Living and Responding to Jesus' Questions: the Key to Becoming the Persons we are Called to Be

 In reflecting on today's  Gospel what struck me was the relation between the two questions Jesus asked his followers. Remember he first asks, "Who do others say that I am?" and then, "And you, who do you say that I am?" Why does Jesus begin with what others are saying about him? A couple of thoughts come to mind. Maybe Jesus knows it is easier to speak of what others are saying than to speak of what is on our own minds and in our own hearts. Or maybe Jesus is leading his disciples slowly to the answer he wants them to give; maybe he wants them to think about what others are saying since the others are those with and to whom the disciples will be called to minister.  Given the disciples' uneven track record in getting things right, maybe Jesus is trying to give them a head start on the real answer! There are any number of possible answers. But today, I thought I saw Jesus moving his students away from the basis for much of who we think we are (not to mention who we think Jesus is!) and what we do in our lives, namely, what others think and value, and then giving these disciples a chance to discover and claim what they really think and feel themselves.

And why isn't it enough to answer with these others? After all, they are answering in terms of their Tradition, and the Tradition of Jesus and his disciples as well!   But what Jesus knows is that in him God is doing something new, something unprecedented, something that will tear that Tradition apart. In some ways, Jesus', "And you, who do you say that I am?" is a warning to his disciples. Jesus asks them to get in touch with all of the ways his life moves them, all the ways he resonates with their Tradition, all the ways he is what they expected and hoped for. At the same time, Jesus asks his disciples to bring to the front of their minds and hearts all the ways he surprises or disappoints them, all the ways he doesn't fit the Traditional categories and orthodoxy, all the times the others (and perhaps the disciples themselves) have called him a drunkard, or crazy, or a blasphemer. Only from this point can they really speak about the One God has sent to do something so insanely, inconceivably new. Only from this point can Jesus begin to teach them about what God's plan really has in store for him and for them.

And so, Jesus takes Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah and begins to reshape it out of all recognizability, all Jewish acceptability, and frankly out of any known religious shape at all! And for Peter, it is simply a bridge too far! Nothing in his Religious Tradition or in any other in the Roman world he inhabits has prepared him for a suffering Messiah or (and Peter has not even glimpsed this yet) an executed criminal who allows an utterly transcendent God to take death into himself and not be destroyed by it. Nothing in Peter's experience prepares him for a God who wills so strongly to be Emmanuel (God-with-us), that he will take sin and death into himself and eventually create a new heaven and new earth where sin and death have been destroyed through the faithfulness and work of a condemned and crucified Messiah.

But for all this to happen, Jesus must move us from the place of canned answers (no matter how correct they are) and "fitting in", to the place of an open mind and heart rooted in personal truth, and then to a faithful mind and heart that are courageous enough to travel with God to the unexpected and even the unacceptable place so that that God may do something insanely new in and with our world.  And in today's Gospel pericope, that is what Jesus is doing with his disciples, not because he does not value orthodoxy, and not because he promotes individualism and heresy, but because the God he serves so well wills to do something absolutely explosively, counterculturally new. 

For us, the first step in this journey of faith means breaking away from what others tell us to think and feel. This is part of reclaiming our own minds and hearts for God, the first step in dying to self so that we might live for and from God. It is a step we must make over and over again in a world that so glibly tells us what to think and eat and wear, and what medicines to ask our doctors about or cars to drive. Or what people we should regard --- and those we should not! The hardest part of this journey is coming to know who we really are while letting go of what is false, what is the result of our enmeshment in what monastic and eremitic life calls "the world" --- and this, of course, is what Jesus' second question to his disciples is all about, not ripping them away from the truth of their Tradition, but freeing them from inauthentic enmeshment so that God may do something new with that truth as it truly lives in them.

