In All Things God Loves Us, So Give Thanks

We can always be receiving, if our hearts are open to love.  If we open our hearts, we can see the love being extended to us.  

A woman came into the bookstore this month.  She helps to see the light.  She noted if the coronavirus hadn't forced us into lockdown, she and her husband would not have been around their daughter to notice her mental health struggles.  With the virus come what seem like restrictions.  Maybe they are more like guideposts and life preservers.  

This woman has been guided into gratitude.  She is grateful for the additional time with her husband and her daughter.  She is even more thankful that this additional time has led her and her husband to help their daughter, perhaps averting a tragedy.  

Give thanks for a virus, for a fire, and for all things.*  Perhaps some people find it difficult to always thank God for all God sends us.  Sometimes we will see benefits God is giving us.  Sometimes we will not see how, if we but love God, God is working a virus, a fire, and all for our good.**  

God is always giving to us, since God is love.***  If we truly believe God is love, we will thank God for all things.  

* 1 Thessalonians 5:18 

** Romans 8:28 

*** 1 John 4:8,16

Look At What Burns Inside Us

On Wednesday last week, most of us monks returned here to the hermitage after being evacuated last month due to a wildfire.  All monks, all staff and all other residents of the hermitage are uninjured, thanks be to God, and due to the vigilant hard work of firefighters, monks and hermitage staff.  No buildings at the hermitage were damaged.  Some of the land at the hermitage burned, some due to the fire spreading, some under controlled burns prudently set by firefighters to prevent the fire from proceeding further.  

However, the fire station about two miles away--as the crow flies--did not hold up.  As firefighters were struggling to contain the blaze, it overwhelmed them.  They sheltered under their fire blankets.  Although they were rescued, and even the one firefighter who had been in critical condition recovered, thanks be to God, the fire station was destroyed by the roaring flames.  

We construct edifices, becoming confident of how they will be bulwarks that will save us from ruin.  From what are we protecting ourselves?  To achieve the purpose we intend, what we construct must be stronger than what we believe threatens us.  Can we really protect ourselves?  Are we supposed to protect ourselves, or make ourselves more vulnerable?  By looking at our deficiencies, then we can address how we need to improve and so become who we are meant to be.  

We are invited into awareness of who we are supposed to be when we are confronted by what threatens us.  These past days, fires have been breaking out in places far and wide.  They not only wreak destruction; they also call us to look at why they have broken out at all.  They call to us to examine ourselves and see how we have been contributing to the crisis which has been endangering our lives.  

Firestorms of violence have erupted these past days.  George Floyd and Daniel Prude were killed by police officers; it is easy to imagine how Mr. Floyd and Mr. Prude could have been taken into custody more prudently than they were actually subdued.  If I see another person as a threat, what does that perception say about me?  It is vital to be aware of how we perceive another person: our perceptions of that person will guide how we treat them.  

We can build fortresses of unwarranted assumptions about other people, assumptions we make because we feel they threaten our safety, and therefore that they will harm us.  It is not that much further to conclude that we must then attack those other persons before they hurt us.  We can easily do so without considering that they have been getting abused for years, decades, even centuries; we can proceed to continue such abuse without being aware we are perpetuating the very mistreatment we have condemned.  

Convinced we need to protect ourselves, those we hurt sometimes quite reasonably conclude that they would do well to protect themselves from us.  In our own eyes, we seem justified; in others' eyes, we may seem anything but justified, but rather we might seem like preemptive aggressors.  

When we assume we must shield ourselves from harm, we are acting from insecurity.  Why are we not confident in who we are?  Not accepting who we are, feeling we are inadequate, we lash out by attacking others.  

From this vantage point then, can we ever truly protect ourselves?  Often when we find supposed problems in other people, we are merely projecting our own insecurities onto them.  If the deficiencies are to be found in ourselves, then no amount of trying to extinguish perceived flaws in others will ever help us feel secure.  

Indeed, if we are somehow falling short, we are the ones who are to look at ourselves.  We need to take stock of what is in us that makes us uncomfortable, that leads us to feel inadequate and squirm because we feel we do not measure up to what we want to be or to how we feel we should be.  As we embrace this duty, necessarily we are being called to become vulnerable.  Unfortunately, rather than accept this duty, some people are so insecure that they lash out against others, sometimes violently so.  

