We are traveling along the corridors of Cor Unum, by way of a guided tour through a Benedictine monastery. We are exploring from room to room, admiring the beauty and purpose of the cloister where some of us will spend the rest of our lives.
This is, for us of course, the monastery of the heart, that hidden cloister that no one can see until the results of our entry becomes apparent to all.
We are here in Cor Unum to meet with the Lord of Life, an opportunity open to all the world, at least as far as the Gospel of Jesus Christ has gained entrance. All over the world, in at least as many closets as there are lives born again, the Father waits.
All over the world, God’s own people have other things to do, as have we had, but now we are come to the doors of this cloister, bringing ourselves to practices and a profession enclosed.
What can compare with the joyous liberty of knowing a God who makes no demands but those of love? One thing can. We can see to it that we meet those demands!
We get to be here! If we were better at conducting our busy lives and incorporating all the worship and prayer for which our hearts yearn and the world waits . . . well, the shelves would be empty at the Christian bookstore.
We are not so good at that. So we close ourselves in by our own choice. We ourselves turn the key in the lock on the inside. We forsake first every worthless thing and then everything that is worth less than intimacy with God. Although it takes a little time to make some necessary changes, we have become the monastics of Cor Unum.
Jesus told us, “When you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to the Father which is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (Matthew 6:6) We are, without any doubt, here for the reward. We hope that it will be this, that God’s pleasure will be touched, and that such as we have we will ever give, in the glorious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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