Dear Reverend Father, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in yesterday's conference we spoke about the word of Christ and that it may dwell in us abundantly. In all wisdom, we should teach and admonish one another by psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing in our hearts to God by his grace. These words of the epistle to the Colossians already indicate that the word of Christ, of which we spoke yesterday, as the center especially of our monastic formation, is not simply and only a human word. It has a very special divine nature. It is not simply a teaching word.

[01:04]

It is therefore not addressed to the curiosity of men, and very often I think we find there a certain misunderstanding maybe. We come to the monastery in a out-leaving or fleeing may be a very complicated world. And what we want to find is simplicity, the famous simplicity. Simplicity, a real and true, certainly for the monk, basic inner tendency. but we must understand what it means and not simply identify simplicity with, let us say, the lack of complications. Simplicity is depth. Simplicity is not simply an easy arranging of things which may, let us say, not engage our faculties too much, and in that way then provide an inner peace, but the peace of

[02:23]

Now, averting and lack and keeping out disturbances and distractions, a negative thing. The word of Christ is an eminent positive thing, as well as also the peace of Christ is positive, something divine, a sharing of his own heart, really, with our hearts. And so the word... that is given to us in Holy Scripture is not and cannot be treated as a complicated teaching, not simply either as a directive only, not only as a prophecy, not as an advice. All these kinds of words clearly distinguish between the word and the reality. The word and the fulfilment in all these ways – teaching, advising, prophesying, directing – the word and the reality are not identical.

[03:38]

Here, if we enter into the world of the word of Christ, we enter into the sphere of the proclamation. The proclamation is and cannot be separated from the presence, and I would say from the divine presence. That is the reason that as soon as the gospel is proclaimed, then we take off, our hoods. And then we rise. We rise into what? Into the presence, that inner reverence, which is due to the presence of the Lord, who is in his word. And therefore, The gospel and the word of God as a whole has this specific characteristic. It takes on and it has in itself all the shades that also are included in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Name of God, Yahweh, I am who am.

[04:44]

And then the exegetes say, I am who I shall be, because in Hebrew, and I think that's a providential thing, the presence and the future as times are not in that way distinguished, but they are in a certain way fused together. In the word of Yahweh, the future is contained. because he is the Lord of the ages. And Christ the Lord, the Lord, the Yahweh, he is the one who was yesterday, is today, and shall be the same in all ages. And that word, that specific word, that is now at this moment is here. In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke, we see it, as it were, when our Lord comes to the synagogue and there he gets Isaiah's scroll, you know, and there he reads the words of the acceptable time.

[06:02]

And then he closes it and he says, and now these words have been fulfilled. And that is the word that with which we deal when we speak about the word of Christ that it may dwell in our hearts. I would even say that the very word dwelling in our hearts would not be possible on the lips of the apostle if this word were not and would not involve the divine saving presence of, as it comes here out so clearly, of the Holy Spirit. So that word is the word around which we gather in the monastic life as far as the doctrina is concerned, the doctrine, the teaching. but that naturally has a greater, bigger implication.

[07:04]

This word, then, is the word which demands from us a specific answer. And that answer can be characterized by the words obedience, Fide, the obedience of faith, the obedience of faith. The word obedience, you know it very well, has and plays in monasticism, in the history of monasticism, a tremendous decisive role. Today we can speak about, I think, Karl Warne, picks up these things and speaks maybe rightly about the crisis of obedience and looks then for a reinterpretation of obedience.

[08:08]

I think it's absolutely necessary that in our days that we face these things all over again. I think that is the very development of the church is a constant a repeated confrontation with the living word, with the canon and the rule, Jesus Christ, living on in his church through his Spirit. That has to be done all the time. The question is always, of course, for us as contemplatives and as monks, with whom do we enact this confrontation? Do we confront what we have received with what the Germans call the zeitgeist? Or do we confront with what we have received with the source, with the original reality, with the source of revelation, with the living word of Christ himself, the rule?

[09:20]

That is the big difficulty. Therefore, do we end up then in a kind of, let us say, adaptation which may be a dilution diluting the original nature, divine nature of what we have received, or do we go back to this original nature? That is always the great difficulty, and that is where so many ambiguities and perplexities and quandaries arise, unavoidable. know that so well, and you can imagine a young community like Mount Xavier starting from scratch and not supported by the strong framework of a tradition, in some way, of course, there might be an advantage.

