Abbey News

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Abbot Jerome Burke, OCSO - May he rest in peace!
On the eve of Pentecost last week, May 10th, our former Abbot, Fr. Jerome Burke, was called to his eternal reward after a brief illness. Fr. Jerome came to Genesee from the Redemptorists in 1957. While Professor of Scripture and Prefect of Studies he was elected third abbot of Genesee in 1964. His tenure of office coincided with the tumultuous years following the Second Vatican Council, a time of instability and transition throughout the Church and Genesee was no exception. Before the Council the community numbered some 70 members. By 1970 only 29 remained, the lowest number since its founding days in the early 1950's.

In 1971, after seven years in office, Fr. Jerome resigned the abbatial office and took up residence as a hermit here on the property in a hermitage he himself built. During his hermitage years he worked as a mechanic in our garage and served as confessor to several in the community. He was succeeded in office by Abbot John Eudes Bamberger.

By the year 1977 the community had grown to over 40 members. At that time the community voted to begin an annex house in Brazil. It was while living as a hermit that Abbot John Eudes approached Fr. Jerome inviting him to be a founding member of the new Brazilian community to be. After making a novena Fr. Jerome agreed to go to Brazil as one of the founders

Pictured here are the four founders of Novo Mundo, left to right: Fr. Francis, Br. Cyprian, Fr. Jerome, Br. Barnabas.

Once the community was finally settled in its present location Fr. Jerome again took up the hermit life in another hermitage he built while serving the community in a variety of ways. He remained there until his final illness when he had to move into the infirmary.

Abbot Jerome in the doorway of his hermitage in Brazil.

He is buried there in Brazil alongside Brothers Barnabas and Cyprian and Fr. Stephen who joined the community later on. With his death no more Genesee community members remain at Novo Mundo. The two remaining Americans are Fr. Francisco from Spencer and Fr. Felix from Gethsemani.

Founders cemetery, Novo Mundo, Brazil.

God brings Abraham out from among his family and sets him on certain path. When it comes down to it, everyone has to undergo his own exodus. He not only has to leave the place that nurtured him and become independent, but has to come out of his own reserved self.

He must leave himself behind, transcend his own limits; only then will he reach the Promised Land, so to speak - the sphere of freedom, in which he plays his part in creation. We have come to recognize this fundamental law of transcendence as being the essence of love.

And of course the act of one who loves me is an act of this type. He has to bring me out of the comfortable inclination to stay within myself. Isolation is contrary to man's inmost inclination. If isolation means not being loved, being abandoned, being alone on one's own, this situation is indeed the fear underlying all our fears.

Thus we can see again that man is constructed from within, in the image of God, to be loved and to love. At this point I believe we have to refer to man's being in the image of God.

God is love. The essence of love portrays its own nature in the Trinity. Man is in God's image, and thereby he is a being whose innermost dynamic is likewise directed toward the receiving and the giving of love.

Benedictus
Pope Benedict XVI