that man belongs to the sphere of the king of the court. And then we wanted to speak about the second step that this Basilikos becomes man. At the very moment of the leave The glory of the Christ who manifests himself there in that word, go thy way, thy soul is healed. At that moment he gives up any attempt to control or to use religion or supernatural powers for his own purposes. He's lifted up into a new sphere. that means he surrenders himself.

[01:17]

And that is, we saw yesterday, the basilikos is in everyone of us. Everyone is the regulus, the king's man, the courtier. And that is, that fact is rooted in the solemn, in the formal. in that word, in which God then determines the relation between Eve and Adam, between the woman and man. The woman is secondary, divine, to say for that matter, the inferior one. The man, the higher one, the one that is renouncement in the Hebrew text under sorrow and suffering you shall bring forth children and your desire shall be to man that means you shall lean on man and your desire shall be to man and he shall lord it over you

[02:44]

And the woman is servant. He thinks for her, and she leans on him. She is, as we see then later on, in the Orient, in the old world anyhow, cowed, and he brags. Islamic, that relation is so characteristically put before us in Genesis 4, 23, that 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, they call it in the Orient, positions.

[03:50]

So Lamech, the first polygamist, said unto his wives, Aga and Sida, hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech. Hearken unto my speech. It's always my voice. Hearken unto my speech, and then comes that speech. Wounds be I slain, If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. So that first kind of indicates the consequences, the real and concrete consequences of the fall of man in which that whole balance between rule and service has been disturbed.

[05:06]

Why? Man of course is, if we look at his nature, man is formed by the Lord God of the dust of the ground and the fact that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. So man 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 lowest, the most cheapest thing that there is on the earth, and then the other one, he breathes his spirit

[06:08]

When man is right away, these two things, the loneliness, the humility, and there is the glory. And he is in these two ways, he is created. 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, that's it, leads you know to the diwak of God, that supernatural endowment, that sharing in divine nature is lost. And therefore the consequence of that is that man is dusted. Thus thou art, and unto thus thou shalt return. Man wanted to be a king out of himself.

[07:18]

He wanted to have the glory of God without serving, without asking, without what we call the Timor, the fear of the Lord. See the thus is the element which in mankind is the basis of the fear. Spirit of God as the basis of the love of God, the bridal relation to Him. And so therefore dost thou out and unto dust thou shalt return is said to Adam. But then you know also so beautifully that in the next verse it says Can man call his wife's name Eve? because he was the mother of all the living. Such a beautiful thing to think about that there.

[08:20]

Man, the head of mankind, man's glory is by God's judgment painted into the dust. And then in this state of humiliation that man calls, in a prophetic way, as a prophet, calls his wife's name Eve, the wife's name, that means the one that is lower, the one who leans, the one that in sorrow shall bring forth children, the one that has to drink the chalices because she was the mother of all the living. So the inferior part there is exalted. And the inferior part becomes, as it were, the dawn of salvation. The mother of all the living.

[09:22]

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, on the cross bed. So if we consider 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 desire to take the glory for himself. Make the glory his own possession. Do not wait for the hand of God as friend.

[10:23]

That means do not wait for grace, 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, and keep him a slave. In that way, reserve for himself the prerogatives. 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 establish his equality to God. That was the essence of his disobedience. then of course was punished.

[11:25]

In this way thus thou art and unto thus 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 definition of man and just of this kind of man's, let us say, man's existence and man's essence in Psalm 8, the fifth verse, and then of course then has received a commentary in Hebrew 2.5. And Hebrews 2, 5 it says now, for God did not subject to angels the world to come of which we speak. And someone has affirmed this somewhere saying, what is man that thou art mindful of him?

[12:35]

Or the son of man that thou regardest? Thou mayest 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 feet. Thou didst subject all things beneath his feet. Every word here is so important. subject is of course the corresponding to and man shall lord it over him. But now here 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 speak

[13:37]

thou art not his 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, man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou regardest him, the son of man too is that emphatically state man in his humanness, so to speak. And thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Now in subjecting all things to him, the letter continues, he left nothing unsubjected to him. However, we do not 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.