[10:22]

In other ways, it is, of course, a great disadvantage, and it makes our way very thorny. but it forces us naturally always to this confrontation, and that this confrontation may be really valid. That is the enormously difficult and responsible thing. And that in our days, it's clear that there is a crisis of obedience. In what way? Because we we get, as I say, as the political, also the mental development proceed. And especially in our days, we have gone through phases of totalitarianism, futile attempts

[11:27]

to solve the problems of the intellectual and the also material development of mankind by violence and the imposing of the will of a dictator. We can still see that in South America and other countries. especially in the Spanish-speaking countries where the patriarchal figure and system and way of thinking in the old traditional so-called old families is still so prevalent. But we have at the same time, of course, the loosening we have with the spreading of education the spreading of responsibility, not responsibility simply stored in some individuals for the others in a kind of patriarchal benevolence, as that was still in the beginning of the 19th century, the thing.

[12:42]

But we have responsibility shared and shared over more and more individuals. More and more individuals are, what one calls, and I'll put it in quotation marks, informed. And from this information, of course, immediately rises necessarily also the urge to take on responsibility or to share responsibility. And that is the thing which simply permeates and affects, you know, especially here our civilization as a whole, and then also naturally affects our monastic life. in the effects of the monastic life, especially there where, let us say, obedience is now what I would like to call functional. I think we must make there a certain distinction.

[13:44]

I think the Church makes that also more and more functional obedience. That is, an obedience in certain, let us say, ways, in certain fields, which simply require What the general tendency is, let us say, cooperative or collective management, one calls it today in the big companies, collective management, and where simply the resources to make the right decisions, the knowledge which is required, and the technical knowledge that is required can be pooled And in that way, in these fields which require, let us say, a certain know-how, the best contributions can be used for the best of the whole, the field of functional obedience.

[14:46]

I would say that this function of obedience and the field of the function of obedience certainly exists in the monastery, and especially if the monastery is a bigger corporation, say, and works on a big scale, and a monastery today works, you know, tremendous variety of fields and scales and naturally it is impossible, say in our days, for the abbot to kind of have the know-how everywhere in all these fields. If I think of what the kind of decisions that every time, every single day, you know, somehow come to my desk, you know. I mean, there's to decide, let's say, about guests and how long this and this. And then there is... There are building problems, you know, and then there are cow problems, you know, and then there are human problems and all these kind of things.

[15:57]

Then there are school problems, formation, you know, and all. It's a tremendous variety of things that we have to deal with, try to deal with, and, of course, much more to my mind than St. Benedict, I envy St. Benedict. He was able to sit in his tower, you know, and watch who was coming in and going out. And then, in the meantime, in between, have an ecstasy. I have no ecstasy, you know, because there simply are too many worries of this kind, you know, that constantly come. How do we deal with it? I think we can, the Church indicates that, you know, to make a distinction. Of course, you realize that if I say make these distinctions, you know, there can be no real, let us say, clean cut, you know, distinctions of any kind.

[17:02]

We are always living beings and naturally into the functional field also the salvation of souls goes, you know. That can never be in that way so completely separate. But it is simply a fact that today, for example, if I think of farming, I don't think that St. Benedict had great headaches about running his farm. Maybe he didn't run it. Maybe he had his people there, the coloni who were sitting on that farm from time for generations and knew the things and especially knew the way it had been done up to now all the time. I think the general tendency of that age was we do it as the way it has been done. You can see that. In our days, too, in the tremendous difference, you come to the Holy Land between Israel on one side and Jordan on the other side.

[18:09]

The Arabic country is on the other side. Israel, everything, you know, is know-how, you know, see. That is the modern approach, you see. Then in the Arab country, on the other side of the Jordan or... not even there on the same side. It's Samaria, let us say. There it is, you know, the good old way and these good Arabs, you know, they go behind their oxen, you know, and they push that plow into that hard ground and so on. While on the Israel side, you know, the big tractors, you know, go around, you know, and the whole plain of Estrilon, you know, is changed into a highly effective cooperative, of farmers who know the know-how, who share their machines, make the investment by this sharing worthwhile and bearable and useful for every farm, and so all these problems that are there today here.

