Dom Damian Kearney, O.S.B.
Newsletter, December 1983

What we hope for as Christians is that this Kingdom of God will become more of a reality among the greatest number of people as soon as possible. One of the things which characterized the primitive church more than anything else was the sense of urgency, of immediacy of salvation; it was not something which could be put off. Becoming a follower of Christ was a total commitment; one’s whole life, not just a part of it, was affected. He was the true center of their existence and the goal to which they were tending. The second coming seemed imminent: gradually, when this did not take place, they realized that trying to fix a time to an event which transcends time was a misconception; that they were making the same kind of error as identifying God's Kingdom with glory, power, wealth and domination.

“The Legend of Montserrat” designed by
Alfonso Ossorio ’34 while a student in 1933;
from monastery Christmas card in 1990’s.

During the season of Advent this can be the focus of our meditation: what we as Christians are hoping for, and what we are prepared to do to realize these hopes. The brotherhood of man has become a trite phrase, especially at Christmas time; the term it is easy to become cynical about in an age which seems to ignore the practical validity of this ideal. But we can, like the primitive Christians of old, make a start in our own small communities. If the incentive comes from within us - and if we respond to the word of God, it will – a beginning can be made and the hope become a reality of all men becoming one in Christ through Baptism, annihilating all divisions and making true, complete brotherhood possible: then there shall be “No more Jew or Gentile, no more slave and freeman, no more male and female, since we are all one person in Jesus Christ.”

Dom Damian Kearney, OSB
Newsletter, December 1984