Last week I got to spend some time at a monastery I visit to step away for a little bit. There is complete silence there, very different from the urban environment where I live. So it’s a good place to go for recollection and to be alone with the Lord. They have a nice new church there, built about 6 years ago, where there is a lot of Eucharistic Adoration, and there is a guest house attached.
So this time, I arrived and got out of my car. Now, usually, when you first arrive and step outside of your car, the only thing you can hear is the silence. I mean, it is absolutely silent. But this time, there is a loud conversation going on in the parking lot.
So I got into the guest house lobby, and there are binders and papers and pens and cell phones and things spread all over the big main table that guests can usually use.
Finally, I get into my little room, and the men come indoors to the lobby. How do I know they came in? The loud conversation followed them. Then, they begin walking from the lobby through the place where the guest rooms, carrying on with the same loud conversations.
Later on, after they had gone, I made my way over to the lobby for a coffee. When I opened the door to go in, I noticed a distinct smell I hadn’t smelled indoors for a long time. “Is that cigarette smoke?” All the windows were open. Just then, Fr. Richard, the guestmaster came in, checking the windows.
Yes, cigarette smoke. We both laughed. “What’s up with these guys?” I asked. All the noise, taking over the place, smoking inside the guesthouse at a monastery. They do whatever they want, they’re like kings.
He stopped and said, “This guy, the guy that was here, is very special.” He directed me to look out the window. “He built that church. He did a really good job. He can do whatever He wants.”
Like a king.
When the Lord was crucified on the Cross, He finished building a Church for His Father. “It is finished.” (Jn 19:30)
For this, God the Father made Him the Lord. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9-11)
Now if you ask God, why is Jesus the King and not Buddha, or Mohammed, or Abraham, or Confucius, or many of the good people who have lived – and will live – in the world? Why Jesus?
Show me some tangible evidence that makes Him different.
You know what I think His Father would say? I think He would say, “He did what I wanted. He built the Church. He did a really good job. Now, He can do whatever He wants.”
Do you want to follow the Lord? Then now is the time of your doing what He wants. Now is the time to contribute in building the Church. Now is the time of dutiful work. Now is the time of the Cross. It lasts your whole life. In this life, you will be the low guy on the totem pole. But when you’re done, then you get the reward. When you’re done, He’ll make you a king, too.
Then, you can do whatever you want.
“You are those who have continued with me in my trials; and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Lk 22:28-30)
ALM 