Yet the fundamental question remains for each and every one of us.  When we are faced with the reality that we fall short somehow of being how we would like to be, that we are not as virile, not as strong, not as intelligent, not as resilient as we would like to be, that we are not as loved, admired or imitated as we would like, then we are presented with the decision whether we take out our dissatisfaction on those around us, or whether we examine why we are not closer to our ideals, and how we can achieve those aims.  

After the visible fires were extinguished, fires still broke out.  How did these fires erupt seemingly without any external cause?  The roots of trees were burning.  Due to the devastation on the inside, suddenly the outside became consumed through the intense heat that was brimming within.  

Each and every one of us needs to carefully consider the attitudes, preconceptions and prejudices that we mistakenly believe keep us safe, but which in fact merely harbor hostility that seems to be simmering, that, unchecked and unaddressed, may boil over into violence toward our neighbor.  If we are convinced we have no prejudices, whether with race or with some other concern, it is prudent to consult sources specially designed for that purpose, to help us look for a more objective answer, unsettling as it may be.*  

As we conduct this crucial self-examination, we lay bare the core of our hearts.  We aspire to open up to the light of day whatever stands in the way of our loving our neighbor.  Painful as it is, we are called to die to all that is in us which we feel protects us, but will not save us, but only imperil us and our neighbor.  The grain of our ego having fallen into the ground and died, then love can yield a rich harvest.**    

Love springs up in abundance when all opposed to love in us dies.  When fire ravages a forest, much carbon is left in the soil, which tremendously fuels new plant growth.  As we die to that in us which impedes the free flow of love through us, then God pours into our hearts His love through the Holy Spirit.***  For this love to be poured into our hearts, we must cultivate our hearts for love.  

To love our neighbor, we must love ourselves.  To love ourselves, we must be honest with ourselves.  To love our neighbor, we must see ourselves as we really are.  Once we are looking at ourselves with all honesty, then we can consciously work to eliminate all that stands in the way of love.  As we get out of the way, we make way for love.  

* https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ 

** John 12:24 

*** Romans 5:5 

Let The Dead Wood Be Cleared

In the last week over 11,000 flashes of lightning have ignited over 500 fires in California.  On Tuesday night this week, a fire started burning a dozen miles north of the hermitage; it's now a couple of miles from the hermitage.  

This particular fire is now 10% contained.  Federal and state firefighters are hard at work at the hermitage, bulldozing and clearing brush, creating fire breaks.  

A couple of days ago some monks and I were evacuated to our other monastery south in San Luis Obispo.  That same day, some of our other monks went to our other monastery north in Berkeley.  Earlier in the week, some of our monks had already come down to the monastery in San Luis Obispo.  

Into my head about this fire, and all of these fires burning right now, comes the same question that has been coming into my head about the coronavirus.  What is God calling to us in the midst of these challenges?  

Certainly let's pray for these fires to be extinguished quickly with little loss of life and property.  Yet if that's all we request of God, how much better off will we be?  

How is God calling us to pray, to learn and to grow as a result of these fires, the coronavirus and all of our tribulations we endure?  Let's take these trials, and all that afflicts us, as opportunities for more closely attuning to what God is saying to us.  

Fire is greatly stoked through the dead wood that has been lying piled up on the forest floor.  All that doesn't feed us, that we don't clear away, is fuel for what seeks to consume us.  

If we remove from ourselves what should die, then we can progress toward God.  As the impediments to our growth are extricated from us, we make the room in ourselves for our souls to breathe, to excise obstacles to doing God's will.  

If we are willing, God can use what seems like tragedy to transform us.  Let us embrace our current circumstances to become who God made us to be.  Amen.  

Rise Above By Remaining In Jesus

Earlier this week we heard at Mass how Jesus meets us in the challenges we face.  He invites us, through Him, to rise above what would drag us down.  

In the Gospel that day, we were reminded that 

Jesus made the disciples get into a boat

and precede Him to the other side of the sea, 

while He dismissed the crowds.  

After doing so, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray.  

When it was evening He was there alone.  

Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, 

was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.  

During the fourth watch of the night, 

He came toward them, walking on the sea.  

When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea 

they were terrified.  

"It's a ghost," they said, and they cried out in fear.  

At once Jesus spoke to them, "Take courage, it is I; 

do not be afraid."  

Peter said to Him in reply, "Lord, if it is you, 

command me to come to You on the water."  

He said, "Come."  

But when he saw how strong the wind was 

he became frightened; 

and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"  

Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, 

and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"  

After they got into the boat, the wind died down.  