[14:49]

He is the man, and his fate, his destiny, is to be reduced to dust, to die. Dust thou art, 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 make perfect the author of their salvation through suffering. 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 granted.

[16:03]

That is, of course, the opposite of what the disobedience of Adam meant. He did not consider his being on an equality with God a thing to be against, let us say, the obedience to his Heavenly Father. 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. connection, I think it 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, the day of the Lord is fulfilled, at the moment in which Christ is being led to death,

[17:17]

And the soldiers, plaiting a crown of thorns, laced it on his head and threw a purple cloak about him. Then they came to him and cried, Hail, King of the Jews! And they struck him with their hands. And Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I bring it 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 I'm supposed to translate it here, this translation. Behold the man, the man, and man there behold Adam, behold the man.

[18:22]

So that Jesus is the man. And Pilate shows him there. How does he stand there as the one who is, induced by the mocking soldiers, but unto nothing. All as it were, all in some way, one way, all glory has been taken away discouraging is reducing to nothing. And then 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? Here he says it where the handwriting of the father written right in this ignominy of the soul. Only extreme and absolute ignominy of the soul.

[19:29]

He receives a crown, a crown of thorns and he receives that purple cloak. And in that way something tremendously true and In this man, who is reduced to nothing in criminal and the object of the hatred of the people, said at the same time, the crown of thorns is a crown on his head, and the purple cloak with which he is clothed, you know, But in what way? In this way that his dignity as it were is his enormity, his glory is his suffering. I think one cannot think deeply enough about this tremendous manifestation, this symbol, the crown of thought.

[20:32]

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. Crown means glory. Thorn means suffering, death, ignominy. The two in one, the crown of thorns, really man as he is under the will of God Christ the Lord and of course this same one then also in the same context Pilate again you know says in 14 now it was the preparation day of the Passover say about noon And he said to the Jews, I'll behold your king. I think those two things have to be seen in one.

[21:36]

Behold the man, behold your king. One is Lord, the angels. One is Enosh. That means one is man, if you consider him as the victim, as the victim, as the underdog. 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 kingdom. 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 suffered from him and at the same time has become through the hands 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?

[22:49]

The monk is a man. The monk is a man, context okay, 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 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 a great cross. Because they are cross bearers. And on this cross, in the Old Testament, in the Old Testament always, the crown of thorns. That is, at the same time, that is the true position of the essence of the Lord. And of course that comes spinning all in all, but if you go and maybe you use

[23:56]

use that and read the rule just under this aspect because it solves to you really so many problems you know in our days and the let us say the sudden unrest that has taken place you know there is the reassessment of the church the aggiornamento bringing up to date you and that is of course is the thing which in itself is of utmost importance but of course there is a danger you know in it too and that danger is always the same danger to which man is constantly subjected that as long as he is really down and out you know then of course he cries but at the very moment in which he receives that God's gift and is in a way exalted then of course comes the tremendous temptation that he takes what God has given him as his own.

[25:13]

You have that and that is the classical example of it is that the Son of God, the Israelitic people, went into dust and ashes in Egypt. And everybody who looks at that really, and who looks at these pyramids, as we saw the other day by Mr. Regan there, and all these immense mound you know of let us say slave labor and slave life has gone into that 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

[26:19]

Jane was avenged seven times. I shall be avenged 70 times, seven times. And then the woman, you see, and that woman is the helpless, inferior part of humanity, the poor ones. And there are the slaves, and there are the Israelites right with them. And they were building, and they had to serve there for this enormous that was made you know to establish the eternal glory with a heap of stones a big heap of stones out of a jet plane you know and you look down it's just So, I mean, and there we see, and out of that, then, this people, this, [...] I don't want to say this, I don't want to say gang, you know, but I mean, this, this crowd, you know, of ill, helpless humanity, the Israelites in the, under the Pharaoh, they were then led out of Egypt

[27:46]

by getting them out of there, and then came to Sinai, and there the Word was given to them, and there there were declared Psalms, there the covenant was established. Now I think that is the thing that we should always keep in mind. 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 forms man 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 the land for that matter. Out of the dust, you know, and he breathes into them through the nostril, breathe in and send his word, understood through his word. And then the truths go on, and then they are born now.

