Faith-Spirituality-St Bernard of Clairvaux

HOMILY WEEK 20 02 – Year I

Humble Faith and Spiritual Warfare:

Memorial of St. Bernard of Clairvaux

(Judges 6:11-24; Ps 85; Mt 19:23-30)

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August 21, 2017, was a memorable day for millions of people in North America as they witnessed a solar eclipse – total for some and partial for many more. That experience elicited some very interesting responses such as “Awesome, life-changing, beyond words, humbling.” One television channel played an old pop song “Eclipse of the Heart” as we viewed the celestial phenomenon.

The readings today invite us to have humble faith, experience an eclipse of the heart and prepare for spiritual warfare.

In the middle of today’s gospel, Jesus tells Peter and his disciples, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Can you imagine how the disciples might have felt about that celestial phenomenon!

God’s goal is the renewal of all things, re-creation. Someday all of creation will be renewed, far surpassing a solar eclipse. That divine process has already begun in the life and work of Jesus. We are to participate in that process here and now through humble faith and spiritual warfare.

Our participation is a response to God’s call to us, just as God called Gideon in the first reading. There is a paradox in that call that demands a closer look. The angel of the Lord addresses Gideon as a “warrior,” commissions him to do battle, promising him victory against the Midianites, and backs that claim up with a miraculous sign. Gideon then builds an altar to the Lord and calls it, “The Lord is peace.” How can an angel of God breathe war and peace in almost the same sentence?

The answer is that all the violence in the Old Testament is meant to be interpreted metaphorically and symbolically. The enemies of Israel are really the enemy within us – our sin, sinfulness, defects of character and negative attitudes like false pride and stubbornness and even our addictions. All of that has to be destroyed as we cannot drag any of it into heaven, into the “renewal of all things.” That is the spiritual warfare that Gideon’s commission symbolizes. It is like the disclaimer after a movie such as War Horse– no horses were injured or killed in the making of this movie.

Those who get this meaning the most are recovering alcoholics who know they can’t have an ounce of alcohol in their system or they are dead. A friend shared with me once how much of a shock it was to his system when he took communion in an Eastern rite celebration and realized that it was not just mild wine! He really had to struggle with the fact that he had even tasted hard liquor and totally rely on his faith not to slip and relapse. Our struggle is to let go of our pet sins and vices and truly die to them so that we can already taste the joy of the kingdom, of the “renewal of all things.”

Like Gideon, we can all say that we are not worthy, that we are the least of all. God still calls us, and especially the least, because then God’s power can work through us. Jesus promises eternal life to all those who will follow him and do his work.

The way God renews all things is through humble faith. Our weakness, not our strength, is the criteria. That is why Jesus would say that it is harder for a rich (proud) person to enter the kingdom than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The key is humble faith strong enough to practice the spirituality of letting go – letting go of our sin, sinfulness, inordinate attachments and addictions. That same friend reflected how in his experience it was the poor who were grateful for even the crumbs that come their way, much more so than the rich, because they have little else and especially no resources of their own that they can rely on.

We are given a model to follow today of trusting completely in God’s love – St. Bernard of Clairvaux. He was born near Dijon, France, in 1090 of a noble family. In his Apologia, he wrote it was because of his unruly nature that he chose the newly founded Cistercians, thinking their austerity could tame him. At age 22 he joined the new monastery at Cîteaux, founded 14 years earlier to reject laxity and riches of the Benedictine Order such as Cluny, and to return to a primitive poverty and austerity of life.

His remarkable enthusiasm helped persuade his uncle, four of his brothers and two-dozen friends to join him. Within three years he was sent out with 12 monks to a diocese in Champagne where, in a valley that came to be known as the Valley of Light (‘Clairvaux’) Bernard founded the monastery where he served as abbot for the rest of his life.

Bernard was a man of great holiness and wisdom, and although often in poor health because of his austerities, he was active in many of the great public debates of the time. From the time he became abbot until his death in 1153, Bernard dominated the religious and political life of Western Europe. He strongly opposed the luxurious lives of some of the clergy, and fought against the persecution of the Jews. He was a prolific writer, of an inspiring rather than a technical kind, and his writings have had a lasting influence on Catholic spirituality. His efforts even had an effect on Cluny, inspiring reform efforts there. His abbey became the mother house of dozens of Cistercian monasteries around the world. By the time of his death, the Cistercian Order had grown from one house to 343, of which 68 were daughter house of Clairvaux itself. He was canonized in 1174 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1830.

Gideon recognized the angel of the Lord when fire consumed his gift of bread and wine. We also are called to even greater faith, as we recognize and receive Jesus in these gifts of bread and wine, without fire, without sensationalism – just quiet humble faith at work.

May our celebration today help transform us into the Body of Christ, into that new creation, into the renewal of all things, so that we can go out to help renew our families, our communities and our world, as did St. Bernard of Clairvaux.