On the Hiddenness of Eremitical Life

[[Hi Sister, I was trying to understand what the Catechism means by the hiddenness of eremitical life. Can you help me understand that?]]

Hi there, yourself! Yes, I think I can help you understand this. I say that because this is one of the terms I have struggled over a long time to understand more deeply in my own journey. As with the elements of the canon itself, hiddenness occurs on a number of levels; all are important; some are more superficial than others and I have tried to understand the ways in which that is true. For instance, the canon calls for stricter separation from the world and that seems to imply the hermit is called to a stricter separation from that required by other Religious, particularly ministerial or apostolic Religious. This separation, to whatever extent and in whatever way it is lived, is defined for religious by their vows and congregational constitutions or Rule. At the most superficial level it implies the qualification of all of one's relationships --- including with power and wealth. We misread stricter separation if our understanding of it stops at a literal closing of the hermitage door on everything outside us or on giving up all relationships, or fail to truly school our hearts with regard to material wealth, and power. 

We must penetrate this term (and the others in the Canon) more deeply. Yes, we need to close the hermitage door on certain realities as both a literal and a symbolic way to express all that is essential to this vocation. For instance, this expression helps us embrace the physical silence and solitude that is necessary if one is to eventually understand all the ways we ordinarily give ourselves to false gods or become enmeshed in things that are unworthy of us or our vocation and need to turn instead to the God of Jesus Christ. That growth in perception and integration takes time as we move from superficial to profound understanding and our similar embrace of deeper and deeper truth. Also, earlier forms of meaning (say the literal closing of the hermitage door on relationships and activities) may be more strict in the beginning of our eremitical lives, and may actually need to be relaxed at other points as we embrace less literal or less superficial meanings of the term hiddenness. 

For example, learning to turn to the God of Jesus Christ in all things and allow him to shape us into Temples of the Holy Spirit, may require regular work with others (spiritual directors, superiors), participation in some limited form of parish ministry (e.g., teaching Scripture), more intense spiritual direction or inner work with specialists, etc. The functional cloister or anachoresis (withdrawal) of eremitical life remains and contributes to hiddenness, but the constraints on moving outside the hermitage or allowing others into the hermitage may well be relaxed in measured ways as one gives oneself to Christ to be remade more fully and deeply as is possible in specific ways in relationship with some few others. In part this leads me to my understanding of the hiddenness of eremitical life.

In all of this what is mainly hidden from the eyes of others is the hermit's relationship with God in Christ and all the work and growth (metanoia) that comes over time as one focuses on this relationship and becoming the person one is called by God to be. Hiddenness is not an end in itself. It serves our relationship with Mystery and for that reason, it is characteristic of assiduous prayer and penance, stricter separation from the world, and engagement with others that grows out of and even intensifies one's silence of solitude. Hiddenness is the most intimate shape of one's personal journey to and in communion with God, but as I have argued earlier, it is an important and derivative value, not a primary one. 

For each of us, growth in love of God, and maturation in our relationship with God as we move from darkness to light, from blindness to sight, and from brokenness to wholeness is a hidden process. For most, the relationship with God itself is always hidden --- though one can see symptoms and signs of the quality of the relationship by the way the person loves others, themselves, and the whole of creation. The hermit gives over her entire life to this hidden commitment and growth. She will embrace the elements of Canon 603 in order to be sure she is intensely focused on this commitment alone. She does this for God's sake as well as for her own, for the sake of others, and for the sake of the vocation she has been entrusted with. In some ways, we could say that the hermit lives for God alone so that others may understand that this relationship with God is the primary Good in her life --- and should be primary in everyone's life. 

The NT saying, [[Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you,]] is a way of saying, [[ Seek you first and last this relationship with God, and all the other things you need will be added unto you.]] The hermit's witness to this truth is the most vivid one I could imagine here. It witnesses to the completion that is ours in God --- to the eschatological goal of every life. It is a hiddenness that witnesses to the heart, or deepest Being and vocation of the human person. Even the most perceptive spiritual director or Anam Cara cannot completely penetrate the hiddenness of this relationship --- though dimensions of it can be shared. 

You also wrote: [[One writer criticizes hermits like you who wear a habit or use Sister as a title or let people know you are a hermit in your blog. She says that is against the hiddenness of the life (though she also has a blog and writes about being a hermit). I think she believes because she insists on being anonymous, that is what makes her life hidden and that you (or anyone calling themselves a hermit) should be the same.]] As I wrote in an earlier piece, [[The authors [of canon 603 and also the CCC passages] did not merely mean it all happens alone (with God) behind closed doors --- though of course it mainly does this; they knew that the real fruit and processes of eremitical life (and thus, of eremitical formation and discernment) have to do with the functions of the human heart being redeemed and transfigured (made whole and holy) by the invisible God within the context of silence and personal solitude in an intimate relationship which is mainly invisible and ineffable.]] Everything about eremitical life is meant to foster and witness to this deep and profoundly relational Mystery which is served by hiddenness and all those elements of desert spirituality that contribute to the vocation's hiddenness.

