Today we celebrated the holy abbots of Cluny so here was my take on the gospel.. Michael
+(Jn 16:20-23)The gospel this morning points us toward the mystery of God’s great love for us in Jesus, a mystery that stands at the heart of our Christian lives, at the heart of the Holy Rule of Benedict to which the abbots of Cluny were so dedicated.
Jesus uses the image or metaphor of a woman in labor to give birth to a child in which there is great pain but once the child is born, the pain is forgotten and there is great joy that a child is born. Our lives as Christians, as monks are right now in this process of giving birth as each one of us faces the dying to self that must take place in us if we are going to be born into God’s very own likeness. Inevitably we are in anguish but as this new life is born in our hearts, our hearts come to overflow with the inexpressible delight of love as St Benedict tells us and run, even when joints may become weak or fragile, along the path of God’s commandments.