Jesus captures all of this with his reminder to Peter, [[You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.]] and then to everyone, [[Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.]] When I hear Jesus' questions in today's Gospel, I recognize they do what all Jesus's questions do; they call us beyond being the people the world says we are and must be, and open the way to be who we are truly called to be. For a hermit committed to living a stricter separation from the world, I also recognize that today's Gospel can call the hermit from unhealthy enmeshment in "the world", and empower the kind of freedom that allows God to do something unimaginably new!! The key to stricter separation from the world for hermits or for anyone else, the key to what today's readings call, "walking before the Lord in the land of the living", is in honestly living and answering Jesus' two questions every day of our lives: "Who do others say that I am?" and you, "Who do YOU say that I am?"

Second Consecration, Ecclesial Vocations, and C 603 Hermits Making a Return to the Church

 [[ Sister Laurel, you referred recently to a second consecration besides the consecration of baptism. When another hermit [name withheld] calls herself a consecrated Catholic hermit but has not received this second consecration, is that the source of her misunderstanding in identifying herself in the way she does? In a similar vein, if someone claims that God consecrates but men do not  --- wondering why she is not [considered to be] consecrated, is she misunderstanding the mediation needed to enter the consecrated state of life in the Catholic Church? I have not been reading your blog for long -- only since the Cole Matson case in Lexington exploded at Pentecost, so you may already have talked about this, but what principle do you think is most important for understanding the significance of c 603 and the whole notion of 2nd consecration or admittance to a second consecration?]]

Thanks for writing, and especially for your questions.  At this point, I am open to suggestions on making matters clear. Still, I have written many times on this blog about the distinction between dedication and consecration and the way that distinction was carefully maintained at Vatican II and in works on monastic commitments. I have also referred to the consecration associated with baptism and its distinction from the "second consecration" that initiates one into the consecrated state of life. This distinction holds despite the confusing translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in Par 920-921 which has sometimes been misread as allowing private vows to be used for a hermit's initiation into the consecrated state because of course, Par 920-921 must be read in light of other paragraphs of the CCC, the revised Code of Canon Law, and the Church's theology of consecrated life, not otherwise. 

Finally, I am pretty sure I have spoken many times about the importance of mediation in the church's life, particularly concerning sacraments and ecclesial vocations. I have explained that God is always the one doing the consecrating, but that this occurs through the diocesan bishop's authority because it is a gift of God to the Church which the Church must take serious responsibility for and extend on God's behalf to individual hermits. Partly I have tried to clarify these issues because of misunderstandings and questions, but even more I have tried to do it as I explored the meaning of the term "ecclesial vocations" like that of c 603. It is probably the notion of ecclesial vocations that is the most important one for understanding the distinction between non-canonical and canonical vocations, including all of the discussions just mentioned -- particularly in considering the significance of c 603 and the meaning of 2nd consecration. Because they are part of understanding the difference between an ecclesial vocation and one that is not, some of these issues will continue to need to be emphasized for those beginning their journey as hermits --- some of whom will eventually do this as canonical hermits under c 603 or as part of a canonical community of hermits.

Catholic and Hermit vs Catholic Hermit

It should go without saying that one represents the church when one is a c 603 hermit and, moreover, that the church herself has chosen this person to represent the church, not simply as a Catholic (one is commissioned to be and do that through baptism), but as someone whom God has called through the church's mediation to represent her consecrated eremitical tradition. Contrary to what some argue, not every person through history who decided to call themselves a hermit led an edifying desert life witnessing to the God or Gospel of Jesus Christ. "Just going off alone" is not enough to be a hermit in the way the church uses the term. Contemporary life calls some forms of self-chosen solitude "cocooning". This conveys the isolation and individualism of this way of life. But the Church's eremitical life, and especially her consecrated solitary eremitical life, is not this; instead, a Catholic hermit lives the church's eremitical life according to the norms this same church has established. More, the Church herself entrusts the Catholic hermit with this Divine vocation and calls her to live it in the Church's name.