[28:52]

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 you will start jumping around according to your own conceits you see and then of course what is the answer the answer for that then is the day of Jahweh that day of Jahweh and the day of Jabi which is described here you know in Isaiah 13 because I think it's very very significant that day of Jabi. Holy 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 Just the other day our dear cousin Maria before she became Sister Angelica was reading the Holy Rule and that's so symptomatic you know.

[30:07]

And there in the beginning of the first chapter of Humility of course the chapter of Humility explains the whole let us say spirit of the day of the Lord as it becomes concrete in the Bible. 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? 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, you know, cannot really take for he says in fear and trembling, Lord my God, he is one, unique. That is absolutely necessary and that is, of course, what the dust cries, that confession, the dust cries.

[31:10]

That is what then opens the way to glory. And that is for the monk, you see. And no, you see, anything that we say today, oh yes, Man is maturing, you see. And because man is maturing, yes, the more you know, let us say, up here in this upper storey, you see. Because he has more in this upper storey, therefore also, you know, things change a little, you see. Now, I mean, the Pope can't not even an avid contributor. Therefore, you know, comes that. Now, I would say, of course, that there is, you know, in that way, on the natural level, that develops. There is no doubt about it. And there is, you know, naturally, let us say, the greater, say for example, through the whole tremendous work of education, which is being carried on among men.

[32:12]

Of course, it is true that the intellectual level is rising. Well, rising in some way, yes, it's rising in other ways. It's always difficult to talk about these things. Bring it on a nice formula that everything is on the way up, you know. There is development there that is certain. But one thing is, I would say two things are certain. One thing is certain that the development as such, I mean the development, let us say, let us speak about it, the human species of man, in that way too, let us say, more education, more formation, and so on, and therefore better possibility of judgment may be, you see, that too is advised, is in the nature of man, is a good thing. saw man, and it was good. 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, let us say, the eternal truth

[33:33]

basic situation of man will not change, will always remain the same. Therefore the basic situation of the monk will not change, will always remain the same. Where there is let us say a development, man grows always remain a child of six years, absolutely true. He becomes 20 and 30 and so on, he gains experience, would be ridiculous, let us say, for the church or something, for 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 like that. That, to my mind, an illegitimate kind of mingling of spheres. That is, that is not in the order of nature. But at the same time, I must also say, and I think in our days, too, if we see there that the church, let us say, is interiorly kind of waking up, you know, on a new way, and that, for example, let us say the prerogatives of the Pope

[34:52]

are being shared in this 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, a functional aspect. One should see it in the aspect of the spirit because one is the church. The church in nationality is not interested working better on 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 souls.

[35:55]

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 would say, oh my, yes, now that always they talk about humility and matters of love and so on and so on. That is, that's medieval. that belongs to a time when man was still immature. We can never say that. We can never say that also in a monastery, and that is the reason why, to my mind, a monastic spirit and a monastic institution cannot and will not be overcome by any tremendous development of the church in the intellectual or functional sphere. monks will always, in that way, remain the hard, provided that they don't get themselves in the spirit of the institutionalism and in the spirit of efficiency.

[36:58]

And then, you know, begin to give. Then, of course, they really lose their vocation and their place in the church's service. And therefore, in my mind, let us say the deepening humility. deepening in obedience, 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 study of the heart, and therefore also let us think about that, you know, let us see that clearly, also for ourselves, you know, that we deepen ourselves and God will take care of that.