[19:12]

If we would forget that farming today is a science, that investment And the way in which we make investments, you know, really demands a great deal of know-how, how a certain is, a certain, as I say, a certain form capable of carrying this and this piece of machinery. That one cannot simply... out of one's sleeves. It's impossible, you see. And one cannot say also out, you know, of some kind Those things have to have their well-founded reason, and that, of course, we are called upon as human beings and we are also called as monks to make the maximum use, naturally,

[20:16]

the know-how, and if we know this, you do it, you know, you send people here and there, why? To learn to do how to do things, you know, as we had to send our people some to Cornell University or to the Institute of Agriculture, you know, and then do this or that, and then they come back, and then there's the know-how there. And then, of course, there might be then come the question of obedience might become acute there, you see, because there they come back and, oh, we know, you know, and then there's the question. But it seems to me that one principle that should be followed, you know, I mean simply on the lines of wisdom, you see, but I would say the good old Hebrew concept of wisdom as it is now expressed so well in this little change, you know, from the wise virgins, you know, which is either too high or too low, you know, for our ear, the way the ear is attuned to the way wise, you know,

[21:35]

word wise, but sensible virgins, you know. Now, sensible, that means now be practical about these things, be in contact with reality and treat, as I say, a field of reality according to its inner norms. And your obedience is enter into these inner norms. That is then the first thing that is required. Therefore, I would also say in our monastic thing, as far as the way of doing things is concerned, the first rule is be sensible. But in order to be sensible, of course, one has to call upon those who have the know-how. And there, of course, a pooling and an advising and a counselling and all these questions are, it seems to me, absolutely necessary.

[22:37]

One cannot, you know, that is, I think, in some ways the danger that we have been facing in the past and that maybe is somehow the crisis of obedience in our days, Ned, A supernatural totalitarianism takes over the entire works and therefore confuses the issues. In other words, what we would call the saving obedience, or let us say the ascetical obedience and the functional obedience, the two simply are being mixed. Functional obedience becomes and is seen in the light of ascetical obedience. And then, of course, the functional obedience very often is frustrated or is also led into the wrong directions.

[23:38]

Mistakes are being made. And what is the result? The result is that the whole idea of ascetical obedience is being threatened. so that the function of obedience kind of takes revenge, you know, and kind of turns against what I would call the inner mystery of obedience, the obedientia fidei, that inner mysterium obedientia, in the supernatural sense. And that is simply a thing that in our days we have to try to deal with the best we can. But I think one of the... The main principle is in all these things not to violate the law of subsidiarity, not substitute, let us say, the supernatural totality for the know-how. I think that would necessarily lead to catastrophes in the simple workings

[24:42]

material workings of the monastic community eventually would lead into bankruptcy. And therefore, those two things distinguish. Now, one way in which we can distinguish, of course, is, and we see, if we go back, and that's always a good way, into the history of monasticism. And in the history of monasticism may be, or could I just say that tentatively, but one may be, one can see that, you know, that in the beginning, always this principium, the beginning, in the beginning the essential things in the divine providence come out so clearly. and also in the history of monasticism. If these people left the cities and all the noise and all the competition and all the things there and went into the desert, they did it usually joining and getting then in contact with an Abba, a spiritual father.

[25:57]

And there was this relation between the spiritual father and the disciple. Now, this kind of obedience was naturally because it's in no way, let us say, burdened, especially in the desert. It's not burdened with technical problems. There were no tractors in this kind of living together of a father and of spiritual son. There were no great economic problems of any kind. There are no technical problems, but everything in this kind of being together was really concentrated clearly on the uno necessario, the one thing necessary. That means the establishment and the living of the kingdom of God here at this place and in this personal intimate relation of the Father and the disciples.

[27:01]

And there, of course, then, the mystery of obedience, one can say the spiritual inner nucleus of Christian obedience, came out much more clearly. And there, of course, the father could, as we see that in the Apophthegmatai, in the little stories of the fathers in the desert, you know, this problem of obedience could arise. take forms which in themselves have the character of a certain shock treatment. And you know very well that in the supernatural life too, shock treatments, we would call it opprobria in the words of the Holy Rule, you see, play a certain role. And, of course, that in this relation of I and thou can be established in a father of the desert, you know, may tell to his disciple whom he sees to be by nature very impatient, who has much of St.

[28:16]

Peter in him. I mean the old St. Peter, not the new St. Peter. and knows how to do things. And he may tell him now, my dear son, every afternoon at four o'clock, you know, go and you water this stick. Water his stick every afternoon. So the man goes and waters the stick. And he does it, you know, he does it. And then after a month or so, The Abba comes and asks him, now don't you see that this stick is bearing fruit? And then the disciple, maybe he thinks for a moment, he says, yes, Father. Now, of course, in our days, that would kind of bring about a crisis of obedience.

[29:16]

Yes. But between the two, you know, it's possible because the man can learn, you know, thereto in this relation now. Physically that doesn't seem to be the case, at least I can't pick the fruits from it. In a spiritual sense it may be very true, but of course it depends on the way in which the student understands this specific act of obedience, if he understands it. in the right way, you know, as reaching the zero point, which he definitely reached, you know. I mean, every day, imagine in the desert going and watering a stick, you see. That's zero point after a short time, you know. But if he goes through the zero point, you know, really, and penetrates, you know, into the inner mystery of obedience and realizes that here maybe there is something of the mystery of Gethsemane, you see, right here in this zero point, you know, that there is not my will, but your will be done.