Those who were in the boat did Him homage, saying, 

"Truly, You Are the Son of God."  

After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret.  

When the men of that place recognized Him, 

they sent word to all the surrounding country.  

People brought to Him all those who were sick

and begged Him 

that they might touch only the tassel on His cloak, 

and as many as touched it were healed.*  

Jesus sent the disciples out onto the sea.  God knows what is going to happen.  God lets us go through trials.  We go through fire and water.**  Through tribulation we are tested.  At times we are refined, but not like silver, rather in a furnace of affliction.***  At other times, God tries us as silver is tried in fire,**** polishes us like silver, to become ever more beautiful.  In all that tries us, God is giving us oil to make our faces shine.*****  Through all that tests us, God makes us more luminous because God is strengthening us. In giving us the grace to do what we could not do ourselves, God is thus glorified.  As God is glorified through us, we become more beautiful, because we are reflecting the magnificence of God.  

Of course the disciples probably were not thinking thus in the midst of their rowing across the sea as they were being tossed by the waves.  So often, we do not think about the benefits God is bestowing on us as we are enduring hardship.  

When the disciples saw Jesus, they fearfully cried out.  Indeed, we can become so absorbed in the struggle that we do not even recognize Jesus, that we forget that Jesus is with us always.******  

Jesus is not only there with us every moment as we are being tested; He is there for us to step toward Him in faith, as frightening and impossible as that may seem to us through our impaired vision.  He bids us come to Him as He bid Peter to come to Him.  

Peter sank because he took his eyes off Jesus.  He started focusing on the wind instead of on Jesus, and consequently he gave into fear.  When we take our eyes off of Jesus, we sink.  

Jesus wants us to rise above what would drag us down, to remain above it all by keeping focused on Him, by fixing our attention so much on Him that we remain in Him and He remains in us.*******  If we remain in Him and He remains in us, we will stay above all that would pull us down since we totally trust in Him.  

We remain in Him, we abide in Him and He abides in us, when we live in faith.  If we embrace the gift of faith that God has planted in us, we will remain above all that would drag us down.  

In the midst of these challenging days of the coronavirus, how are we responding?  Someone asked me if I have been praying for a cure for the coronavirus.  Sure, it's well and good to pray for a cure for the coronavirus and for all that threatens our physical health.  

However, if all we do is pray for a medical cure, it's tantamount to saying to God only, "God, get me out of this situation that is such a problem."  It's implicitly telling God that we're not interested in how God wants us to learn and grow through the coronavirus.  

We can only cry out for God to catch us so we don't sink.  When waves threaten to drown us, we can pray not only that we not be engulfed by the waves.  Frankly, though, if we nurture and cultivate the gift of faith that God has given us, we're not going to be desperately crying out to God.  If we embrace the gift of faith that God has given us, we're going to be calmly and confidently turning to God for the strengthening and sustenance and grace that we're sure God is going to give us, and that God is already giving us.  

We can prepare for such challenging times in advance.  We can decide ahead of time how we want to respond.  We can visualize in our mind's eye being in the midst of a storm and feeling assured of God's support of us.  We can envision the storm raging around us as we serenely step toward Jesus, having already chosen to keep our eyes on Jesus.  

We turn to God.  God reaches to us.  God holds us up.  

* Matthew 14:22-36 

** Psalm 66:12 

*** Isaiah 48:10 
****Psalm 66:10 

***** Psalm 104:15 

****** Matthew 28:20 

******* John 15:4, 5, 6, 7 

Give Them Something To Eat Yourselves

God feeds us.  We become more.  Through us God feeds our neighbor.  

We see pain and feel it.  God feels it.  

We cry out, praying to God.  God hears us.  

We can get stuck crying out.  We are empowered to do more.  God wishes more done in us.

We call out.  Yet God seeks more from us.  We seek food.  God wants us feeding each other.  

In today's Gospel, we hear that, when Jesus received the news that John the Baptist had been beheaded, 

he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.
When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and buy food for themselves.”
Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;
give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then he said, “Bring them here to me,”
and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to Heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied,
and they picked up the fragments left over—
twelve wicker baskets full.
Those who ate were about five thousand men,
not counting women and children.*  

The disciples realized the need of the crowds.  The disciples asked Jesus to send the crowds away so they could go get something to eat.  The disciples saw, but with their physical senses and functions, rather than with the eyes of faith.  The disciples did not realize how Jesus wished to feed the crowds.  The disciples did not realize Jesus wanted to feed them as well as the crowds.  