[38:04]

God will take care of it. Anybody and everyone who, let us say, comes into that kind of stage, you know, that he thinks, oh by me, now I kind of, God will come and he will be brought to the day where everybody howls and the hands will be faint and the hearts will melt. But that is what the monastery is about. To in that way to fulfill and to live the monk lives the spirit of the day of the Lord and he is at the same time and he is crowned with the crown of thoughts And I would say the crown of suffering, the crown of renouncement, the crown of obedience, the crown of renouncing his own will, that is the man. These thoughts are really and truly a crown. So that this man in this objection is a thing that really and truly

[39:07]

We have seen as the royal official standing to a man in the state of fallen nature. 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 and the spirit of God. So the two together as ineffish, that means as a living being, as a living totality.

[40:20]

Formed by God from the dust of the earth and sharing his spirit This natural dust and glory turned together, this living being turned together by God, through his disobedience, that inner nature of man is destroyed. Man is divided. Let us put it roughly into two elements. that sentence to Adam, the woman with the dust qualities and that man with the emancipated glory qualities, the ruler, Namek.

[41:36]

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

[42:43]

That has a strong accent in the Gospels and also in the letters. mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus it is said so emphatically in the first letter to Timothy and our Lord himself calls himself the son of man and then at the solemn moment of the day of the Lord is there Pilate points him out to the Jewish people and as a prophet says, behold the man, Echsholm. Now the monk is the full man in the sense that he walks in the footsteps of the Echsholm and in that way tries to establish again, re-establish than original unity of dust and glory, of man and woman.

[43:54]

And so as Father Reed Griffiths said in his retreat on Animus and Anima. And 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 end. remaining, being complete, that means come to the limit set by God. There are perfectionists, they are not so much a kind of dynamic quality, breaking the record, as we have that today, more perfect.

[45:06]

There is always one record, bigger and bigger. reaching the highest degree of efficiency, the top of the social ladder, all these things that swing in our concept of perfection. The old concept, old hesteron, new hesteron, concept of perfection is much more, I'd say, static. It's the wholeness which corresponds to the God-set measure. Therefore perfection as much more the idea of insufficient, incomplete, come to the end. Therefore also translated in Greek by Tedios. Now the perfection of the monarchos is not that he tries to work himself into

[46:11]

more and more in the line of this virtue or that virtue. You are listening to this article by Thomas Mertenbeck. 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 act of 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. An examination of conscience is something like that, setting acts. Remembering, act of contrition, resolution, so on. Constantly repeated and repeated, you know.

[47:14]

Three examinations of conscience better than one examination of conscience. Always this kind of thing, you know. And so the bets, bets on that more and more. More modification. More of this, more of that. More spiritual. That is then has colored so much our idea of perfection. but in the whole its concept that perfection is and in the monk certainly that he becomes more and more whole and that means that the basic duality or that dichotomy, that opposition, that divergence between just and what that that is again restored to a living unity that is magnificent.

[48:16]

We call it sometimes also the dualism between flesh and spirit. God is created in the likeness Therefore, the monk, aiming at perfection, he develops both the animus 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, on the unique characteristics of the sex in which one is born. Virginity strives for totality.

[49:19]

Now life in the world, of course, is to the man, naturally, a challenge to develop his male character. make his way without competition, developing, as one says, leadership qualities, initiative, aggressiveness, efficiency. Every time that you get one of these formulas, formularies that you have to fill out if somebody looks for a position, he's always the slaves. Leadership qualities, initiative, aggressiveness, all these kinds of things. That's what counts. In the world you're a man only really his wife and his children are there to counterbalance the one-sided influence of the world as a world and to give him the wholeness that he might enjoy in his home.

[50:28]

the father of course the father is the man who is married and that means the man who is the complete only together with the wife the mother whole the father is whole only together with his wife so if the monk would live his monastic life as a career who has to one side the development of his animus, let us say in terms of duty, fulfillment of duty, exemplarity of behavior, efficiency, achievement, or self-sufficiency, then he will soon feel his sudden emptiness, his lack of fulfillment and it's true he will fall even behind the married man if he does that.

[51:38]

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 and that means a balance between man and woman, animus and anima. There is for example therefore in the monastic life, in the whole plan of the monastic life, there is that distinction between the Lectio Divina and the Obuste, or the Lectio Divina, the reading that is all merely sitting at the feet of Christ. quiet, recollect, ruminate, pondering all these words in her heart. The obusté is different. It has to be accepted as such.