Ecclesial Vocations:

One of the most difficult things I had to get through my own head and heart during novitiate (and later!) was the whole idea of mutual discernment. It was very difficult to understand how one's own sense that one was called to a vocation might be mistaken or insufficient. I don't think I learned the term "ecclesial vocation" until much later --- something that was crucial for my understanding! Once I had that term and appreciated that the vocations described this way first of all belonged to the Church herself and only then were entrusted to the person who also discerned such a vocation, I began to understand not just the reason for mutual discernment, but also why the church celebrates such vocations establishing and indicating them with liturgical rites, unique titles, and so forth. None of this was or is about the individual, much less some supposed desire for power, prestige, status, authority, etc. It is about God and the way God has gifted his church with this vocation. It is about the church in turn entrusting persons with this gift in ways that ensure they are empowered to live it and glorify God as fully as possible.

When we think of c 603 consecrated life as countercultural, one of the most significant ways this is true is in the vocation's rejection of individualism. Yes, within clear limits, c 603 is incredibly flexible and diocesan hermits live eremitism in individual (not individualistic!) ways. So, for instance, I live a 24-hour day very differently than Sister Rachel Denton in the Diocese of Hallam (UK), or Sister Anunziata Grace in the Diocese of Knoxville, or any number of others throughout the world. Yes, there are commonalities in terms of the silence of solitude, assiduous prayer, etc., but at the same time, each day is marked by the dynamic constituting the hermit's life in, with, and through Christ and the Holy Spirit. In our faithfulness to the Holy Spirit, unity is not uniformity, particularly in solitary eremitical life. 

At the same time, when we get together to catch up or talk about living the vocation using books like The Eremitic Life by Cornelius Wencel, Er Cam, or Solitude and Communion, ed Allchin, to guide our sharing, what we recognize are all the elements of this vocation we share -- the struggles, the joys, our own constant surprise at finding again and again that, despite our own weaknesses and incapacity, God has called and continues to call us to this vocation. We share the same Spirit, often the same hearts (generally speaking), even, sometimes, similar forms of woundedness and certainly the same essential wholeness in Christ, and we have been entrusted with this Divine calling by the Church who was herself entrusted with it by God. We recognize this because we know our lives are called to glorify God in this specific way and are not ashamed to have answered this call and represent it publicly -- even within our hiddenness! We are part of a long and sacred stream of eremitic tradition in the church; her recognition of this vocation, now raised to the consecrated state with a "second consecration," is a source of personal and ecclesial life and holiness.

C603 Vocations Assisting one Another and Making a Return to the Church:

One of the things this means is that we c 603 hermits each recognize we are called to assist the Church in understanding this gift more deeply and implementing it prudently and effectively --- as only someone living it faithfully from within the vocation may truly do. Thus, it was really gratifying to hear CICLSAL (now DICLSAL) write about the importance of mentorship of c 603 vocations by other c 603 hermits (cf. Ponam in Deserto Viam). Additionally, we are slowly beginning to come together regularly to read and discuss with one another so our own eremitical vocations may be deepened and more fully realized. At the same time, we are working with our own and other dioceses to assist in the discernment and formation of c 603 vocations. A part of this means educating those who really don't understand the vocation all that well, including some canonists, vocation personnel, and bishops!!  Additionally, within the limits of c 603, but also because of the profoundly ecclesial nature of our vocations, we contribute to the growth of community in our regions. Again, central to all of this is the recognition that we are solitary Catholic hermits called to live this vocation in the Church's name because the Church herself has entrusted us with this ecclesial vocation and commission.

In light of all of this and other things that gradually are growing or being realized with regard to c 603 life, this takes more of my time and interest than trying to clarify terms for those who seem intransigent. Also, canon 603 is better known today and so is the history of eremitical life in the church. Thus, I was reassured to see that one of the persons who commented on your referent's videos correctly affirmed the flexibility of the eremitical vocation and the very real possibility of living non-canonical eremitism today right alongside c 603 hermits. At the same time, she insisted on the importance of maintaining the distinction between being a Catholic and a hermit (i.e., being a non-canonical hermit) and being a Catholic Hermit (i.e., a solitary canonical or consecrated hermit living the life in the Church's name). Surprisingly, the comment was allowed to stand. Some misunderstandings and outright fraud will continue to occur, but some (like the recent case in Lexington) will be much more important to address directly. Meanwhile, I believe c 603 will function to encourage others to live as hermits even if they choose or otherwise must do so in the lay or clerical states of life without the benefit of second consecration. 

