Lily's Clothing Day

Dear Lily,
Today, you ask to receive the Cistercian habit – the all-white habit of the novice.  As you do so, you acknowledge your discovery that you share in the human condition: sinful, proud, weak.  Coming to consciousness of our weakness, our misery, as the fathers put it, is a Cistercian grace.  How then do we dare to wear white, to put on garments of purity, when we know that our hearts are not pure?  If this were a Benedictine community, you might be receiving a black habit, denoting penance and sorrow for sin.  Would this not be more appropriate, more real and true to the human condition?  Why white?
 
The historical record can be unclear on the origins of religious fashion, but it seems as if the white habit of the Cistercians began as an expression of poverty – white cloth is undyed, simple, as nature provides.  But it soon began to be interpreted symbolically.  St Alberic, second abbot of Citeaux, was said to have dreamed that Mary placed a white garment over his head.  White stood for Easter joy and angelic attire, as well as Mary’s immaculate purity.  Nevertheless, professed Cistercians retain the liturgical color of grief and penitence in the black scapular, worn with a white robe beneath the cowl.  Thus, the black-and-white color scheme is symbolic of penitence and joy.  As our Constitutions put it, we are called to live a life of “joyful penitence” (Const. 25).  Brought to consciousness of our misery, our sinfulness, our radical neediness before God, we are also gifted with consciousness of the mercy of God which both illuminates and obliterates our sins.  This means that penitence is destined to be overwhelmed by the joy of knowing ourselves loved beyond measure.  We are clothed entirely in God’s ineffable mercy.
 
You will not be receiving the black scapular today, but as a budding Cistercian, I am sure you will not be denied the grace of the penitent.  You have heard, no doubt, the classic saying: “the habit does not make the monk.”  May your white clothing not tempt you to call yourself holy before you really are, but rather exhort you to become holy (RB 4.62).  In the words of Isaiah:
“Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; Though they be red like crimson, they may become white as wool.” (Is 1:18)
And in the words of St Peter:
“Love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Pt 4:8)
And of St Paul:
“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rm 13:14)
In this life we do not always feel worthy of the whiteness of our clothing.  But we believe that under the gaze of God, all things are possible – including the whitening of a heart aware of its own darkness.  May your habit be a sign and pledge to you every day, but especially on the hard days, of God’s unwavering intention to recreate you in the image of his own purity.
 
You have also asked to receive a religious name.  During these months of preparation, you have been praying for God’s guidance on what name he desires for you.  Recently you shared with me a fundamentally important realization: “We do not name ourselves.”  Like one newly baptized, you receive a white garment and a name, both of which signify your deepest identity before God, your true self.  It is God who clothes you, and it is God who names you.  You receive who you are from God, through the hands of those he has placed in your life as guides and companions.
 
Today, you say to him:
“I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.” (Sg 2:1)
That is: I am just an ordinary girl, just me.  You made me as one of your creatures, one among millions, a lily among lilies.  I have come to know that I was made by you and so belong to you.  But I want to know this: what is your will for me?  What should I do?
Perhaps you are surprised when he replies:
“As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens.” (Sg 2:2)
That is: I made you as one among millions, yes, but as I gaze on my field of lilies, my eye never fails to find you, unique and irreplaceable among all that I have made.  You ask about my will.  My will is my delight, and you are my delight.  My desire for you is your full flowering in nature and grace.  My happiness is to see my field of lilies blossom, and your own part in this is precious.  So come, share in my joy by living out the life I have prepared for you, by becoming everything I have dreamed of.
 
Lily, you believe, and I do too, that today God is calling you by name on a journey to your full stature in Christ.  And so, I invite you to receive the Cistercian habit and a name both new and old: Sr Lily Marie.

Clothing Day of Sr Lily Marie
Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 2019