[52:39]

It's more labor. It requires attention. It requires coordination. Volume. disappear all these things may have mere qualities but one cannot say now here this is for me you know to get me from a child literally you know but he overstays one cannot say one says something one one throws whole life out of balance one loses the totality the perfection The answer is the other, balance between prayer and work. All rise up over. Prayer of course, that is the anima part. That is our soul being thrown upon the Lord.

[53:41]

The pouring out of our soul. There is the feast, let's say. 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. 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.

[54:47]

For example, there is the balance in 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 rule sometime under that, and 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 honest, who does not surrender in that way, 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.

[56:05]

And therefore, the other element, the transforming element, comes through faith, you know, transforming factor. Through the surrender of the self-will, the monk attains to the wholeness of the extra-homo in the very act of believing. All this wholeness is possible only in the general sphere Of course, man as man tries to get wholeness either by intensifying his efforts or by expansion. Expansion either in the horizontal or the vertical.

[57:08]

Vertical better, better, better. The expansion more and more and more. quieting, eating it all up, you know, he wanders. Man is that way, like a butterfly. I haven't seen enough. I haven't been around enough. Sometimes things like that, you know, come to man, you know, when he thinks about it over his life, you know, to the monk, you know, my gosh, I lost all my chances. Something like that. because that man has that you know he wants to to extend his realm. Instead of that the rule asks for stability in the congregation. Same old place, same old face. That's how the woman's are. He likes and loves her little world.

[58:25]

The world can't be big enough for him. And her thought, that's another chapter. So the rule therefore in these plays, you may not see man as you see him, that's the aim of it, the dust. goes into that field. Or there is in the rule a tremendous accent on obedience. But 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 mysterious judged according to his the place it has in the economy of salvation and economy in 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

[59:54]

Get up, you know, to the same height as the Creator, the Christ, the Son, made flesh. His obedience, natural to the woman, whose desire is to the husband. God thanks, there's another, you see, there's one of those acts where the kingdom of God is from within us. Thanksgiving, that's one of these acts of freedom and of rule, of obedience in the Christian sense, in the sense of self. And the abstainer abstains with reverence to the Lord and gives Christ lives for himself and no one dies for himself.

[60:56]

For if we live, we live for the Lord. When we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, because we are baptized, we have died for the Lord, we have risen with the Lord. Therefore, 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. this reason Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord over both dead and living. So that's beautiful indeed. The Pascha et Ia our Lord's transitus is the basis for and peace of mind must not be made to depend on another's will, which cannot possibly be subject to our own authority, but it lies rather in our own control.

[62:26]

So the fact that we are not angry, but not to research from another's perfection, but from our own virtue, which is acquired not by somebody else's patience, but by our own long-suffering, in connection with their time, Verse just came to my mind of Psalm 17, with the cum sancto, sanctus here, holy, you are holy, cum inocenti, inocenti. Electro-electro-theorists. The chosen one, not chosen. We are also, we are theorists. We are perverted. You are perverted. Now, maybe just as a verse that has, you know, I wouldn't say puzzled me, but of translation.

[63:46]

Piano. You are a pious man. You show yourself pious. You are an integral man. You act in an integral way. against the, you know, against the, I don't say what the worker says, who perverso perverteris I love Jews.

[64:51]

Yes. You are afraid. never in a way that way but in a derogative sense with the wicked. So it's With the holy, you may be holy.

[65:57]

With the holy, God is holy. That means everybody in some way has the God whom he deserves. Somebody who is deeply rooted in Kassid, is of course Santus. Santus here is the Kassid. We have two words in Hebrew for Santus. One is the Kadosh, which means the sanctity and the sense of God's majesty and his complete from all, say, from the range of all created beings.

