There is another great witness that runs through the history of
faith: that of the nuns and monks, sisters and brothers who
renounce themselves and who renounce the world to imitate Jesus on the path of
poverty, chastity, and obedience, and to intercede on behalf of all. Their
lives speak for themselves, but we might ask: how can people living in monasteries
help the proclamation of the Gospel? Wouldn't they do better to put their
energies into the mission? Coming out of the monastery and preaching the
Gospel, outside … outside the monastery?
In reality, the monks are the beating heart of the proclamation.
This is curious: they are the beating heart. Their prayer is oxygen for all the
members of the Body of Christ, their prayer is the invisible force that
sustains the mission. It is no coincidence that the patroness of the missions
is a nun, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. Let us listen to how she discovered
her vocation – she wrote: “I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning
with love. I understood it was Love alone that made the Church’s members act,
that if Love ever became extinct, apostles would not preach the Gospel and
martyrs would not shed their blood. I understood that love comprised all
vocations. … Then, in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my
Love .... my vocation, at last I have found it.... my vocation is love! … In
the heart of the Church, my Mother, I shall be Love” (Autobiographical
Manuscript “B”, 8 September 1896).
Contemplatives, monks, nuns: people who pray, work, pray, in
silence, for all the Church. And this is love: it is the love that is expressed
by praying for the Church, working for the Church, in the monasteries.
And among monks and nuns there is a universal solidarity: whatever
happens in the world, finds a place in the heart, in their heart, and they
pray, and they pray. The heart of monks and nuns is a heart that captures like
an antenna, it picks up what happens in the world, and prays and intercedes for
this. And in this way: they live in union with the Lord and with everyone. And
one of them said: “I have voluntarily taken upon myself all faults, from those
of the first father down to the last of his descendants, and I have held myself
responsible for them”.
It is what Jesus did: they take upon themselves the problems of
the world, the difficulties, the ailments, many things, and they pray for them.
And these are the great evangelizers. Monasteries are … but how can they live
closed up, and evangelize? It is true… because with the word, for
example, by intercession and daily work, they are a bridge of
intercession for all people and all sins. They weep, even shedding tears, they
weep for their sins – after all, we are all sinners – and they also weep for
the sins of the world, and they pray and intercede with their hands and heart
raised up.
Images: Top - Alfredo Ramos Martinez-
Right- Gwen John- Wales (d. 1939)
Botom - Ancadi Mas Fardevila –