Jesus proceeded to multiply the five loaves of bread and the two fish, so that the thousands were fed with what at first seemed to be so little food.  In the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes, we see a prefiguring of the Eucharist, of Jesus' giving of Himself, His sacrifice of Himself.**  

When the disciples asked Jesus to send the crowds away, He told the disciples to give the crowds something to eat themselves.  Jesus wanted to feed the crowds through the faith of the disciples.  

In our faith, we feed each other.  When we embrace our faith, God works through us.  Jesus could have said to the disciples, "Give them something to eat: yourselves."  

When we give of ourselves, we feed our neighbor.  When we offer ourselves as sacrifices, we join our sacrifice with the sacrifice of Jesus.  In the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of the Body of Christ.***  

When we partake of the Body and the Blood of Christ, we become what we receive.****  When we receive the Eucharist, we become Eucharist.  Having become Eucharist, we can be Eucharist to each other.  Jesus, in us, feeds our neighbor through us.  

As we embrace this mystery, we consent to the growth of the faith in us.  As we see with the eyes of faith, we invite God to work through us.  

Jesus was not telling the disciples not to bother him, to give the crowds something to eat themselves since He was not going to give the crowds something to eat.  Nor was He going to simply give the crowds something to eat.  

Rather Jesus wanted not only to feed the crowds with food, but feed the faith of those present.  He was beginning to tell us that we feed each other when we give of ourselves.  

Right now many people are starving, some for food.  Others are starving because they feel discouraged or hopeless in the face of the challenges that the coronavirus has brought, social distancing, lockdown, loss of income, inability to pay bills, including rent, lack of money to buy food, not being able to visit sick family members and friends.  

In your faith, in the faith that God has given you, you can help provide the hope that some need.  Through your faith, you can strengthen the weak, those who are collapsing on the way.  You can be given; you can be Eucharist to your neighbor.  God can give life through you.  

* Matthew 14:13-21

** The Catechism of the Catholic Church 1335.  

*** The Catechism of the Catholic Church 1368.  
**** Saint Pope Leo the Great, Sermo 12 de Passione, 3, 6-7, PL 54, 355-357.  

Let Us Let God Remake Us

Today in his homily Fr. Cyprian really got to the core of my basic orientation toward the coronavirus. Indeed, when the idea came into my head to blog expounding a little on what he'd said in his sermon, I stopped to consider that perhaps he'd already fully expressed it.  

Fr. Cyprian referred back to the first reading we heard at Mass tonight.  In that reading, we heard 

This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Rise up, be off to the potter’s house;
there I will give you my message.
I went down to the potter’s house and there he was,
working at the wheel.
Whenever the object of clay which he was making
turned out badly in his hand,
he tried again,
making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.
Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Can I not do to you, house of Israel,
as this potter has done? says the LORD.
Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter,
so are you in my hand, house of Israel.*  

Fr. Cyprian explained that perhaps God is trying to remake us now.  Maybe we are being called right now to unlearn maladaptive habits which have become very comfortable.  Just because we're used to a certain way of thinking or acting, it doesn't mean it serves us well.  

Fr. Cyprian described that when we're addicted, we are overflowing with our addictions.  He continued that recovering addicts are told to visualize their addictions as being in a cup.  They're told to overturn the cup and let its contents spill out.  

Yet when we are emptied, then what do we do?  How can we fill ourselves?  How can we know what we need to fill us in a healthy way?  How can we nourish ourselves?  How can we provide the source of our own life?  

Instead of trying to fill ourselves, we can sit and wait.  We can practice patience.  We can develop the skill of sitting still.  We can learn to be silent.  We could listen instead of talking. We can try to be attentive to God.  

We embrace all of these difficult endeavors, they suddenly begin to happen, through the working of God's grace, when we're removed from the world.  If we give our consent, we give God free rein to work miracles in and through us.  Having stepped out of ourselves, God steps into us.  

Indeed, we have been extricated from our usual routines.  We have been given the blessing of being helped to step out of our maladaptive patterns.  

It wasn't until I quit my job as an attorney, accepted an invitation into the Peace Corps, moved to northern Morocco, and then went even deeper, moving into the Sahara Desert, that I had sufficiently departed from distractions to be able to consider a new way of being.  It was time.  
Sometimes we willingly choose to go into the desert.  The dry, arid expanse of the physical desert can be a good analogy for the metaphorical desert in which we feel deprived of all we had found so comforting.  