It cannot be said often enough (for the present) that Canon 603 is normative of solitary eremitical life and that is also true for non-canonical hermits even though they are not bound juridically by the canon. (I continue to believe these non-canonical hermits will remain the most numerous in the church despite the growing use of c 603 and the profession of consecrated solitary hermits.) The bottom line here is that the Western Church has finally embraced solitary eremitical life as a Divine gift particularly when lived according to this norm. While there have been less universal norms and statutes throughout the centuries, and while local bishops have tried to provide for edifying hermit life throughout the Church's history, c 603 symbolizes this embrace by the universal church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, published a dozen years later than c 603, provides a vision of eremitical life which is helpful for teaching and intriguing in its descriptions, but without being normative in the same way as c 603. 

Is there a learning curve involved concerning all of this? As I have noted before, yes, absolutely! Will mistakes and indiscretions occur like those associated with the Archdiocese of Boston, the dioceses of Denver and Lexington, and others? Sadly, yes. But the bottom line remains the same and is inspiring!! Canon 603 provides the means to a God-given, Church-mediated ecclesial vocation for those publicly professed and consecrated accordingly. The same canon is normative for all solitary eremitical life in the church, including the non-canonical hermit. For this, I give thanks to God.

A Contemplative Moment: Morning Prayer

Morning Prayer

by John Philip Newell

In the morning light, O God,

may I glimpse again your image deep within me

the threads of eternal glory

woven into the fabric of every man and woman.

Again may I catch sight of the mystery of the human soul

fashioned in your likeness

deeper than knowing

more enduring than time.

And in glimpsing these threads of light

amidst the weakness and distortions of my life

let me be recalled

to the strength and beauty deep in my soul.

Let me be recalled

to the strength and beauty of your image in every living

soul.

_______________________________________________________

The dignity of the human person is not easy for some to believe in, or even to glimpse, much less to stay attuned to and live in light of. The inner work I do is strongly oriented towards awareness of the presence of God within us as ground and source of all the potentiality we hold uniquely and realize over time. As we abide in God and God abides in us, this incredible revelation of life and divinity at our very core demands our awareness and cultivation if we are to live life as abundantly and authentically as God desires and wills for us. John Philip Newell's prayer captures all of this as it provides an invitation to get in touch with God's call to live the graced integrity we know as imago dei.

Proclaiming the Feast of Christ the King: On Becoming the persons we are Called to Be

 Every year when we reach this last feast of the liturgical year I ask myself if Christ is more sovereign in my life than in past years. Have I grown in my openness to allowing Christ to be King or Ruler in my own life? Have I let go of the practices and attitudes that resist Jesus' sovereignty or the holy-making power of the mercy and love of the God Jesus calls Abba? A few years ago (about 5 and 1/2 years actually) I began writing about a process of inner growth and healing, a process of personal formation I had begun with my own director and I have commented on that a few times during these last years. The past year has been intense and of a somewhat different quality than the previous 4+ years; in October it was marked by a miracle --- yes, a literal miracle (there is no hyperbole or figurative language involved in that label) --- and throughout the year I experienced Jesus' presence in other ways that changed me, healed me, and too, challenged me to grow and mature in his love and friendship. The work I had undertaken proved to be powerful, and powerfully fruitful, and while the process continues (as a Sister friend recently reminded me, formation never ends!), its natural rhythm has led rather "neatly" (not that I really find anything about this work "neat") to this year's celebration of the feast of Christ the King, and a new liturgical year focusing on new beginnings, new life, and especially on a God who brings life out of barrenness!

