Cistercian Abbey

January 20, 2007

Homily for the Mass Honoring Members of the Memorare Society

The Memorare Society expands the Cistercian motto from “To enkindle and to enlighten” to “to remember and to remind.”

Today’s Mass underlines this expanded motto in a special way. As you might have noticed, the gospel reading included the very first verses of Luke’s gospel, a particularly interesting text in the gospels. Luke the evangelist tries to explain why he has undertaken the task of writing a gospel, especially in view of the fact that others have already written such works before him. And he replies that, although many have tried to describe the Christian origins – especially the words and deeds of Jesus – it seemed to him important to add to that literature a new piece, his own, because the church needs to recall more exactly and in a more organized way all that the Lord has done and commanded as well as how the apostolic preaching began. Rather than relying on anecdotes and oral sources, he went around and researched the topic, by contacting the original eyewitnesses who were still alive. He then put the material into a historically reliable and organized framework.

What appears extraordinary in Luke’s text is the fact that he considers “remembering” such an important activity for the church. And at this Mass today, we are not talking about remembering in terms of reading and writing history. We are talking about a living memory, a living tradition: a remembering that puts us into living contact with the ideals of those who have begun our institution. In this way we can keep the original inspiration, the initial ideals, the first mission alive and effective.

Only in the Catholic Christian tradition is the basic sacramental form of worship and prayer called explicitly an act of remembrance. A Catholic institution celebrates the Mass at every important event, and in the Mass repeats the Lord’s words: “Do this in memory of me.” The Eucharist which is the peak and center of our religion is a memorial celebration. It celebrates under one single title all the gracious acts of God: the covenant made with Abraham and then with Moses, the incarnate life of the Lord Jesus and his passion and resurrection anticipated in the Last Supper and then brought to completion during the three days which followed the Last Supper. The Eucharist is the form in which the Lord’s ongoing presence among his disciples is extended over the whole of history: “Go and tell this to all nations of all times, and I will be with you always until the fullness of times arrives.”

According to our faith, the human community is being formed around the Lord Christ. The power of hell – meaning the power of sin and death – does not overcome it, because the Lord remains with his disciples throughout history: he keeps on teaching about his message, the meaning of his incarnation, the demands he makes on our life and the promises by which he draws us near to himself.

In the history of Cistercian, the foundation of the Memorare Society was a sign and function of maturity. It meant the realization and the discovery that the community that has come about during the formative years of nearly a thousand young men, Cistercian alumni, possesses something of a lasting value. The Cistercians who founded the Abbey and the School found themselves enshrined somehow in the institution they began. This happens in many lives. You do something because you have a vision, a goal, a purpose, some sort of a call. Then you realize that this call has claimed your life. You may feel that it has overpowered you, maybe even trapped you, certainly captivated and captured you. But then you usually realize that it was an act of grace by which God had given you a purpose: a cause to which to dedicate yourself, your energy, your time, your resources. And then, eventually, you realize that this call obliges you, demands loyalty, because God has put into the world something that resembles in some human way his own eternity: some lasting value, a religious order, a company, a monastery, a school community, a human reality that grows beyond you. You start pitying the ancient Pharaohs who felt the need to assemble piles of stone in their pyramids to preserve their name and achievement. We have a living memorial of a life-time of involvement. Not only our children and students but an ongoing living community, a portion of the church, reflecting in some small yet true way God’s everlasting love.

After the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus spoke in the synagogue of Capernaum about the Eucharist – that one single and true memorial society of which our institution is only a tiny part: “Do not labor – he said – for perishable food, but for the Bread of eternal life,” for the Bread that descended from heaven, the Son of the Father who descended from heaven and began to lead mankind back to its origins: to becoming true sons of the Father, receiving a share of divine life.

We are here because we have realized that through our efforts, through decades of involvement at Cistercian, through an ongoing walking with each other by the light of the Gospel and the leadership of the Spirit, we have become the ones entrusted with the purpose, standards, original goals and objectives, the spiritual meaning of Cistercian and are privileged to remain connected with it in life and in death. Cistercian is something we care for beyond our life time, because it is also a token of our belief that there is life beyond this earthly existence and the meaning of our life-long endeavor is to reach that destination.

Let us rekindle, remember the graces and give thanks to God for what he has accomplished by our participation and cooperation. Let us include into this Mass, all those, living and deceased, who have walked with us in achieving what Cistercian is, let us pledge our membership and loyalty, let us ask for God’s graces on those who have brought this institution to this point and especially on those who will have the task of carrying it further into the future God has prepared for us.