Homily for Memorial of St. Norbert

Homily for the Memorial

of St. Norbert

June 6, 2018

Collect
2 Tim 1: 1-3, 6-12
Our Lady of Lourdes, Bethesda, Md.

“O God, you made the bishop St. Norbert a servant of your Church outstanding in his prayer and pastoral zeal” (Collect).

When we hear the term reformation, if we have some historical knowledge we’re most likely to think of the Protestant Reformation, launched by Martin Luther in 1517—we just observed its 5th centennial—and maybe of the Catholic Counter-Reformation that followed under the leadership of Ignatius Loyola, Charles Borromeo, Teresa of Avila, and many others.

But there was a great reformation movement much earlier, in the 11th and 12th centuries.  St. Norbert, born around 1080, who died in 1134, was part of that reformation.

He didn’t begin well, however.  Altho he was a cleric in what used to be called minor orders, he was a very worldly courtier—until God literally knocked him off his high horse with a lightning bolt during a storm in 1113.  He got the message, changed his life, was ordained, began to preach, and attempted the reform of his fellow clergy—which didn’t go over very well.  He gathered some followers, however, and in the region of Premontré in France began a monastic order committed to Church reform.  Known as the Premonstratensians (that’s a mouthful)—or the Norbertines (that’s easier)—they number about 1,200 worldwide today, including in the U.S.

St. Norbert (right) receives the monastic Rule

from St. Augustine (12th-c. ms.)

What needed reform in the 12th century?  Clerical life—from worldliness, sloth, self-indulgence, disregard for celibacy; false teachings, especially regarding the Eucharist; the religious indifference of many of the laity; personal enmities in need of reconciliation; attempts of secular authorities to control the Church.

St. Norbert eventually was made a bishop, and he had some success in his reform work.  The Church, it has often been said, is semper reformanda, always in need of reform.  But reform of the Church, or any institution, society, or culture, must always begin where it did with Norbert:  with personal conversion.  Nothing has changed since Jesus began his preaching by announcing:  “The kingdom of God is at hand.  Reform your lives and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:14-15).  So reform in the 21st century, my brothers and sisters, has to begin not with the pastor or the cardinal, not with the President or the man or woman who lives next door but with you and with me—to remove from our lives and our attitudes anything that is not Christ-like, to make Jesus Christ the center of our lives:  our thoughts, our words, our actions.  For, as St. Paul says to Timothy today, God has “called us to a holy life” (2 Tim 1:9) and to give testimony to “the promise of life in Christ Jesus” (1:1).