Message from Father William

St. Benedict's Monastery

1012 Monastery Road

Snowmass, Colo. 81654

January 15, 2012   Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
 
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?  Whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
 
This morning's homily comes to you with the compliments of Julian of Norwich and National Geographic's documentary on the universe.
 
Everything that exists in this world and, indeed, in whatever other worlds there are comes from a supernova, that is from the explosion of some star at least 100 times the size of our sun.  This kind of explosion is necessary to create the elements out of which everything in our world is made.  This includes ourselves.  Physically, we are made out of the stuff of stars.  In all probability the atoms that comprise your body comes from the stardust of many supernovas mingled promiscuously in the depths of outer space.  This kind of bears testimony to the philosophical principle that all being is one.
 
The Bible tells us that there is more in us than the stuff of stars.  John's Gospel chapter 1 tells us that "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. “ This is the Word who became for us the Christ.  All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made.  In Ephesians, we are told that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works and that God strengthens us through his Spirit so that Christ may dwell in our hearts and we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be filled with all the fullness of God.
 
We are told that there is a veil which covers the profound mysteries of God's reality in our world.  But our faith tells us that Jesus Christ lives in all things and all things live in him and his divine operation continues to the end of time embracing the passing moment and the smallest created atom in his hidden life and mysterious action.  Because of this there is not a moment in which God does not present himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed.  Everything that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals his divine presence and activity.
 
In this morning's Gospel the apostles asked Jesus, "Lord, where do you live."  We need never to ask that because he lives in us.  The life of faith is a life of uninterrupted commerce with God.  If we but accept it, our faith will reveal to us, in this mass of confusion surrounding our daily lives, marvels of divine wisdom.  Our faith will change the face of the earth and the progress of our daily lives.  It will lift our hearts to God to see him where he really is, in everything great and small, good and bad, happy and sad.  By our faith we can touch what we cannot feel and see what is not evident to our senses.  Everything is a part of the plenitude which is Jesus Christ.
 
Without this faith, we live according to what we see and feel through the senses and we wander like madmen through a labyrinth of darkness and allusion for want of that light which does shine in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it because that light is the light of Christ.
 
In faith we see God present in everything.  We see that where God is there is love.  Love is omnipresent and is the bond of union which unites every atom in the universe.  We are more than stardust.
 
The life of mankind is found in this unity.  Love is not something that is given to us in isolation or as an individual but only in harmony of our union with each other in the body of Christ.  It really is all about relationships.  God is in each of us as we love one another.  It is not the ability to perform miracles or have visions or move mountains that makes one special.  Rather it is the love of God and charity towards one another.  This is why St. Augustine insists that to love one another is to love God.
 
God is love and where love is, there is God.  God does not have to be sought, he simply has to be practiced.  This love which is God permeates the universe, supporting it holding it in existence.  Even if all creation is nothing more than a hazelnut as Julian saw it, it is beloved of God and of infinite worth.  This applies not only to the whole of creation but to every smallest part of it.
 
The very love which the Father has for his Son, he has for all of creation made through the Son, imaged by him and reflecting his infinite wisdom.
 
“ In him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities -- all things were created through him and for him.  17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent.  19 For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell,  20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.   And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,  22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him,  23 provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast.”(Colossians).

May you be happy,
May you be free,
May you be loving,
May you be loved.
 
Father William