[Due to Holy Week and the Easter Octave, The Feast of the Annunciation was moved in 2016 to April 4th.]
Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear: for the King hath greatly desired thy beauty (Ps. 44)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,
And you in particular, who are about to pronounce your simple monastic vows,
Many are the announcements, the proclamations of God’s purposes recorded in Holy Scripture. The prophets of both the Old and New Testaments were the heralds of God’s designs for the world, from the days of Adam to the end of all things, as we read about them in the pages of the Apocalypse of Saint John. Mighty were these men, men such as Moses, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Larger than life is the figure of Saint John the Baptist, who pointed to the Lamb of God, who takes away our sins. None of these prophetic messages quite compares, however, with the Annunciation made to the humble Mary of Nazareth. The announcement brought to her by the Archangel Gabriel stands apart from the others in its singular solemn purpose.
For those who consider themselves especially devoted to the Blessed Virgin, the sacred text of the Annunciation has always held a special place in the life of Faith. Together with her Magnificat, this dialogue of Mary and the messenger from Heaven reveals to us the very essence of the one we call “Our Lady,” for it shows her to be Mother of God. Nothing is wasted here; never a useless word is spoken. The destiny of the world hangs in the balance as Mary formulates her response. Saint Bernard, better, perhaps, than anyone else, captures the drama of this moment.
Behold the Angel now awaits thy answer: “it is time that he should return to the Lord who sent him.” We also, O Lady, await from thy lips the sentence of mercy and compassion, we who are so miserably groaning under the sentence of condemnation…O Virgin, delay not to answer. Speak the word, O Lady, speak the word which all the earth, and all in limbo, yea, and even all in Paradise are waiting to hear. (Fourth Sermon Super Missus Est)
The monastic profession of the vows of religion too is a response of great importance. In the person of the abbot receiving these vows, it is the Church that is asking something of the monk on behalf of God Himself. As with the awaited answer of Blessed Virgin Mary, there is, here too, a great expectation: much depends on the response of fidelity that the novice may make to the questions asked; much is in the balance. Quid petis? Vis assumere conversionem morum tuorum…? What seek ye? Dost thou desire to undertake the conversion of thy manners? (From the monastic ritual of profession)
Mary’s response really comes down to two words: Ecce, Fiat, Behold [the Handmaid of the Lord], Let it be done [to me according to Thy word]. The first word, Ecce, expresses the perfect humility of the Mother of God to be. “Behold, here I am, ready to lend my life to God, so that He may do with it whatever He pleases.” The second word, Fiat, echoing the fiat of Creation and foreshadowing the fiat of the garden of Gethsemani, indicates Our Lady’s obedience (Gen. 1:3; Lk. 22:42). “Let God’s will be done entirely in my life, whatever the cost.” Although our monastic vows take a different mode, they really consist in a kind of putting on of the mantel of humility for one’s whole life and of positive acts of religious obedience, all tending toward the perfection of charity for God and His Church.
We are living a Jubilee Year of Divine Mercy. The monastic profession, with its answer to the proposed way of perfection traced by Our Lord, is both a kind of mercy for the monk who enters into such a wonderful path and a mercy for the entire Church, which is lifted up by such an example. The Holy Father, Pope Francis, touched on this in his homily for the conclusion of the Year of Consecrated Life on the Feast of the Presentation last February 2nd, evoking the little Lord’s own “profession” in the Temple, if we might so put it.
Today, before our eyes is a simple, humble and great fact: Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem. He is a child like many others, just like the others, but He is unique: He is the Lord’s only son who has come for all mankind. This Child has brought the mercy and the tenderness of God: Jesus is the face of the Father’s Mercy. This is the icon the Gospel offers us at the conclusion of the Year of Consecrated Life, a year which has been lived with much enthusiasm. Like a river, it now flows into the sea of mercy, into the immense mystery of love that we are experiencing through the Extraordinary Jubilee.
Following the luminous examples of Our Lord, of Our Lady, and of the numberless host of men and women religious that have gone before us in the Church, may you relive the “Annunciation,” through your own consecration for the glory of Almighty God and the good of the entire Church. Amen. Alleluia.