One of the things I write about a lot in this blog is the way the phrase "stricter separation from the world" does not mean simply closing the hermitage door on the world around us. Instead it means changing one's heart, allowing our hearts to be loved into a wholeness that sees the world around us with the eyes of God rather than with the eyes of neediness, greed, acquisitiveness, and fear. To enter a hermitage or convent, for instance, without undergoing a significant metanoia of our own heart, is to make of the hermitage or convent an outpost of that world we shut the door on; to shut the door on "the world" in this way is to shut it up inside ourselves -- potentially a truly miserable-making situation for a hermit living physical solitude and external silence!! If our hearts are full of the woundedness and delusions regarding what is true, and which "the world" can cause, to live in silence and solitude within a hermitage can (will!) allow the screams of anguish one has distracted oneself from (or that one has become!), to come up freshly with increasing intensity and dominate one's personal reality. (Folks will know something of this experience because of the COVID-19 pandemic's need for social distancing and even outright "lockdown.")

But the world of the hermitage also provides the graced place and freedom to work with and in Christ to heal one's woundedness and to do battle (!) with the demons of one's own heart. This is the struggle to achieve what canon 603 calls "the silence of solitude" and requires of our lives as the charism and goal of diocesan eremitical life; it is also the gift a hermit will bring to her community whenever her vocation is lived rightly and well. I was very fortunate, the last few years especially, to have a director who either travelled to my hermitage every week or met with me by ZOOM so that we could work together with the frequency and personal accompaniment the work demanded. (It was a gift simply to find we could do this work via ZOOM!!!) 

I was aware that when the Church professed me under c.603 I had been given permission, indeed I had been commissioned to work with God in Christ to become the person he had made and called me to become! What other vocation allows for the space and time to attend to a call to holiness/wholeness in quite the same way as eremitical life? So, while I had never really anticipated doing the work I was doing, and despite some real risk that it could even mean I would need to consider leaving eremitical life for something else, the effectiveness of this work actually underscored my vocation rather than contradicting it. This year that means that I have come to a place where "stricter separation from the world'' means "greater adherence to the incredible life and potential of a God-given Self." It means "allowing God to empower and complete me" so I can be entirely myself and thus too, a clear expression of "God with us." 

And so, this year, as I review what has been during this past year, I am looking at a card my pastor gave me more than a year ago for my birthday. On the front it has a quote from e. e. cummings: [[It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.]] And that is certainly true; I have looked at that card several times a day this last 15 months, and been reminded of its deep truth. The world apart from God misshapes and distorts us each in all kinds of ways and still we are called to mature into the ones only God can fully envision, create, and complete. He is the potter, after all, and empowered by God's Spirit of Holiness we must find ways to allow ourselves to be clay --- God's own clay. This kind of growth and healing takes the grace of God in Christ who summons, accompanies, heals, transforms, and perfects us with his love and presence; often mediated by others who work diligently with us, it is this that empowers us to become the persons we are called to be. Letting the deepest, God-given truth in us --- the imago dei/imago Christi we are most truly --- live as abundantly as God wills it to is the work of a lifetime --- and the work of the God in Christ we are called to allow to be sovereign.

In some ways this piece feels to me like it is "all over the place" --- probably because there is so much to say in a brief space, along with the need to be discreet (and especially reverent) about some of it. But I need to return to writing regularly on this blog; I am hoping this is an opening piece which will allow me to do that. Sharing the spirit of this day then, I sincerely invite readers to regard your own lives and ask yourselves if Jesus is more truly King or Ruler in/of your life on this Feast day than he was at the beginning of Advent last year? Are you more fully alive? More true? More fruitful? Do you regard "the world" around you as something to be despised,  or do you view it more rightly as something to be loved because you see it with the eyes of God and engage creatively with it according to your calling? 

Human perfection is a matter of being in the process of coming to committed maturity (or responsible freedom!!) and fullness of life; it is about being on the path to that. Are you more perfect today than you were last year?  More complete or whole (because this truly indicates the sovereignty of God in your life)? Do you know (and so, accept) your own innate poverty and the mercy of God more fully? Are you more yourself, more moved by truth, generosity, courage, and compassion? Are you less tolerant of untruth in all of its various, subtle and not-so-subtle forms even as you love better those somehow wed to untruth? If, and to the extent you are any of these things, you know what it is to acclaim -- and proclaim with your life -- Christ as King/Ruler of creation. Alleluia, Alleluia! Let us celebrate this truth together!!