Yet if we stay where we are not challenged, how will we ever grow?  If we never step out of what is familiar to us, we will never step into the territory in which we find that we have been capable of more than we have ever been.  

Right now we have been picked up and dropped into a landscape where we have never been. How we will emerge from it is up to us.  Are we going to accept the invitation to become what we have never been, or stay right where we have always been?  

* Jeremiah 18:1-6 

Trust Is The Antidote To Fear

Today I heard a question about fear in the context of discernment.  Fear can affect us in many ways, some of which can be quite debilitating. 

Fear can be disabling.  Fear blocks love. 

If we want to love, we should let fear be cast out of ourselves.  Eventually, we can get to the point where perfect love casts out all fear.* 

God wants to pour His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.**  God wants to drive the fear out of us.  God wants us to trust in Him. 

God is love.***  God is infinite; God's love is infinite. 

God's love for us is infinitely greater than we imagine.  What God has in mind for us is infinitely better than what we can imagine for ourselves. 

When we fear, we are laboring under our misconceptions of what is best for us.  In our fear, we are holding ourselves back from accurately seeing the love that God has in mind for us. 

God wants to set us free from our lack of vision so we can be free to welcome His love into us.  As we let go of our fear, we make room for the love of God in our hearts. 

If we trust in God, our fear will shrivel up as love comes to dwell in us.  Trust in God, and the love it brings, is the antidote to the fear which disables us.  

* 1 John 4:18
** Romans 5:5 
*** 1 John 4:8, 16

Love Counts No Costs As It Upholds Justice

Yesterday at a protest in London, the actor John Boyega spoke out against racism.  He denounced when people are demeaned for their race.  

It occurred to him that by speaking out so boldly, it might hurt his career.  He considered that he might not have a career after he said what he had to say.*     

He values the dignity of all people, rather than profit at any cost.  He speaks to uphold justice.  

People who seek justice seek God, even if they do not know it.  Those who seek truth seek God.  As persons strive for recognition of the truth of the dignity of all, they strive to do the work of God.  

When one loves justice, goodness and right no matter what the cost, one loves God with all one's heart, with all one's soul, with all one's mind, and with all one's strength.  To love God in this way is the most important commandment, as Jesus tells us in today's Gospel.**  

John Boyega spoke against racism for the sake of George Floyd, a black man pinned to the ground by a white police officer who continued to apply pressure even after Mr. Floyd protested that he could not breathe, resulting in the death of Mr. Floyd.  Although John Boyega thought he might endanger his acting career by defending the rights of our brother George Floyd, and of our other black brothers and sisters, including Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Stephen Lawrence and Mark Duggan, who have suffered similar fates, John Boyega spoke out for the sake of our brothers and sisters.*  To put one's neighbor's interests before one's own, is to love one's neighbor as oneself, the second most important commandment, as Jesus tells us in today's Gospel.***  

Love seeks the dignity of the other.  Love looks beyond oneself.  Love spares no expense.  

We love with all our heart when we work for justice without counting the cost.  We truly love our neighbor when we put our neighbor before ourselves.  In so doing, we become who God made us to be.  

* https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/11780885/john-boyega-speech-black-lives-matter/ 

** Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 

*** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Give The Government What It Deserves

There is an appointed time for everything.*  There is a time to be silent, and there is a time to speak.  When injustice occurs, it is not a time to remain silent.  It is a time to speak.  

When George Floyd, a black man, is pinned to the ground by a police officer who is kneeling on his back despite a protest that he cannot breathe, injustice is occurring.  That injustice is heinously worsened when he dies because he could not breathe under that pressure.**  

Protesters are protesting for Mr. Floyd, because the force that was lawfully given to the police officer was unlawfully used.  When government starts abusing the powers given to it by its citizens, the citizens put the government in check.  

In today's Gospel, Jesus teaches, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”***  We give to the government what is due to it when we check its abuses one way or another.  Indeed, at the same time we also give to God what is due to God, since we are working for justice, for the respect of all persons, for the recognition of the dignity of all persons, which God expects of us in all we say and do.  

Government leaders have the power that they have only because it was given to them from above.****  Thus those in power fall short when they fail to acknowledge that moral authority which gave them the power they wield.  Those in power do even worse when they imply that they follow that moral authority but then act in exactly the opposite manner.  