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[Due to Holy Week and the Easter Octave, The Feast of the Annunciation was moved in 2016 to April 4th.]
Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear: for the King hath greatly desired thy beauty (Ps. 44)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,
And you in particular, who are about to pronounce your simple monastic vows,
Many are the announcements, the proclamations of God’s purposes recorded in Holy Scripture. The prophets of both the Old and New Testaments were the heralds of God’s designs for the world, from the days of Adam to the end of all things, as we read about them in the pages of the Apocalypse of Saint John. Mighty were these men, men such as Moses, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Larger than life is the figure of Saint John the Baptist, who pointed to the Lamb of God, who takes away our sins. None of these prophetic messages quite compares, however, with the Annunciation made to the humble Mary of Nazareth. The announcement brought to her by the Archangel Gabriel stands apart from the others in its singular solemn purpose.
For those who consider themselves especially devoted to the Blessed Virgin, the sacred text of the Annunciation has always held a special place in the life of Faith. Together with her Magnificat, this dialogue of Mary and the messenger from Heaven reveals to us the very essence of the one we call “Our Lady,” for it shows her to be Mother of God. Nothing is wasted here; never a useless word is spoken. The destiny of the world hangs in the balance as Mary formulates her response. Saint Bernard, better, perhaps, than anyone else, captures the drama of this moment.
Behold the Angel now awaits thy answer: “it is time that he should return to the Lord who sent him.” We also, O Lady, await from thy lips the sentence of mercy and compassion, we who are so miserably groaning under the sentence of condemnation…O Virgin, delay not to answer. Speak the word, O Lady, speak the word which all the earth, and all in limbo, yea, and even all in Paradise are waiting to hear. (Fourth Sermon Super Missus Est)
The monastic profession of the vows of religion too is a response of great importance. In the person of the abbot receiving these vows, it is the Church that is asking something of the monk on behalf of God Himself. As with the awaited answer of Blessed Virgin Mary, there is, here too, a great expectation: much depends on the response of fidelity that the novice may make to the questions asked; much is in the balance. Quid petis? Vis assumere conversionem morum tuorum…? What seek ye? Dost thou desire to undertake the conversion of thy manners? (From the monastic ritual of profession)
Mary’s response really comes down to two words: Ecce, Fiat, Behold [the Handmaid of the Lord], Let it be done [to me according to Thy word]. The first word, Ecce, expresses the perfect humility of the Mother of God to be. “Behold, here I am, ready to lend my life to God, so that He may do with it whatever He pleases.” The second word, Fiat, echoing the fiat of Creation and foreshadowing the fiat of the garden of Gethsemani, indicates Our Lady’s obedience (Gen. 1:3; Lk. 22:42). “Let God’s will be done entirely in my life, whatever the cost.” Although our monastic vows take a different mode, they really consist in a kind of putting on of the mantel of humility for one’s whole life and of positive acts of religious obedience, all tending toward the perfection of charity for God and His Church.
We are living a Jubilee Year of Divine Mercy. The monastic profession, with its answer to the proposed way of perfection traced by Our Lord, is both a kind of mercy for the monk who enters into such a wonderful path and a mercy for the entire Church, which is lifted up by such an example. The Holy Father, Pope Francis, touched on this in his homily for the conclusion of the Year of Consecrated Life on the Feast of the Presentation last February 2nd, evoking the little Lord’s own “profession” in the Temple, if we might so put it.
Today, before our eyes is a simple, humble and great fact: Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem. He is a child like many others, just like the others, but He is unique: He is the Lord’s only son who has come for all mankind. This Child has brought the mercy and the tenderness of God: Jesus is the face of the Father’s Mercy. This is the icon the Gospel offers us at the conclusion of the Year of Consecrated Life, a year which has been lived with much enthusiasm. Like a river, it now flows into the sea of mercy, into the immense mystery of love that we are experiencing through the Extraordinary Jubilee.
Following the luminous examples of Our Lord, of Our Lady, and of the numberless host of men and women religious that have gone before us in the Church, may you relive the “Annunciation,” through your own consecration for the glory of Almighty God and the good of the entire Church. Amen. Alleluia.
