We offer for your Easter reflection a small anthology of writings on Easter from noted Benedictines, including Abbot Primate Gregory Polan, Abbot Thomas Frerking from Saint Louis, Blessed Columba Marmion, and others.

Easter Message 2020
Abbot Primate Gregory Polan, O.S.B. 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica, 

Jesus said: Peace be with you. This Easter peace (that) Jesus gives is not a freedom from anxiety, but a freedom to live amid anxious times with faith in God’s presence, and trust in ways that will open up a manner to face and live into the future. That is a great encouragement ... in this moment of anxiety and insecurity.  Despite the fears and worries, there is something quietly stirring in (our) hearts.  The Holy Spirit within us guides us in ways that are so simple and good, so touching and transforming.  It is a “peace” that is subtle and quiet, humble and gracious, wise, noble, and advantageous.  This is the mysterious Easter peace that Christ left to us, his Benedictine disciples, and to all who follow the Gospel message. 

How easy it is to name the challenges that have come our way with this pandemic: fear for the present moment, unexpected death, uncertainty about the future, living with an invisible enemy, financial pressures, distance from loved ones, praying in unfamiliar ways, and many more challenges.  But isn’t it important for us, to search deeply to discover the blessings that have come to us?  

First, we have come to see what a blessing our Benedictine tradition and calling has been for us during these days.  While many people live alone in a small place, isolated and without another human face to encounter, we have been blessed with our monastic community.  The human desire that resides in all of us to be connected with others stands as a distinguishing characteristic of our daily life.  With social distancing, we have been forced to live somewhat apart, but clearly, not alone.  Again with social distancing from one another, there has grown a kind of unique closeness that happens when challenges unite people in a way that bonds them by their willingness to do together what is for the good of all.  Sacrifice is rarely an easy act, but when it is done by a whole community, it possesses a unique character that binds people in a joy that is both satisfying and enriching, and sometimes, life-changing.  While in community our fears actually become moments when courage builds up within us, our anxieties develop into moments of trust because of the strength we experience in the midst of our community life together. 

Second, both our community and private prayer take on new dimensions.  We regret that in most instances, our oblates and friends who usually pray with us are not present.  Yet, their absence fosters a true concern for them in our hearts.  It is easy in our daily intercessions to remember the Church, the world, and our governments; yet now, knowing the challenges which they face for the good of the people they serve, there is a greater sense of the worldwide communion which we share, not only as members of the Body of Christ, but as brothers and sisters in the human family.  Both men and women Benedictines have shown genuine concern for those who usually pray with them. 

Third, the environment of our monasteries …  provides us with places to be grateful for the beauty of creation, the gifts of God’s earth, and the opportunity to reflect on how important our care for the earth’s resources really are. … (I share one example) ... Here in Rome, with the lockdown, from our tower, you can see the Mediterranean Sea; that is how clear the air has become in Rome, a city known for its pollution. … During this pandemic, we have experienced a short-term effect of seeing how we can be better … guardians of what has been given us. 

Fourth, an element of the monastic life that has intensified during these weeks and months has been part of Saint Benedict’s spiritual doctrine on silence.  Until a few months ago, our lives have been caught up in the fast pace of society, which can have the tendency to diminish the time devoted to silence and reflection.  These weeks have awakened in us the importance of silence and reflection.  We have sometimes come to see how uncomfortable we are with more silence in our lives; and it has taken both time and effort to use the silence that has been forced upon us as something that really is a “gift in disguise.”  The moments of silence and reflection are precious times for communion with God, whether in the practice of lectio divina, adoration, or stillness before the divine presence already within us.  There is no doubt that God has many important things to say to us in the midst of this crisis – what is important is that we can take this time and realize how silence and solitude are “gifts” that are there for us to use wisely even after the time of this pandemic. 

Fifth, we are living in a moment of inspiring heroism.  On the larger scale, we have seen the sacrifice of their very lives by dedicated doctors, (and) nurses, vigilant public servants who have all put their lives in harm’s way to fulfill the calling they have received.  Likewise, there has been a more silent, yet still dedicated heroism in the fervent prayer, generous service, and creative ways of assistance through the internet, email, and phone conversations.  The beautiful challenge that now stands before us is to keep this kind of generosity and creativity growing certainly to one another, and to all who come to us as guests, in the figure of Jesus Christ.  The heroism of our lives as Benedictines is often not as well known or widespread yet, it is heroic in the living of our tradition according to the Gospel and the Rule of Saint Benedict with a sense of mission that is vibrant and life-giving for one another and for whomever we may serve. 

