Seamus, Br. First Profession 9 June 2014

   

   

Br. Seamus Conway 

Abbot Mark's Chapter Talk. 

Br Seamus' First profession         9 June, 2014

Br Seamus, this is a great day in your life and in the life of the monastery.  Until now you have been living and learning the rudiments of the monastic life. You have not as yet been officially committed by vow but with a sincere desire to find out if you are truly being called to seek God in the monastery according to the Rule of St Benedict, as he describes it 'under a Rule and an abbot'.  These can be summed up as obedience to God and those you have chosen to live with.  To spell it out a little more it is the conversion of your life and stability in the monastery.  Poverty and celibacy are the other parts of our vowed life.

  

It's customary at this point to highlight what you are undertaking.  Our commitment to God and to the community is not so much an obligation - which of course it is - but a sign of your love of God.  It is your hope that through this committed love you will find the happiness you desire.  But happiness is not unending pleasure, as many may imagine, but the satisfaction that you are where God wants you to be.  It is the understanding that the hard and difficult things that will surely come your way are themselves part of the way to God.  In the world God made, obstacles are a challenge not a barrier to our goal in life.  That goal is peace of heart and joy in the Holy Spirit.  It is not my personal preference over the concerns of the community and the immediate need of my neighbour.  In practice life is often not fair or equal.  However, when we do respond to situations - and even to accept unreasonable demands - we may find that we actually recognise in ourselves our own selfish tendencies.  In putting up with hardship we can be led to discover and learn how to disown our own unholy behaviour.  Hardships will not be a problem for the monk who truly seeks God.  He will find in them only occasions to come closer to God. That's what happiness means. 

The apostles had their world destroyed and torn apart when Jesus was taken from them and cruelly and unjustly killed.  It was only when they were brought face to face with their human condition, with their vulnerability, that they met their risen Lord and were then filled, encouraged and strengthened by the Holy Spirit.  Everything that happened to them after that became occasions for them to seek God and his will for them.

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of Pentecost.  That was the story in which God changed the lives of the apostles.  Today we are celebrating that great Celtic saint, Columba, who himself was filled with God's Spirit.  In his adopted country Columba became a focus of God for the people.  By his life at Iona he drew many people to him in his own time and over succeeding generations.  His fame crossed barriers of race and religion and continues to do so down to the present day.  There were failures in Columba's life but he learned from them.  As he continued seeking  God Columba also found his true self and happiness.
 

You will find things that you may not be happy about in community.  We all do.  In time these may change to your satisfaction, or more likely they may change you so that you will have a better understanding of yourself as well as  of God.  Deep down that is all that matters, not the way we might like to get there.

It may be a relief for you to know that what is being said here to you is in fact being addressed to everyone in the community sitting here around you.  Your profession today is a reminder to all of us of the vows we ourselves have made, often many years ago.  What you are committing yourself to today is a stimulus and encouragement for the rest of us to keep faithful to the end.  Your decision adds new life to ours, just as much as ours should be an encouragement to you as you take up this gift God has given you.

Like Columba, our failings and needs are stepping stones on the rough road to God who loves us.  That is all we can promise you.  But it is everything.

So Seamus, in the light of your experience over these last few years and of what you have heard this morning, do you wish to vow yourself to God in the life you have already been living with us.       What is your answer?

Br. Seamus - Peace