May 4, 2017
President Rector's Dinner
Very Rev. Denis Robinson, OSBIt has been said that nothing ever happens at Saint Meinrad. We are out in the middle of nowhere. This is the woods. Fifty drops of rain and the roads must close.
We are not near a great municipality, unless you count Ferdinand, and I wouldn’t.
How could anything ever happen here?
We are far removed from the halls of power. There are no great legislative or judicial bodies meeting here unless we mean by judicial the hallowed halls of personal judgement.
No really interesting news ever emanates from Saint Meinrad. We haven’t had a murder in years. There was a drug bust downtown, but really it was fairly small potatoes.
There have been no great scandals, a few small ones perhaps, but really that’s it.
We might have had some interesting weather. Now I am thinking about the little storm we had last Friday night. The alarms went off. We were warned of impending doom. There were some sirens, a few signs of panic. And yet …
How many people opted to stay in their beds or at least in their rooms? Somehow many of us rightly or wrongly believe that these sandstone walls will protect us, shelter us from any disaster, any threat from weather external or internal.
Somehow many of us rightly or wrongly believed that the fortitude of this place could capture the power of the roaring weather and somehow extinguish it.
Somehow many of us rightly or wrongly held fast to our rooms, ramparted against all odds.
And what if we did have to go to the basement: What should we do, cower in fear?
No, let’s drink wine and play golf.
And of course, that is the way it should be. That is the way it must be.
Frankly, I do not believe that nothing ever happens at Saint Meinrad, in spite of storm and flood and wind.
Don’t tell me that nothing ever happens at Saint Meinrad because I know better.
Friendships happen at Saint Meinrad.
We arrive on the Hill in the heat of August. We know only a few people and many of them only from those insanely formal gatherings with the bishop and seminarian families just a couple of weeks ago. We arrive packed to the rafters of our parent’s SUVs, knowing no one. We survive because we are like strangers cast upon the shores of a deserted island. This one has Netflix and this one likes my music, and this one likes S-town and we’re off. Friendships happen at Saint Meinrad out of necessity sometimes, but that doesn’t mean they don’t become fairly quickly something else.
Relationships happen at Saint Meinrad
We start as friends but something else happens. Intimacy happens, healthy intimacy and suddenly I have another person who can truly share my questions, my burdens, my joys, my laughter, my passions, my pain. Nothing can surpass the relationships forged here. They last forever. That is not to say that we do not argue and disagree. That we do not rejoice in making up and getting some pork chops at the New Boston Tavern. It does not mean there will be no injury, no sorrow. It means that we learn in the vicissitudes of life to bear injury and sorrow because we are not alone and we can find in the consoling face of our friends the image of the stricken Christ rising in splendor. That happens at Saint Meinrad.
Learning happens at Saint Meinrad
We thought we didn’t really care about Plato and then we do. This professor wants us to be passionate about this and we think it odd until one day it clicks and suddenly new worlds unfold. The faculty of Saint Meinrad is second to none, not because they know more but because they care more, because they want to help you and me, because they give us the benefit of the doubt, because they are true disciples of Jesus and that makes them more important than mere scholars and mere talkers, it makes them our brothers and sisters and when we can have class with our brothers and sisters in Christ, then the world of learning, the infinity of learning opens for us as never before. It opens up like heaven opens. What else happens at Saint Meinrad?
Prayer happens at Saint Meinrad
Most of us learn to really pray here. That is something I hear a good bit. Or perhaps people say, I used to pray more before I came here. I would wager that is probably not really the case. You may have prayed differently before you came here and the interruption of your life may have given a prominence to prayer in the world. Here we seek something else. Here we seek to make prayer your way of breathing, to instill in you not only a love for prayer, but a yearning for prayer, a fatal attraction for prayer. In our formation staff, I hope we have those who model this prayer for you, not because we wish to model prayer for you but because we are men and women of prayer and hopefully you can see how prayer changes people through us. If you cannot see it I am sorry for that, but if you can, it is nothing about which we should boast, it is only who we are. What else happens at Saint Meinrad?
Change happens at Saint Meinrad
Conversion happens at Saint Meinrad. None of you who are leaving us after 4 or 6 or 12 or 1 year can claim, I hope, that you are the same as when you entered here. How have you changed? I hope that Saint Meinrad has helped you become more loving people, loving toward one another but also loving toward the unlovable, some of whom reside here as well. I hope you have learned the art of loving others with an open heart, without fear of hurt. I hope that you have learned to take a chance with love.
And I hope you have become more forgiving persons, willing to let the little things slide, perhaps even letting most of the big things slide. I think if I have learned anything through the years is that grudges take more energy to maintain than forgiveness takes to realize. We live in a community mostly composed of fairly callous men. If I have ever done anything to hurt your feelings, please forgive me. I can’t remember if anyone here has ever hurt my feelings.
Ultimately, here, I hope you have become more subtle, more nuanced in your thinking. Again in a community of men this can be difficult to achieve. Here, I am not just talking about your intellect, although I think that as well. I am talking about emotional intelligence, of compassion, of empathy, of generosity of spirit, of culture. I hope that in your time at Saint Meinrad you have found conversion, and forgiveness and subtly. What else have you found here?
Loss happens at Saint Meinrad.
We cannot hope to grow up without some loss. Some of you in your time here have lost family members, parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, relatives, friends. I would like to tell you this is just life but I cannot. It hurts and we must count on those around us to help us through, to ease the sting. There are those of us here who have lost much, but there are other things we have lost as well. I hope you have lost your self-hatred, your lack of self-esteem, your bitterness, your lack of passion. And your fear. If you have lost one thing in coming here I hope it is your fear, your insecurities about being a priest. I hope you have lost your doubt about yourself and about the world. I hope you have lost forever, your doubts about God, about his reliability to love you and to be with you in all of the dark times of life, as we lose loved ones and friends and so many others.
Don’t tell me that nothing ever happens at Saint Meinrad, because I know different. What happens at Saint Meinrad? Life happens here. We happen here.
We happen here and in the Easter season that looks a lot like resurrection. That looks a lot like hope. That looks a lot like Divine Love. That looks a lot like respect. That looks a lot like something for which to be endlessly thankful.
And I am. On my knees every day, I am thankful, so very thankful for the rich gift that is you.
Let us pray …
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