The Gospel today is full of woe. Woe to you and to you. Woe to me, perhaps especially to me. We know that our world is filled with real woes, but it is also filled with woes of our own design. Brothers and sisters, this is a “close living” community. Now it is all new, but in a little while you will discover what was never hinted at in orientation. Brothers who struggle with all kinds of crap. Brothers who fail to fulfill your expectations about what a good seminarian or a good priest must be Brothers who are foul and ill-mannered some of whom looked perfectly fine when they pulled up to the front steps. Faculty who are sometimes petty and nit-picking. Formation staff who are sometimes all too human. Rectors who, well, let’s leave him alone for a minute. In a close living community the scars show themselves sometimes as woes. Woe to you volleyball jerkface that makes me feel inadequate. Woe to you self-righteous jackass that makes me feel unequal to you in piety. Woe to you idiot teacher who causes me pain in front of my friends. Brothers and sisters, no doubt there are woes. But here is the good news We also have in this community something Saint Augustine knew well, the means of healing. Saint Augustine was a sinner, a liar, a cheat, a fornicator. I would say he was an SOB but it would rob Saint Monica of her just deserts. We are sinners too. We are also likely saints. Can we put away some of the sinner’s woe and take up the mantle of kindness, of pastoral concern, of Jesus, the mantle of love that makes even a close living community work? I know we can because I see it every year, Old Augustines transmogrify into St. Augustine’s because they give themselves away here, love here, sacrifice here, learn here, practice here, really live here. What did St. Augustine say? It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men angels. And what is humility. Brothers and sisters, it is love. What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of our brothers and sisters. That is what love looks like. It looks like a body given away. It looks like blood poured out.