[66:59]

They're that awe-inspiring divinity. Then, on the other hand, you have Sanctus Dei, that means the one who is a member of the Covenant, that means who takes part in the Quiescent, who is the of the people who are Jews and as well as a friend of God. And of course this kind, this pious man in a 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, God loves his neighbor is that creative love that dwells in him, which he pours out into his environment.

[68:09]

For him who lives in this friendship with God, to him then God is a friend and always the light of friendship, as St. Paul says, in all things give thanks. So I mean the inner attitude of a man, and that's of course for us too, as 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 of that. It is as if your eye is filled with sunshine and everything around you is sunshine. And that is such an important thing, also with the perfect

[69:11]

Perfectus, yes, there comes that concept of tabi. When you are whole, then for you, God is whole. If you are interiorly not whole, then for example you get into all these problems. You all hear that pagan religions are constantly with, you attribute the good things which you see as good for you, you attribute that to a good God. what you see is evil you attribute that to the evil principle and in that way the unity of God is destroyed and what you have around yourself is then a history which is a battle between light and darkness and you as human being you are yourself caught in that Why for the man 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.

[70:30]

And that I think is so important for our whole attitude towards God as well as towards well as towards 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 of the attitude of those with whom we are associated. And our attitude very often is a reaction way a passive, uncreative reaction towards what we have around us. We have in recreational soul, we are together with somebody or we associate with somebody who kind of is superficial kind of going around.

[71:33]

We are affected by that in our own attitude. we are apt to give in, to be to everyone what he expects us to be, so to speak. And against that we must, of course, we have to, 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 we are established in love, really, and the more we are established in love, the more also we kind of taste the goodness and the love of God.

[72:42]

The more we are a friend to God, the more also God becomes a friend to us. Hence, the more we are established in this creative role in that inner possibility and that inner creative force in which we penetrate through depth and see what is positive in them. So let us all see that monastic life and monastic perfection really tends to this participation in God's creative love. And that leads us really into the depth of friendship with God and at the same time also clears up at the side, changes the picture around us.

[73:44]

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, from Psalm to Psalms, with the Chassid, you are a Chassid, that means with a friend you are a friend, is in the most perfect way fulfilled in the mystery of the Incarnation. Dear God has sent his son, and where we can really say, cum perverso perverteris, that means, with sinful man he has, as St. Paul says, become sin 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 And of course not as something that we projected into God, but as something that God really becomes for us.

[74:53]

And in that way, in this way of our incarnation, of our work of redemption, in Christ Jesus, there really, there is something. fulfillment of this mystery. It seems to me that is indicated in this verse. And there is then a wonderful, we transfer that to us, we have said just before, we have as baptized Christians, buried in the death of the Lord. He therefore has taken upon himself our this that we have received the Holy Spirit. And in that Holy Spirit then our whole attitude will change. Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Risen Savior. And in the light of the Holy Spirit is the light of the Risen mutual relations, of our contemplation, of that way of our friendship with God, this friendship with God.

[76:21]

He is the friendship between the father who has sent his son, who is always living to intercede have reached their own personal fulfillment and become their true selves. Only when we realize that and keep it in mind, we can understand the tremendous jubilation which fills that mass. It is the Communio Sancto, so the other key words in that term that really dominates this feast is that of Communion, unity.

[77:53]

And then the last glory, the glorification of God, so self-fulfillment, unity and glorification. It's the preface to the Japanese edition of the seven-story mountain that Lewis published. serve one another, in the way that you worship one another's feet, and that is such an important and essential feature really of the monastic life.

[79:32]

It does not hit me in this whole connection, thinking about the problem of election and reprobation. Election and reprobation involves different people and different persons. Jesus Christ makes by that, you know, visible that the election here on earth has really that work here in history is really necessary, that the church's flaws on unity, fraternal unity, and that also of course within the church are these various distinctions or these groups,

[81:38]

motifs that really brought about the monastic life, the celibatical life, that impelled people to go into the desert. Really not that, you find that always again and again, emphasized in all the sources that we have, the sayings of the desert fathers and so on, this separation still, but it is reaching out, reaching out in that aloneness in which our Lord found Breaking down of the wall and that expansion of God's love, that infinite offering, here it is for all.