To each of you, I offer sincere thanks for the ways in which you have witnessed to the monastic spirit of prayer, stability, obedience, charity, generosity, sacrifice, and openness to the movement of the Holy Spirit in this unexpected pandemic.  May our testimony as Benedictine men and women of the Gospel and the Rule lead us forward into the future, yet unknown, yet known in the mind and heart of God who walks with us each and every day. 

(abbreviated for distribution by Benedictine Sisters of Florida) 

Easter Vigil in the Holy Night
Abbot Emeritus Thomas Frerking, OSB (April 2018, Saint Louis Abbey) 

Dear friends, we come now to the high point of the Sacred Triduum, the first proclamation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

We believe the Resurrection on the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who has revealed his Resurrection to us, he who is the Son of God, he who is God, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.  He revealed it to his apostles by prophesying it before his death and by showing himself alive to them after his death by many evidences during forty days.  He has revealed it to us by instructing his apostles to proclaim it to others and to instruct their successors, the bishops of his Church, to proclaim it, and so on, down to the present time, and by causing the proclamation of the apostles and their successors to be accompanied by the fulfillment of prophecy and by miracles, the two sure signs that the proclamation is the revelation of God.  In our own time, we know that the proclamation of the Church is the revelation of God because, by grace, we recognize, what even the natural reason is capable of recognizing, although only with much difficulty, that the Church itself, in Head and members, is the fulfillment of all prophecy, and that the oneness, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity of the Church are a moral miracle perduring through the ages.  Here are the sure signs that the Church’s proclamation is the revelation of God.  We believe the Resurrection, then, with supreme certainty. 

What is the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead?  It is the resurrection of his body from death and the reuniting of his body to his soul, so that the whole of his human nature is living again.  But, it is not the resurrection of his body and soul to the earthly life he had been living before, but rather their resurrection to the state of glory; that is, his body, although remaining a true body, is no longer subject to pain and suffering, is no longer subject to death, and is now the perfect vehicle of his soul, and his soul, which, because he is the Son of God, had enjoyed already in his earthly life the Beatific Vision, the vision of God as he is in himself, is now utterly filled and informed by that vision. 

What is the effect of Jesus’s Resurrection on us?  The Lord’s Resurrection, operating on us by means of the sacraments, in this life causes our soul to rise from the death of sin to the new life of grace, of sharing in the nature of God – this is especially the effect of Baptism; causes our soul to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to act and to give witness by his gifts – this is especially the effect of Confirmation; and causes our soul already to possess eternal life and to abide in the Lord and he in our soul – this is especially the effect of the Eucharist.  The Lord’s resurrection in the life to come, where the sacraments have their ultimate effect, causes our soul to enter into the state of glory, and causes our body to rise from the dead, to be reunited to our soul, and also, together with our soul, to enter into the state of glory; causes us, filled in glorified soul and body with the Holy Spirit, to reign with the Lord; and brings us into the fullness of communion with the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and with one another in the Triune God, in joy infinite and eternal. 

In the face of these glorious and utterly saving truths, what is there to do but to shout for joy, to praise and give thanks to God, to receive a renewal of the Lord’s salvation and to proclaim his salvation to others?  So in this Easter Vigil, the greatest of the Church’s solemnities, with joy and praise and thanksgiving, we renew our Baptismal vows, we commemorate our Confirmation, we receive the Most Holy Eucharist, and, through the liturgies we celebrate, and through the testimony of our lives, through all the fifty days of this glorious Easter Season, we proclaim to the world and to all creation: 

Christos anesti! Alithinos anesti! Christus surrexit!  Surrexit vere! Christ is risen!  He is truly risen! 

The First Glorious Mystery: The Resurrection of Christ
Blessed Columba Marmion 

On the day of His Resurrection Jesus Christ left in the tomb the shroud which is the symbol of our infirmities, our weaknesses, our imperfections. Christ comes from the tomb triumphant--completely free of earthly limitation; He is animated with a life that is intense and perfect, and which vibrates in every fibre of His being. In Him everything that is mortal has been absorbed by His glorified life. 

