, and all the spread of crowds, you know, that the in the church too probably so much uh let us say anticipation of the glory of the second coming of christ and i think there he is as long as a say humble uh monk who with his whole being is is

[87:33]

as it takes upon himself the suffering humanity of Christ, somebody who has more interest into that becomes, as it were, a victim too of the The wrath of God, just as our Lord came taking upon himself therefore the judgment, and anticipating it in itself, according to his own measure, and therefore, and living in that scene of the second coming of Christ in these terms of humanity, and he himself as the one who still this scene in the light of the lamb, really, of the victim. And so, in that way, a kind of, say, picture of the monk right here.

[88:41]

And later on, of course, again, comes the whole Franciscan, St. Francis. So we, what I wanted to do was just to put before your consideration at the end of the ecclesiastical year, here are these gospels, here are these Sundays, I'm thinking thoughts of peace, next Sunday comes the last judgment over them. So we are monks, not only thinking about it, but experiencing it in ourselves. Because just our life has an element in itself, an element of desolation. We should not be surprised, we should not be dismayed if we experience at times the same darkness that our Lord experienced on the cross.

[89:44]

That is the dark light of the senses, of the soul, of the heart, the heart. In some way, everyone who makes solid profession, he exposes himself to that. He utters himself. to just that, to his heavenly Father. So when it comes, he should not be surprised, and he should then realize that his loneliness, the shadows of loneliness, let us say the bitterness of loneliness that he may experience, that is something which really is, in his life, the most precious thing. In the eyes of God, everything in which he fulfills a real mission, something in which he is closer to the rest of mankind than to the whole unredeemed man.

[90:57]

And any moments of exaltation, any moments in which, let's say, in the liturgy and singing the Alleluia, we are kind of carried by the enthusiasm of the Spirit, those are consolations. Those are things that the Lord really sends us, coming to prepare us for the other side, for the light in all of us. That night, that is the... That are the moments in which we are really, let's say, universal, in which we really realise through our own desolation the growth and birth and rebirth into wonders, of the whole community of saints, the redeemed, all the redeemed of mankind.

[92:05]

So let us see it in that way. Our separation from the world is, in some way, it is a knife that cuts us off from certain things. I'm sure that sometimes when we go into town, and then, you know, the admirer, that kind of... looking around and passing all by these guys that were, you know, snug little homeless guys, light day and night in the window of the, of the, uh, the old home, I must say, hominess, you know, senses there, the gemütlichkeit, as one says in German, you know, all these things, and then, of course, if one looks a little wrong, they look and think back of Mount Seville and suddenly get the idea of But I'm going back to, what am I going back to?

[93:17]

On the hill, you see this. And there he might become very acute for him, you know, what he has given up. Also the dark shadows of our life The renunciation is an element in our life. but that's a blessed moment, that's a moment that that should be interior, not be considered, do I have a vocation or don't I, something like that, you know, a right to describe a thing, you know, but see it the way it is wanted, you know, the intention that is in it, of God's love and intention that is in there for us, you know. All kind of homesickness, any kind of homesickness is something that is a universal, I would say, ecumenical character. It's edifying.

[94:19]

It builds up the body of Christ here on earth. It's something that we do for the rest of mankind. because you shouldn't be deceived here. Behind all that nice and snug and lovely-looking exterior, there might be also great tears, and there might be much, you know, human weakness. There may be much also human condition behind that nice glossy surface, you know, of the world and of the private life. of the human being. There's much of that. So I think we should keep that in mind. And then, of course, God gives us, and he has said that too, who believes God will borrow all these things for my sake, he will receive a hundredfold, plus the eternal life.

[95:25]

And that hundredfold, of course, that is then for us realized in what we were just reading. All would serve one another, wash one another's feet. There in that intimacy of our unity as a community, in real selfless love, I am going to be to minister, not to be ministered upon. And if we minister to one another, that is the sweet, as it were, kernel of our life. That is the glory of And that is why also Christ calls us into a community that there we may find, as weak as we are, the inner strength and that rewarding aspect of our monastic life, that encouragement, that consolation comes out of this serving one another, washing one another's feet.

[96:34]

That makes us then able also to see the gloriousness and the blessedness of our desolation, of our night of loneliness. Not for ourselves, but again, I say, for the whole world. First of all, we're celebrating today's feast. in some way a repetition of what we have celebrated in the Feast of All Saints. Nevertheless, the theme that is put before us is just our specific way and the way in which Saint Benedict wants his sons as a father and as a father wants his sons. Eugenius and all those generations that proceed for people, his will, his rule, he has given to us to put that before us, to see and ask ourselves, and also in that way pledge ourselves to you.

