Do All Hermits Struggle Against Individualism?

[[Sister Laurel, do all hermits struggle against individualism? When you write about this are you speaking of all hermits or only one or two?]]

Thanks for the questions. Generally speaking, I don't know what constitutes an actual "struggle" for other hermits. What I do know is that every hermit I have spoken to or otherwise heard from deals with the tension between being a true individual following one's own path empowered by the Holy Spirit, and developing the truly compassionate heart that not only reflects the contemplative heart of the Church but also the anguished heart of "the world".  

I speak of tension here because the tasks being completed by the hermit in their vocation include 1) personal individuation in Christ within the context of genuine faithfulness to the constituent elements of c 603 (here one grows in one's own capacity to love via assiduous prayer, and inner work in the silence of solitude), 2) a deepening and paradoxical attentiveness to the world and to the pain and yearning of the world (here one grows in genuine compassion as one's capacity to love others grows, again while maintaining and growing toward the silence of solitude), and 3) doing all of this while maintaining one's faithfulness to the Gospel and the Church's own challenging vocation to be the communityt of "the called ones" (the ecclesia) within the world but not of it. All of these pull the hermit in different directions, though all of them are (eventually) achieved by learning to abide in God's own heart and allow God to fill and transfigure their own.

To summarize all of this we can say the challenge to the hermit is to, 1) become her truest self in and with God (her primary vocation), 2) fulfill her further vocation (her specific pathway to true humanity) to become part of the intercessory heart of the Church, 3) witnessing to the truth of Church's Gospel, while 4) becoming a compassionate presence in, to, and for the world, and  5) doing all of this in the presence and power of God while living in and, when this applies,  toward the silence of solitude under c 603. All of this locates the hermit living in solitude and silence in the very center of reality as she also pays loving attention to the anguished world that lives far outside that center and in estrangement from it. Since these things are ordinarily accomplished in society, it is relatively rare to achieve them in solitude, and imperative to do so in the heart of God. All of this creates tensions, and sources of potential struggle for hermits --- all hermits.

When I write against individualism, therefore, I presently rarely have any one hermit (or would-be hermit) in mind. Instead, I am mindful that each of us, given c 603's flexibility and need for significant formation that does not need to be identical to that of cenobites, are working with God to allow him to love us into wholeness without falling into individualism. In this way, God fits us for the uniquely eremitical ministry in solitude. In this way God fits us in Christ to be a place of intercession for both the Church and world. This is a demanding vocation requiring significant lived experience of God's presence in Love, of the Church, and of others and the larger world, For this reason any of us are actually likely to find ourselves veering off into individualism as we negotiate the various tensions of the life and the various ways in which human beings are called to love in achieving human wholeness and holiness This is especially true before we are well-established in the silence of solitude and the heart of the Church, something that takes real time to develop. 

At the same time, there are a small number of would-be hermits out there who are (or have been) incredibly vocal, and, in one case that I know of, are seemingly without personal boundaries, whose lives are (or have been) illustrative of individualism. Given the degree of their public presence online, it is doubtful that this individualism is not well-known by those seeking to become or looking for information on hermits in the Catholic Church. I don't find their contributions on the eremitical life or the Church itself to be edifying, and, except for occasional questions from readers, no longer read their blogs, or watch their videos. 

Still, it is hard not to speak of individualism in the eremitic life without speaking of the examples these folks represent(ed) and provide(d). (Since I stopped reading or listening to these folks, they may have changed the way they live, and now represent authentic eremitical life. I can only pray that's so, though I admit I am not sanguine about it.) Still, the examples of individualism they at least once provided remain helpful in illustrating important caveats for those turning to eremitical life, particularly under c 603.