[83:09]

So that it, I mean, looking at it with our eyes, the eyes of faith, the eyes of beings, of human beings who long for salvation or are faced And that, of course, is in these days such a question that is seriously so close to us. We are faced with God's judgment. We are faced with that ultimate division to be fair. And, of course, why is that revealed to us that we may now feel to as if they are anticipated in us. That is the monastic attitude. Our withdrawal, our fact that we are of our virginity is of course that we don't look into

[84:22]

But for what reason? Not only for ourselves, but really for the whole of the Church. And the Church, again, stands for the whole of mankind. And what is more, and in what way can we better anticipate or take upon ourselves, or shall we say, objects of the divine wrath through our monastic life. That's what monastic life is really geared to. When we say that we are sponsored, of course you all know it, you're all aware of it. For example, the other day when we read about the sleeping in dormitories and sleeping together kind of anticipation geared to the second coming of Christ.

[85:41]

The anticipation of the discathology. And when St. Benedict speaks of all the virtues of the monk, he says he should have that judgment of God before his eyes. The same is for the apathy. He should live in that seriousness of God's last judgment. But how is it, I mean, in a concrete way, thinking about God's last judgment but it is already experiencing now in this our life the birth of that last and final revelation of Christ's glory so beautiful yesterday I hear that in the second coming of our Lord who is done in, he comes in poverty, he comes in humility.

[86:50]

It's probably in this time there are all these churches with the glory and the maestas in the church to probably so much, let us say, anticipation of the glory of the second coming of Christ. And there he is as a monk, as a humble monk who, with his whole being, takes upon himself suffering vanity of Christ, as somebody who has among the enters into that becomes, as it were, a victim too of the wrath of God, just as our Lord came taking upon himself therefore the judgment, anticipating it in itself in his own, according to his own measure,

[88:05]

The thing also, the signal coming of Christ. I have a long idea that later on, of course, again comes to the wall, but this could be St. Francis. So we, what I wanted to, just to put before your consideration, at least last week, at the end of the ecclesiastical year, here are these Gospels, and here are these Sundays, I'm thinking thoughts of peace, So we, as monks, are not only thinking about it but experiencing it in ourselves.

[89:19]

Of course, our life has an element in itself, an element of desolation. We should not be surprised, we should not be dismayed. darkness that our Lord experienced on the cross. That is the dark night of the senses and of the soul, of the heart that we, in some way, have reborn to make solid profession. Now he exposes himself to that. He offers himself to just that for to himself when it comes he should not be surprised and he should then realize that his loneliness and the shadows of loneliness and 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 and the thing in which he

[90:38]

fulfills a real mission. Something in moments in which he is closer to the rest of mankind than to the whole unredeemed mankind. And any moments of exaltation, any moments in which, say in the liturgy and singing the Alleluia, we are kind of carried enthusiasm of the spirit, those are consummations. Those are things that the Lord really sends us, having to prepare us for the other side, for the light in our monastic life. And that light, that is the, that are the moments in which we are really, one can say, universal, in which we really realize through our own desolation the growth and birth and rebirth into oneness of the whole of the whole community of saints, the redeemed, all the redeemed of mankind.

[92:03]

So let us see it in that way. Our separation from the world certain things. I'm sure that sometimes we go into town. as one says in German, you know, all these things. And then, of course, if one looks at his monk, they look and think back of Mount Silja and suddenly get the idea, oh my gosh, what kind of little goose pimples or something like that.

[93:10]

But I'm going back to what am I going... and there he might become very acute for him, you know, what he has given up, and also the dark shadows of our life, the renunciation of this element in our life. But that's a blessed moment, that's a moment that should not be considered, do I have a vocation or don't I? you know, but see it the way it is wanted, you know, the intention that is in it, of God's loving intention that is in there for us, you know, all kind of homesickness, any kind of homesickness is something that has a universal, I would say, ecumenical character.

