Follow-up on C 603 as Paradigm: Support of Law Does Not Need to Imply Legalism

[[The canonical hermit who has done much to perpetuate various precedents created by said person, has written a lengthy and seemingly sound refutation of my comments and questions below. What this person writes in disagreeing what I have set forth, and now has added on years that have grown exponentially to what was this person's previous length of time as a hermit, is not scripturally based nor accurate other than is from the person's legalistic view of the Body of Christ and Christ as Head, of which Jesus decried such aspects that the high priests, scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees of His time on earth had so created a contorted legalistic form of religion and spiritual life in the Jewish faith and lived out in the temples as well as were imposed on the Jewish people. ]]

The comments in italics were the responses offered to my last post (cf link below). I think this view of canonical forms of eremitical life is very unfortunate. Because canonical hermits live their lives in a way the church considers normative, because they submit their lives to certain canons (norms) to serve the church in answering their vocation, does not make them Pharisees, nor does it make their attitude towards religion, spirituality, or the eremitical vocation "legalistic". Whether living eremitical life in a canonical congregation like the Carthusians, Camaldolese, Carmelite, Monastic Family of Bethlehem, et al., or as solitary hermits under C 603 as I and others do, we have simply accepted a place in the church's own service to the whole world. As I have written before, law can and is meant to serve love. The religious I know, including canonical hermits (solitary and otherwise), recognize that law helps establish and nurture the contexts in which they can live their vocations ever more deeply and faithfully. Once they are perpetually professed and consecrated, law is not ordinarily a particular focus of their lives. Still, standing in law is part of what establishes their freedom to explore the heights and depths of the world the canon(s) governing their lives establish.

I think most of us understand this. None of us live without the constraints, freedom, and other benefits provided by law. Legally we rent homes and apartments, own, insure, and drive cars, attend schools and universities, and provide for families and ourselves via wills, durable powers of attorney, mortgages, bank accounts, contracts of all sorts (even library cards represent a contract with legal terms and conditions that bind us and the libraries we patronize). All of these and many more imply and require norms that protect and free us to live without unnecessary concern for safety or inordinate liabilities. (Think again of the "lowly" library card and the vast worlds this contract opens up to us!!) If we are professionals (medical, educational, pastoral counseling, etc.) we are certified or licensed and work under specific codes of conduct. Ordinarily, we internalize these norms and refer to them only when we face more complicated or unusual situations than is commonly the case. 

As members of the Church, we know there are canons and other norms under which we live our lives -- though I would bet few could name these. Baptism results in our falling under such norms as laos, members of the laity, the People. Consecration and Ordination result in further norms that are extended to us and that we freely embrace because they serve our vocations. Such norms tend to provide us a well-defined and countercultural realm of freedom in which our lives in Christ can thrive and grow. We hardly bump up against the limits created by such canons (norms) on a daily basis nor do they become Pharisaical or the occasion of scrupulosity.

[[This manner of humankind creating what they wish and adding on to what humankind creates in legalisms yet in our times or in recent times is what most hermits such as St. Bruno, gave pause and ponder, and thus left the temporal world including the temporal system and structure, and left for the farthest reaches of the Alps in which to draw nigh on to Christ and to worship and pray, to be Christian in the freedom of silence of solitude, praise of God, and intimacy with Christ that yet lifted up and strengthened the entire Body of Christ. Bruno had lived enough of the very aspects of this person who persists in making up what is not in many aspects in fact.]] 

In fact, laws, and legalisms are different things. In a time when people cannot usually go off into a physical desert to become a hermit and leave "the world" behind, it is the creation of norms like c 603 that help allow human beings to step away from "the world" into a hermitage whose character is defined by the Church based on her long history with hermits. But Canon 603 truly is a law that serves love; it combines both the structure necessary to define a desert space dedicated to Christ in the prayer-filled silence of solitude, and the flexibility needed to respond freely to Christ in the power of the Spirit. This is Law and it is associated with legalities serving the healthy spiritual and human growth of the hermit according to the terms of the Canon and the hermit's own Rule of Life, but it has nothing to do with legalism per se.

And in fact, Saint Bruno never "left the temporal world" (until his death, that is). He did, however, resist the predations of a destructive secularity on and within the Church. After spending some decades teaching and serving in other significant roles, in a Church riven with Papal division and struggles against corruption, he refused to be made a bishop and opted for a life of eremitical solitude. However, when he went with six of his friends off into the Southern Alps, he did so under the authority of Bishop Hugh of Grenoble who installed these seven men in the first location of what would become the Grand Chartreuse. This installation was a matter of ecclesiastical law. Thus, Bruno's group became a canonical foundation and the Carthusians enjoyed the protection of the Church as well as the natural isolation of the Alps. Because of both of these factors, Bruno and his Carthusians developed a normative and unique form of eremitical life that has stood the test of time. The Carthusians today (and new institutes founded in their spirit) are canonical in the same way all religious and diocesan hermits are canonical. Law helps protect the spiritual well-being, priorities, and decisions of those living under such canons, but it neither dominates nor motivates their lives.

[[I have provided the person with more platform than is warranted or healthy for the misinformation that comes forth, so will leave off the topic of which I do believe, however, that there will be increasing "hermits" of the canon law provision, simply due to the public promotion and position, prestige of sorts, and aspect of thinking "legal" and "approved" is preferred to following in the footsteps, heart, mind, and spirit of Christ's teachings and life as He exemplified on earth and as it is in His Real Presence here and in Heaven.]]

There is no need to place canonical standing in opposition to following in the footsteps of Jesus. They are not mutually exclusive. To treat them in this way is simplistic and very short-sighted. I sincerely hope there are more properly motivated and formed canonical hermits under c 603 whose relation to law is a healthy one that opens them more fully to the Spirit of God; I am trying to do my part to contribute to this whole dynamic making sure this is the case. It is a part of my vocation that surprises and gratifies me. While many people have contacted me evincing various levels and types of interest in Canon 603 vocations, I have yet to meet a serious candidate for C 603 profession and consecration who is successful in her petition to be admitted to these, while choosing this vocation as a means to prestige, public promotion, etc. 

Meanwhile, just as I pray for all eremitical vocations, I pray for increasing canonical vocations amongst the Camaldolese, Carthusians, Carmelites, and others as well. Each of these has existed as "canonical" (with Church-approved constitutions and statutes) for many centuries --- long before there was a universal Code of Canon Law (1917) --- and above all, like all religious in the Church, members have and do follow Jesus and allow God to shape them as Imago Christi in the power of the Holy Spirit. I doubt very much the author of these comments could sincerely take exception to this observation, at least not without disparaging all religious in the Church. (cf., Christian Catholic Mystic Hermit, Note added on 9/4 to a post from 19. August. 2023.)