Advent 8

The Second Monday of Advent, December 8, 2008

Isaiah 5:8-12, 18-23 

Shame on you!...who say “Let the LORD make haste, let him speed up his work for us to see it, let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel be soon fulfilled, so that we may know it.” 

I spent a week in retreat at Weston Priory, a Benedictine monastery in the Green Mountains of Vermont, a place of such welcome and openness that I, a talker, was nearly speechless.   

A young Uruguayan man who was on a monastic discernment journey, talked to me for two hours on the study day, when the monks and he were not working.  He told me of Salta, Argentina, where every Saturday 45,000 of the faithful gather to see the Virgin. 

He told me of Mary’s pronouncements, and how her visionary had smiled at him, confirming his vocation to become a monk.  Mary says the end times are near, he told me.  He was earnest. Then he told me, knowing that I love Weston Priory, love these monks who welcome all as Christ, that he disapproved of them.  “They use bread!  I am accustomed to receiving the Host on my tongue, not picking up a piece of bread from a basket.”   

Agustín was very sincere.  He craved Christ’s return and the fulfillment of Mary’s prophecies.  He almost relished the punishment his young man sins would earn him.  He anticipated the glories of monastic discipline, including self-flagellation.  His eyes were firmly set on particular practices of the Roman Catholic Church. 

But he was so focused on the laws and customs of the church that he missed the quotidian Eucharistic miracles at Weston Priory.  He was in love with Our Lady of Rules and missed Mary’s tender mercies.  He could not see the deep joy of those who regularly came to worship at the Priory.  He could not see the miracle of me, a non-catholic who had been welcomed to Eucharist there. 

And he could not see the ongoing work of establishing Christ’s Kingdom in the Green Mountains of Vermont, could not see the monks’ dedicated discipline of work, prayer, and hospitality, combined with seeking peace and justice. 

He was so focused on certain traditions of the Roman church that he did not see Christ.