[94:15]

It's edifying, it builds up It's something that we do for the rest of mankind because we shouldn't be deceived either 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 perdition behind that nice glossy surface. so I think we should keep that in mind and then because God gives us and he has said that too who leaves out the mother from these things for my sake he will receive a hundredfold plus the eternal life and that hundredfold of course that is then for us realized in what we were just reading

[95:30]

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 called to minister, not to be ministered upon. And if we minister to one another, that is the sweet, as it were, glory of our life. And that is why also Christ calls us into a community. At the end we may find as weak as we are the inner strength and that rewarding aspect of our monastic life. That encouragement, that consolation that comes out of this serving one another, worshipping one another, makes us then able also to see the gloriousness and the blessedness of our desolation, of our life, of our loneliness.

[96:45]

Not for ourselves, but again I say, in some way a repetition of what we have already 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, wants his children as a father, wants his sons, given to us to put that before us and to see and ask ourselves and also in that way pledge ourselves cheerfully, joyfully to that way of sanctification that he has put before us and one looks at it and I think we all realize that and as such that's one of the points that attracts

[98:08]

Certainly, as Saint Benedict puts, at the first beginning as well as at the end and also as the principle, which in some way influences, moderates, transfigures all the various means by which we try to ascend the mountain of God's holiness, is that of that deep inner intimate love. chain of spirits, the sweetness of the Holy Spirit. That is really that what is embellished in this theme and goal for this monks here. As it impugns the sweetness of the spirit, liberty and inner freedom with which we ways of the divine commandments.

[99:22]

And that is naturally also the beginning of the evocation. Anybody who hears the words of Skulda listens. 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, and therefore has given to him in some mysterious way, through his grace, the heart of a child. And between those two poles there then a monastic life develops, bridge between the two, and as the instrument to get from the one to the other, from the beginning to the end of real fulfillment, that's Potet's rule. And when we look at that rule, then we can make it really a theme of our consideration, the way we look at it.

[100:31]

Some people are always tempted to it in some way, yet they also fight objectivity of the rule, and don't see in the rule, or don't perceive there, or let us say rather are impressed by the rigor of it than by the, let us say, the sweetness of it. But I think Gregory the Great has characterized it in the which is over all these regulations that Saint Benedict has put into his rule. And 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.

[101:34]

words of the Father, one cannot do it in a harsh way. And harshness is the one thing that Saint Benedict tries to avoid in his food. You always can see that wherever he feels the burden of the plastic life, especially in external regulations, they weigh down that inner sense of sweetness and therefore also wants to reserve the inner peace of the soul that strives for that sweetness. We can see that here in the chapter that we have just read about the service in the kitchen. Saint Benedict says now, let them take something beforehand.

[102:38]

It's not a kind of weakish attitude that doesn't dare to demand sacrifices, but it is in order to preserve all through the monastic life the full taste of the divine sweetness, never to The greatness of the spirit behind the dark cloud is not in any institutional way, not as a rule. The rule always keeps that beautiful color that precedes the rising of the sun everywhere. made, but should not study to make things difficult for the monks. All that is not the spirit of the Buddha, but he wants it really like a rainbow to go from one end from the beginning to the end, so that those who will walk on this bridge realize and never lose sight of the

[103:57]

things established, one way the authority, the fatherly authority of the abbot, and he has also then established the real concrete community. This, this family of brethren, and through the stability bound to this specific place, and by that he has soul of the child that wants to fly on the wings of love into the beauty and the splendor of the Holy Spirit, to that freedom of the children of God, and that soul may be bound and remain bound to the realities of the world.

[105:29]

The realities of the world are certain. We are born as human, 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 monk is bound to the Father through obedience. That's an instrument, a way in which he reaches liberty, and he is bound to a certain 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.

[106:30]

to make a go of things here on this muddy earth. And that, one can say, is the idealism of the rule, and that's the realism of the rule. The binding together of the church to church, the blending together of the idealism and of the realism, of the sweetness of God. face the hardships and at the same time also give us the wings of the imagination.

[107:40]

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