[30:41]

But, therefore, I say there is, you know, the obedience as John Climacus, you know, John of the Ladder, one of the great, you know, old fathers and theoreticians of the monastic life in the, I think, seventh century, has formulated. His obedience is a mactatio, you see. Obedience is a slaughter. Now, again, that might provoke a crisis today if one would say that, you know, in so many words. But in this intimate inner clearly, without any ambiguity, a spiritual relation, you see, there that is possible, and there it comes out absolutely clearly, that is, not to do one's own will, you see. to do the will of the one who has sent me.

[31:45]

But then, of course, comes, as soon as this, let us say, this saving obedience, or this, let us say, this ascetical obedience, that way, enters into a greater sociologically more complicated milieu, the community, the cenobitical life, the cenobitic obedience, And right away we can see that there are completely new elements then entering into the obedience. Not, let us say, that the inner mystery of obedience and of ascetic obedience and obedience as a death. would disappear. No, it remains there somehow. It remains even, I would say, the inner spiritual soul also of synoptical obedience. But naturally, as soon as this relation that before was limited to the spiritual father and his son extends into a larger community where many are involved,

[32:55]

where the cooperation of many people are involved, where therefore the concordia fratrum, the inner harmony of the hearts of the brethren, becomes an important element. This kind of obedience will be changed. It will be affected by it. because synoptical life then is not, cannot be led, you know, cannot be had without a regular. because the regular, the rule, is the thing which kind of puts those who enter the community of men, who enter into a certain way of life, puts them into a certain framework, shows them also what to expect, you know. And as soon as you come into the community sphere, there is, therefore, the problem of the bonum commune, what is good for the whole, how to, let us say, preserve the goodwill, this indefinable, very real factor in the monastic life.

[34:16]

the common goodwill of those who are engaged in this as members of one body. All these things affect, naturally, the obedience. So, the first thing that an abbá in this connection has to do is that his obedience, that his power, let us say, of direction is, of course, itself and he himself is under the rule. He is, therefore, in the framework of the community constitution. the carta magna caritatis, that is, the regula, on which then this concordia fratrum and the pax, the peace of the community, can develop. But, of course, in our days, the other thing certainly is added. There is no doubt about it. If monasticism enters a capitalistic age, as we have it here at this moment, naturally it will be affected.

[35:27]

Up to now, one can say, at least in Europe, for example, one can say up to very recent time, I think up to this last world war, I think one can really say that the economic side of the monastic life requiring the know-how and so on, also material know-how, was still and went on still basically on a feudal basis. At least that is maybe not in your order, but it's certainly the case with the Benedictine Confederation, and one can see that in France as well as in Germany. Maria Lach was materially put on its feet right from the start, you know, by the little gift, you know, that was given by the first novice who was a nobleman

[36:30]

and gave a million. There it is. And then, of course, there you are, you see. And you can develop in peace. But then, of course, the things became, and I know that, you know, very clearly, and clear to us novices, you know, at the very moment in which, after the First World War, Maria Lach, you know, going along, and I know our dear old father Matthias, you know, he was the supplier and he was the econom, as we said, and the seller, and he wrote on one side of the page what he got every day. And the other part, what he spent, you know. And that was about the thing, the books, you know, that were kept. And you look a little if the two, you know, are in balance or not, you see. And he was certainly looking if, you know, and looking to it, you know, that the income was prevailing over the spending.

[37:41]

That was for sure. And then put something into the bank, you know, and there have it. safe, you know, and that was the system. But then came the moment of the inflation. The currency loses its value. Now, what to do? And he was so absolutely terrified, you know, he was just hypnotized by this whole situation. And he kept his hypnotized eyes fixed on the banking account and didn't realize that it was going up in smoke, you see. Some people in the monastery said to him, dear Father Matthias, you must buy things for this thing. Buy some things that we can use. Buy stones for it if you want. Didn't understand the bank account. It was always that way.

[38:41]

Inflation came, the entire bank account was gone completely. Barialaf stood there without a penny. Of course, you know how the inflation of the First World War was. It was simply wiping out of all existing fortunes. Wiping out and starting all over again. That was for the monastery. Terribly difficult, because then for the first time I had to go into this business and think that we have to borrow money, see, from a Swiss bank. And I still know how Father Abbot, you know, was just in stitches over it, you know. And so, you see, you come into a completely new thing, you see, and then, thank God, there was one man in the monastery who had studied, you know, economics and these things before, and he was the kind of savior then.

