Yes, I'd be glad to do that. Because of time constraints, what I am going to do is quote from a couple of posts I published here about 13 years ago (November 2010) in response to questions about living as a hermit part-time, self-defined hermit life, and the importance of canonical eremitism. These posts were part of a conversation I had where a reader disagreed when I took exception to his sense that one could be a hermit on Saturdays alone, dress up in a habit if desired, and be as authentic as a full-time hermit (in this case, with canonical standing). My concern was with the way a consecrated hermit ministers to others out of the authenticity of her life with God in the silence of solitude. While I believe all true hermits are called to full-time eremitical life and will minister out of their authentic eremitism, whether or not they are canonically professed and consecrated, the most important part of my response had to do with the normative nature of a full-time canonical vocation and its related pastoral import, especially when contrasted with the example provided by my interlocutor. When the content of this excerpt is added to my last post, I hope it helps indicate how a hermit's life is genuinely pastoral or ministerial. N.B., redactions are enclosed in brackets [].
[[Why All the Angst?? The Pastoral Import of Canonical Standing
But, as you ask, why all the angst? I've written about this before under the idea of necessary expectations and charism, but let me draw a picture of "why the angst?!" Let's take the two examples of eremitical life outlined in your own email and mine: 1) a person [like your father] takes off on Saturdays for some prayer time, dons a [religious] habit, and calls himself a "hermit" even adopting the title "Brother." (What he does the rest of the week, exemplary or apostolic as it may be, I have no clue, nor does anyone else.) He then goes forth to proclaim the Gospel as he can. 2) a person lives the silence of solitude (and the rest of the elements of Canon 603) full-time. She publicly vows her entire life to God (and so, to all those God cherishes) and is consecrated in a way that signals the grace to live this life. She is vested with the habit and given the right to the title Sister by the Church which recognizes and helps ensure the meaningfulness and import of these things. She proclaims the Gospel uniquely within this context. Both persons identify themselves as "hermits", one is a lay person and one is consecrated. One is full-time, and one is not. One does so according to his own understanding of the term, the other according to the Church's understanding and traditional meaning of the term.Meanwhile, their respective parishes have a large number of chronically ill and frail elderly on fixed incomes, most of whom are isolated in significant ways from the parish as a whole or from the surrounding communities: none of them can work, few of them can drive or get away from their situations on a weekend, and none of them can take a day (or even an hour) off from their state of chronic illness or frail elderliness. What they do know [from homilies they have heard and stories of saints] is that they might be called to lives of prayer and solitude, lives that represent a kind of counter-cultural witness even. They are looking for someone who can proclaim the Gospel to them in a way that is specifically helpful in their situations. They think (and their pastor agrees), that surely a hermit will be able to witness in a way that helps us make sense of [and give hope to] lives of poverty and marginalization, whose witness will assist in negotiating the transition from isolation to solitude, [and] who can remind them that a life of physical, financial, and personal poverty can still be rich in God and all God makes possible.
You see, going out and preaching the Gospel is not merely a matter of proclaiming a canned text or message to people one does not know. It is not a matter of proclaiming the unconditional love of God without applying that in the way one knows it intimately oneself and in the way people need to hear it. Instead, proclaiming the Gospel means proclaiming with one's life the truth of the way God has worked and is working in it so that others might find hope and meaning in that. As St Francis of Assisi [is purported to have] once said, "Preach the Gospel; use words if necessary." Proclaiming the Gospel, I would suggest, also does not allow for pretense while the "hermit" in the situation you described appears to be all about pretense --- at least with regard to calling himself a hermit, donning a habit, etc. He cannot relate particularly to the situation these people are in or the good news they really need to hear. He does not live a definitive solitude [that is, a solitude rooted in his relationship with God that defines his life] nor has he assumed any of the rights or responsibilities of such a life (the habit in the scenario you described is little more than a costume he takes up to play a role on weekends.) And yet, the habit and titles (Brother as well as hermit) give these people the right to expect he will be able to speak to their situation in a helpful way from his own life experience. They have the right to expect these things to mean what they mean to the church --- not least a counter-cultural life of total dependence on God lived on the margins of society in the silence of solitude.
This is why all the angst over canonical [normative] standing. Such standing in law generally indicates the acceptance of rights and obligations by those who are discerned to have such a call [which includes full-time life as a hermit], etc. It is not because we [canonical hermits] are Pharisees, but because law often serves love. It does so in this case. . . .
While we may agree to disagree, there is a distinction between being genuinely accepting and merely being uncritical and uncaring of meaning or truth. Compassion requires that we be truly loving, and it is not loving to allow a person to live a lie, or to empty meaningful terms of content when that content is a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church and World. [In the Roman Catholic Church] Canon 603 is such a gift. It defines the nature of eremitical life in a world at a time when dislocation, isolation, alienation, and the search for meaning in our isolation and alienation are rampant. Even so, it is a canon that allows for great diversity and flexibility even while (and perhaps because) it clearly spells out foundational, or non-negotiable elements comprising authentic solitary eremitical life. It is the entire vision of eremitical life which it provides us which is a gift of the Holy Spirit to both the Church and world.
I will repeat my main point from the other post because this is the true answer to "What is it to you?" above as well. FULL-TIME hermits who have allowed isolation and marginality to be redeemed and thus transformed into the "Silence of solitude [lived in the heart of the church]", can speak effectively to all those persons in our parishes, dioceses, neighborhoods, and the larger world who CANNOT leave their situations for time off even one day a week -- those who are chronically ill, disabled, the isolated elderly, impoverished, etc. Hermits' lives are God's compassionate answer to many of the most significant questions these myriads of people have and are.
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