I sincerely hope this is helpful.

A Look at the Coronation of King Charles III: Hiddenness at the Service of Mystery

Sorry to have been out of touch for a week or so. I came down with something last weekend, spiked a high temp (103.1+), and just have been returning to normal. No worries, everything seems to be resolving even if it is slowly so, and my temp is back to normal or nearly so. (I have now tested for COVID and the results were negative. YAY!! Will repeat the test tonight to verify the results.)

One of the things I did recently (before the temp spiked!) that was more than a bit out of the ordinary was to watch the coronation of King Charles III. I had seen the coronation of  Queen Elizabeth II when I was just shy of 4 yo and it was a memorable occasion viewed on a small black and white TV. It may even have contributed to my response to Catholic liturgy when I was in my teens. In any case, I knew I wanted to watch this coronation even though it meant losing most of a night's sleep to do so. I am not sorry I did. And, while it was all beautifully done and moving (the 3&1/2-year-old still inside me seemed gobsmacked at the COLOR and the horses!!!), one moment especially stood out, not only because it differed from the coronation of Charle's Mother, or because the symbolism was incredibly well-done, but because it was the holiest moment of the coronation per se. 

In 1953 when it came time for Queen Elizabeth II to be anointed, a large gold canopy was moved over her and people stood looking away from her. TV cameras were somehow blocked from any real view of what was happening and I remember trying to see under the canopy and being puzzled by it all. The Queen had been divested of all of her regal finery and was wearing a (relatively) simple white dress. But then came this great canopy and the commentators were talking (more softly I seemed to remember) about something I could neither see nor understand. What I did register somewhere deep within myself was the gravity of the moment, especially as steps were taken to shield the queen, and what was happening to her, from view --- even in the midst of a great throng of interested and supportive people.

Move forward 70 years. Charles III is similarly stripped down to his pants and a simple white shirt. The royal finery is folded and carried away for the moment. Members of the household guard carry in three large decorated screens, the poles which will hold them in place, and assemble them around the King with an opening toward the high altar. There is no canopy, but the King is hidden even more entirely than his Mother had been. As a really nice touch, the household guards face away from the screens except for those holding the poles in place. All have their eyes averted, looking down at the ground. In the midst of this huge cathedral, innumerable digital cameras, people hungry to see every last detail, thousands of guests, and millions of onlookers via media, the Royal family and the Church of England have managed to say clearly, [[Here at the heart of our monarchy is something hidden and inviolable, something incontestably intimate and sacred, something dynamic, living, that --- through the mediation of the church --- occurs between God and the monarch him or herself.]]

It was striking to me that the most profound and profoundly mysterious moment of the coronation was marked by hiddenness. At this moment when the King was anointed, it was hiddenness that was the most powerfully articulate expression of and witness to Mystery. In a ritual enveloped by layers and layers of pomp and color, history and tradition, ritual and symbolism, here was a moment in which an individual temporarily enclosed and shielded from the eyes of others, went into the hiddenness of his own heart and, despite the presence of priests, soldiers, family, and the nations of the world, was alone with his God, seeking and consenting to allow God to do what only God could do, namely, to consecrate him for service to God, his Church, and his people. All of the pomp and pageantry paled for me in comparison to Charles in his simple pants and plain white shirt assenting to being enclosed in the hiddenness of this sacred-making moment. That was underscored for me when I learned that Charles had asked for greater hiddenness than the canopy had allowed his Mother and others in the past.

There are numerous reasons for embracing some degree of hiddenness. They can be good or bad, desirable or undesirable, worthy or unworthy of us. Hermits choose a life of relative hiddenness which serves in significant ways as a witness to Mystery at the heart of life. They choose, not hiddenness as an end in itself, but Mystery and participation in Mystery. They choose hiddenness indirectly because, as was true for Charles III, this is a privileged context for meeting the living God and letting ourselves be vulnerable to him. Today, I am particularly grateful to have seen this value chosen and celebrated by Charles III for the sake of an encounter with the living God. Charles put hiddenness at the service of a moment of ineffable intimacy with Mystery which pomp and ceremony needed to be made to serve. It was liturgy very well done!