[39:45]

So, because sometimes the Holy Spirit reveals to the younger one what is right, but how much the Holy Spirit enters here enters in this way that one simply has in certain situations, go and think in the level of what we call functional obedience, be sensible about things. But I still see that clearly, how this whole development and this change took place. from a settled situation which offered economically no problems to a completely new situation where the economic problems piled up every day. I still remember the day practically when a new booking system was introduced and it caused a revolution because there An extra office had to be. And in this extra office, there was a public accountant. We had never seen before a public accountant.

[40:48]

It was simply... Like the, no. I was tempted to say it was like in the apocalypse, you know, the beast that rose out of the sea. So there were different ways. And then we have chapter meetings. And then we have chapter meetings about financial matters. The first time, you know, that happened in the whole history of the monastery, you know. Of course, there was the chapter, and there I got my first inner doubts, even those cases, you know, really the chapter is the answer. Would it not be better to work as we do it here in this country in certain committees? Committee, that's the big word, that solves the problems of functional obedience. But that's on another line.

[41:49]

Here, you see, therefore, you get, as soon as you get into this, and that's simply the fact that we have to face, and I'm sure it was the same thing in France, you know, Solem, or Solem, you know, put on its feature, too, of course, by the French nobility, you see. And so, later on, it was able to Get on, you know, when under Pius X they received the monopoly on the Roman gradual. That is, again, a different story. But those are the problems. Now, if we, what, of course, in the context of a retreat, you know, and what we have to concentrate on naturally is, you know, the inner... mystery of obedience. And that is a thing that I would like, you know, really to still talk to you about maybe this afternoon, but to anticipate it, you know, what I would like, you know, really to go into and also for all of us, because it's vital, absolutely vital.

[43:03]

It's evident that a monastic community cannot live and exist essentially on the basis of functional obedience. It may have its place according to the principle of subsidiarity, sound, sensible subsidiarity. It may be necessary. The inner spiritual nature of the monastic life and its inner spiritual centre cannot be changed by it, because that spiritual centre is not a matter of function, but that's a matter of redemption, of redeeming. And we know very well that the whole act of redemption in that way is not functional. Sin is not functional. Mercy is not functional. Grace belongs to a completely different world. And that is the world to which we are dedicated. Our vow of obedience, what is it?

[44:06]

The meaning of the vow of obedience is conformity with Christ. The meaning of our vow of obedience is that our will may be conformed to the will of God. That is, therefore, that important basic aspect of, again, what I would call the contemplative life. The two templars have to be brought into harmony, into conformity. And what are these two templars? It is simply the heart of God again and the heart of man. But these two, one cannot deny that the heart of man in the state of fallen nature is an abyss. That self-will, for that matter, in this context here, is simply something we have to renounce. But in what way?

[45:08]

We have to go through the needle's eye and leave the ballast of our self-will. But that is an inner process, a process of purification. And all these categories, conformity of hearts, that entering into the will of the Father on the side, on the part of the Son, this redeeming, saving, purifying obedience, all these categories in that way are foreign to the whole field of functional obedience. Still, this inner center of obedience, I mean the obediência fidei, let us call it that way, the obedience of faith, this inner center is able still and certainly has the power to interiorly affect, transform, influence, and especially before God, make the functional obedience also something that is truly pleasing to God.

[46:21]

because the tremendous danger, of course, is that in functional obedience, man and also the monk is certainly confronted with the possibility of emancipation, a process of emancipation. And if that is the case, then the functional obedience simply goes into the realm of the profane, the profanum. the one that we call the secularia, the things of the world. That is simply the way. In the world, let us say, the inner law of the thing simply takes over and in that way enslaves man. Man becomes, as we say that so often, the slave of the machine, the slave of the apparatus. As we can see that here, the individual in a capitalistic society simply has to howl with the wolves, you know.

[47:29]

Not saying that all capitalists are wolves, you know, but I mean... has to howl with them, has to go on the same line. He cannot swim against the current, and therefore the ambiguity of the witness of obedience of the Christian in the world. But there the monk, you see, With a monk it's different. Even in a monastic community, the inner mystery of obedience is clearly kept and clearly established. But then not simply substitutes and introduces confusion into the realm of functional obedience, but then the realm of functional obedience works in an ordered way, you see. then the functional obedience in the monastery also participates in the witness of the ascetical obedience. Then it is really transformed, then it is pleasing to God, then this functional obedience is simply a part of that creatura, of that creation that sighs for the manifestation of the glory of the sons of God.

[48:44]

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