[97:50]

joyfully to that way of sanctification that he has put before us. If one looks at it, I think we all realize that it's one of the points that attract us to the Benedictine life. Certainly, as said Benedict, puts that the first beginning as well as at the end, and also as principle, which in some way influences, moderates, transfigures all the various means by which we Try to ascend the mountain of God's holiness. It's a matter of inner, intimate love and joy that springs from it. We do shadow spirit, the sweetness of the Holy Spirit.

[98:52]

That is really natural. his name and goal for his books, he has it in view with sweetness of experience and liberty that in a freedom with which he has two children, one the ways of divine commandment, That is naturally also the beginning of the vocation. Anybody who hears the words of Skulta, listens to the soft words of the Master. He said, able to listen because somehow God has given it into his heart to understand the language of love that addresses him, the language of his father. Therefore, he has given to him in some mysterious way through his grace the heart of a child.

[100:01]

And between those two poles, there then, monastic life develops, and St. Benedict has for that too, there's the bridge between the two, and there's the instrument to get from the one to the other, from the beginning to the end of real fulfillment. That's pretty small. When we look at that all that we can make, it's really a theme of our consideration, the way we look at it. Some people are always tempted to in some way, yet they are also frightened by the kind of objectivity of the rule. Don't see in the rule, or don't receive there, or let us say rather are impressed by the rigor of it. than by, let's say, the sweetness of it. But I think Gregory the Great has characterized it in the right way.

[101:07]

That is, the discretio, which is over all these regulations that Saint Benedict has put into his world. The discretio is simply the dictation of the sweetness of the Spirit. to wherever one approaches this soul, this heart of the child that is willing to listen to the words of the father, one cannot do it in a harsh way. And harshness is the one thing that St. Benedict tries to avoid. Always one can see that wherever he feels the burden of the plastic light, especially in external regulations, they weigh down the disciples. He moderates that, he hears, he wants to preserve that inner sense of sweetness and therefore also wants to preserve the inner peace of the soul that strives for that sweetness.

[102:25]

We can see that here in the chapter that we have just read about the service in the kitchen. Again, it's St. Benedict says, now let them take something before him. It's not a kind of weakish attitude that doesn't dare to demand sacrifices, but it is in order to who will preserve all through the monastic life the foretaste of the divine sweetness, never to hide the sweetness of the spirit behind the dark cloud, you know, of the priest, not in any institutional way, not as a rule. Google always keeps that beautiful color that proceeds the rising of the sun everywhere.

[103:28]

Therefore, solatio should be given. Nothing should be made. One should not study to make things difficult for the monks. All that is not the spirit of the world. But he wants it really like a rainbow goes from one end from the beginning to the end so that those who who will walk on this bridge will realize and never lose sight of the divine sweetness but one thing of course he demands that's the soul that starts on this way really enters upon it in the spirit of obedience. That the individual really and truly gets unhooked. For that he has these two things established, one way the authority, the fatherly authority of the abbot,

[104:34]

Hence, he has also then established the real concrete community. This family of brethren, and through the stability bound to this specific place. And by that, he has introduced into his bull not instruments of torture, but he has made an essential element of the bull to bind the soul of the child that wants to fly on the wings of love, beauty and the splendor of the Holy Spirit to that freedom of the children of God, that that soul may be bound and remain bound to the realities of the world. The realities of the world are certain, concrete persons.

[105:38]

They are born as human beings. as men, as members of the divine family. We have to make our salvation in the context of the human family. So also the individual conquests bound to the Father through obedience. That's an instrument in a way in which he reaches liberty. that he is bound to serve the group of people whom he serves. He serves in the Holy Spirit, that means without respect of persons, and that he serves in the concrete circumstances of the daily life, which cannot be but labor, and that common humble attempt to to make go of things here, this body-birth.

[106:46]

And that is what I'd say is the idealism of the rule, and that's the realism of the rule, binding together of the church, the blending together of the idealism and of the sweetness of God, and also of the hardships which this earth offers to all of us that these two elements bound together by the disgratio, that was the, I think, the aim that St. Benedict had in mind when he was writing his school, and may our life, the blissful, and also give us the courage, the fortitude, or strength to face the hardships, the sacrament, so give us the wings of the idealism of the law of God for his own sake.

[107:46]

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