Here is the first element of the sanctity represented in the risen Christ: the elimination of everything that is corruptible, everything that is earthly and created; freedom from all defects, all infirmities, all capacity for suffering. 

But there is also another element of sanctity: union with God, self-oblation and consecration to God. Only in heaven shall we be able to understand how completely Jesus lived for His Father during these blessed days. The life of the risen Christ became an infinite source of glory for His Father. Not a single effect of His sufferings was left in Him, for now everything in Him shone with brilliance and beauty and possessed strength and life; every atom of His being sang an unceasing canticle of praise. His holy humanity offered itself in a new manner to the glory of the Father. 

 
From Dom Columba Marmion, O.S.B., The Mysteries of the Rosary. Translated and published by the Monks of Marmion Abbey, Aurora, Illinois. Translation of Dom Columba Marmion's "Les Mysteres du Rosaire" published with the permission of the Abbey of Maredsous in Belgium. 

Easter Sermon (Sermon 74)
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

II. 5. Now bear with my foolishness a little. I want to tell you of my own experience, as I promised. Not that it is of any importance .... I admit that the Word has also come to me-I speak as a fool-and has come many times—But although he has come to me, I have never been conscious of the moment of his coming. I perceived his presence, I remembered afterwards that he had been with me; some times I had a presentiment that he would come, but I was never conscious of his coming or his going. And where he comes from when he visits my soul, and where he goes, and by what means he enters and goes out, I admit that I do not know even now; as John says: 'You do not know where he comes from or where he goes.' There is nothing strange in this, for of him was it said, 'Your foot steps will not be known.' The coming of the Word was not perceptible to my eyes, for he has not color; nor to the ears, for there was no sound; nor yet to my nostrils, for he mingles with the mind, not the air; he has not acted upon the air, but created it. His coming was not tasted by the mouth, for there was not eating or drinking, nor could he be known by the sense of touch, for he is not tangible. How then did he enter? Perhaps he did not enter because he does not come from outside? He is not one of the things which exist outside us. Yet he does not come from within me, for he is good, and I know there is no good in me. I have ascended to the highest in me, and look! the word is towering above that. In my curiosity I have descended to explore my lowest depths, yet I found him even deeper. If I look outside myself, I saw him stretching beyond the furthest I could see; and if I looked within, he was yet further within. Then I knew the truth of what I had read, 'In him we live and move and have our being'. And blessed is the man in whom he has his being, who lives for him and is moved by him.  

You ask then how I knew he was present, when his ways can in no way be traced? He is life and power, and as soon as he enters in, he awakens my slumbering soul; he stirs and soothes and pierces my heart, for before it was hard as stone, and diseased. So he has begun to pluck out and destroy, to build up and to plant, to water dry places and illuminate dark ones; to open what was closed and to warm what was cold; to make the crooked straight and the rough places smooth, so that my soul may bless the Lord, and all that is within me may praise his holy name. So when the Bridegroom/ the Word, came to me, he never made known his coming any signs, not by sight, not by sound, not by touch. It was not by any movement of his that I recognized his coming; it was not by any of MY senses that I perceived he had penetrated to the depth of my being. Only by the movement of my heart, as I have told did I perceive his presence; and I knew the power of his might cause my faults were put to flight and my human yearnings brought into subjection. I have marveled at the depth of his wisdom, when my secret faults have been revealed and made visible the very slightest amendment of my way of life, I have experienced his goodness and mercy; in the renewal and remaking of the spirit of my mind, that is of my inmost being, I have perceived the excellence of his glorious beauty, and when I contemplate all these things I am filled with awe and wonder at his manifold greatness.  

But when the Word has left me, all these spiritual powers become weak and faint and begin to grow cold, as though you had removed the fire under the boiling pot, and this is a sign of his going. Then my soul must needs be sorrowful until he returns, and my heart again kindles within me-the sign of his returning. When have had such experience of the Word, is it any wonder that I take to myself the words of the Bride, calling him back when he has withdrawn? For although my fervor is not as strong as hers, ye am transported by a desire like hers. As long as I live the word return', the word of recall for the recall of the word, will be on lips.  

As often as he slips away from me, so often shall I call him back from the burning desire of my heart I will not cease to call him begging him to return, as if after someone who is departing, and I implore him to give back to me the joy of his salvation, and restore himself to me. 

You can find additional homilies of the Easter Season from our own community here.