Yesterday, using either tear gas or smoke canisters, law enforcement cleared a park, Lafayette Square, near the White House of protesters who, news agencies are typically saying, were peacefully protesting.*****, ******, *******  It has been suggested that the park was cleared because of violence in the area the night before.*****  Regardless of why the park was rid of protesters, what one actually does matters, not what one says or one insinuates.  Last night the President walked to an Episcopal church near the White House and a photo was taken as he held up a Bible there.  Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden expressed that he hoped that the President "opened it once in a while instead of brandishing it."******  May the President follow the teachings of Jesus, as may we all.  May he truly lead, not rely merely on bluster and vague gestures which do not make any clear statement.  May he not only claim to value freedom, but so act as to truly value freedom.  

Today the President visited the John Paul II Shrine.  Then he went back to the White House to sign an executive order on international religious freedom.  Archbishop Wilton Gregory pointed to the rich irony of Saint Pope John Paul II’s defense of human rights as he condemned “the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate" protesters "for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace.”******  

Indeed, I put far more stock in what is going on right under someone's own nose, and how that person responds to those events, as an indication of that person's beliefs, of what that person holds dear, and what I can expect from that person.  In short, if the President will not protect the rights of people peacefully protesting right outside the White House, I hardly expect the President to be a champion of human rights elsewhere in the country or around the world.  

Indeed, for that very reason, that injustice was occurring right in front of him, I echo House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who said, "I am horrified he attempted to put down peaceful protests with military force," Hoyer said, calling it "the act of an authoritarian, unempathetic leader."*****

It has been suggested that police dispersed protesters who were attacking them.*****  However, no specific source was given to substantiate this claim.  Therefore, there is no way to check it, to question the supposed source of information.  I am more than a little suspicious of such a mysterious, unattributed claim.  Indeed, I call into question the acceptability, the propriety, of making such unsubstantiated claims, as they seriously endanger the search for the truth, potentially confusing and misleading citizens.  

On the other hand, I have been relieved to see a distinction made between peaceful protesters and those who inject violence into protests.  As the U.S. Attorney General, William Barr, noted, "Unfortunately, with the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful protests are being hijacked by violent radical elements."********  The truth is that many protesters are peaceful.  To label all protesters as radicals is to distort the truth.  Indeed, as I have maintained elsewhere based on a depiction of Pope Paul VI, protesters seek the truth; those who protest demand recognition of the truth that all human beings deserve to be treated with dignity.  Those who infuse violence into protests violate the dignity of others.  To protect citizens' dignity, law enforcement rightly pursues those who introduce violence into protests.  

The U.S. Attorney General asserted, "There will be even greater law enforcement resources and support in the region tonight."*****  I am grateful that the government will be quelling violence.  However, we need to address the very violence done in the first place, done against Mr. Floyd.  If those applying to be law enforcement officers were more rigorously tested, including psychologically, and denied places in law enforcement agencies when they show sufficient warning signs, then perhaps such heinous crimes by law enforcement officials, the very individuals tasked to prevent crime, more often could be prevented.  

Yet at the same time, if those in power continue ever more to fail to lead, there will be even greater momentum to vote them out of office.  If we want to uphold the truth, the truth that all human beings should be accorded the dignity we all deserve, then we will vote for security, not for leaders who make inflammatory statements which drive insecurity.  

The U.S. Attorney General continued, "The most basic function of government is to provide security for people to live their lives and exercise their rights, and we will meet that responsibility here in the nation's capital."*****  Indeed, the most basic function of the citizens of a state is to remove leaders who fail to serve, and as citizens of this nation, we will meet that responsibility as we exercise our right to vote.  

* Ecclesiastes 3:1 

** https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/01/george-floyd-independent-autopsy-findings-released-monday/5307185002/ 

*** Mark 12:17 

**** John 19:11

***** https://www.foxnews.com/politics/barr-lafayette-square-trump-protest-remarks 

****** https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/06/02/washington-archbishop-wilton-gregory-calls-trumps-visit-john-paul-ii

******* https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-push-to-tear-gas-protesters-ahead-of-a-trump-photo-op/2020/06/01/4b0f7b50-a46c-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html 

******** https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/30/william-barr-george-floyd-protests-290792 

Truly Becoming Ourselves: Making Simple Vows

Today I became who I am.  Today I declared my true self.  

I couldn't have done this on my own.  Grace has gotten me safely this far.  
I've kept asking for grace.  When we ask for what we need to do God's will, God gives it to us, so grace has kept coming.  

How do we get grace?  I can tell you that Jesus listens to His mother Mary: she asks for the grace people need to do the will of God, and so people receive the grace of God.  

At the wedding feast of Cana, Mary told her Son Jesus that they had run out of wine.  He performed a miracle, turning water into wine.*  

Jesus can turn water into wine in us, since through Him we are transformed according to the will of God.  He is The Way, The Truth and The Life.**  Mary has kept leading me back to her Son Jesus, who Is The Way to The Father.  

One of the many ways Our Blessed Mother Mary has tried to lead us back to her Son Jesus was when she appeared in Fatima, Portugal, beginning on May 13, 1917, exhorting us to pray the rosary for peace, to repent of our wrongdoing, and to make sacrifices so as to bring people to God who don't know Him.  Each year on May 13, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima.  

Today, on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima, here at the hermitage the Mass began at 11:00 a.m.  When the Mass began, the other monks and I processed from the back of the church, past the icon of Mary and Jesus, 

to the front of the church.  

In the first reading of Scripture today here, we heard that 

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption.  As proof that you are children, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"  So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child, then also an heir, through God.***

In today's Gospel reading, we heard that 

While Jesus was speaking, 
a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, 
'Blessed is the womb that carried you 
and the breasts at which you nursed.' 
He replied, 
'Rather, blessed are those 
who hear the word of God and observe it.'****  

Right after the Gospel reading, I walked from my seat to stand before Father Cyprian. There, in recognition of, and in gratitude for, the grace that Mary has obtained from her Son for me to do the will of Our Father, I took the middle name "Maria" as I addressed Father Cyprian, "With the help of God, I, Martin Maria Herbek, have studied your rule and lived among you as your brother for the time of probation.  Father, I now ask that I be allowed to dedicate myself to God and to His Kingdom by making monastic profession in this community."  

During Father Cyprian's homily, commenting on today's Gospel reading, focusing on Our Blessed Mother Mary since today is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima, Father Cyprian echoed Saint Augustine.  He noted that Saint Augustine had pointed out that Our Blessed Mother Mary was blessed moreso because she kept The Word of God so well than because she physically gave birth to Jesus.  

After the homily, we proceeded from the seats of the church, into the rotunda where the altar is.  

There Father Cyprian and I stopped at the entrance to the rotunda, where he asked and I affirmed my desire to live according to monastic profession of vows.  

Father Cyprian then extended his hands over my head.  He prayed that the good work that God has begun in me may bring God glory and further His plan for redemption of us.  

Then I proceeded to the altar, where was the book containing the simple vows, that is, the first vows, of every monk who has ever made profession of simple vows here at New Camaldoli Hermitage.  Out of that book, I read my vows of stability, reformation of life, poverty, chastity and obedience, which are to last for three years.  

I signed my name, Martin Maria Herbek, to the vows.  

Then another monk, a dear mentor, Father Isaiah, who had just witnessed my pronouncement of the vows and my signature, signed the book as one witness.  

Next another of my fellow monks, another model for whom I am grateful, Father Raniero, who had also just witnessed my profession of the vows and my signature, also signed as a second witness.  

I then picked up the book, open to the page we had just signed, and I slowly turned until I made a complete circle and had shown it to everyone present in the rotunda.  

Then I proceeded back to Father Cyprian at the entrance of the rotunda.  Up until that point in the Mass, I had been dressed in the robe, belt, scapular and hood I had received when I became a novice monk one year ago, but which I have been wearing for the past year with the belt tied around the robe, with the scapular on the outside; then, at that point in this Mass, Father Cyprian untied the belt around my waist and retied it outside the scapular.  

Then he placed a cowl over my head, and I put my arms through its sleeves.  

I was presented with a copy of the Rule of Saint Benedict as well as a copy of the Camaldolese Constitutions.  

Mass proceeded.  My offering of myself in my vows, remained on the altar with the offering of the bread and the wine, as we did this in memory of Jesus, as we prayed that Our Father's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, 

as we received the fruits of Jesus' sacrifice of Himself for us, as we received in the Eucharist the Body and the Blood of Christ.  

And thus, in this monastic community, here at home, I became a simply professed monk.  

You see now.  I am him.  Who Are You?  

* John 2:1-11 
** John 14:6 
*** Galatians 4:4-7 
**** Luke 11:27-28