On Hermits and Involvement in Politics

[[Dear Sister O'Neal, are hermits supposed to be involved in politics? You have posted several times on the current political situation, using the excuse of Christianity to do it. You even applauded that disrespectful Episcopal bishop who insulted President Trump. I am not a Trumper, and I am not a hermit either, but I don't believe hermits are supposed to be involved in the things of this world in the way you are, are they? Have you discussed this with your bishop or director?]]

Preliminary Definitions:

In responding to your questions, it is important to be on the same page with several elements of c 603. You need not agree with my usage, but you must at least understand it. The first is the term "the world". In John's Gospel, the term has several meanings, including 1) the entire cosmos, 2) God's good creation here on earth, and 3) that which is resistant to Christ or that promises meaning and salvation apart from God in Christ. When c 603 speaks of "stricter separation from the world," it means, first and foremost, stricter separation from that which is resistant to Christ. This will include some very real separation from even God's good creation (which is better dealt with, I think, in the canon's "silence of solitude"), but this is very much a secondary meaning. Stricter separation from the world means, first of all, that I am required to live a life focused on God in whatever way God is present and to deal with potential obstacles to that in ways appropriate to my education, experience, and vocation.

The second central element that is important to understand is that eremitical life is lived for the sake of the salvation of others.  It is not merely about becoming holy or getting oneself to heaven. That would be a blasphemous perversion of the vocation! Hermits live their lives 1) for God's own sake --- that is for the sake of God's will to be Emmanuel -- and 2) for the sake of those God loves and all God holds as precious. Hermits live their lives so that all may be reconciled to God in Christ and the Kingdom of God may be realized in fullness. While a large part of this will be reflected in and expressed as solitary and intercessory prayer, it will not be limited to these. God's Kingdom, the new heaven and new earth with the risen Christ as Lord or King, is something Christians work toward. As scripture tells us, it is an inaugurated and often counter-cultural reality that requires some degree of involvement by all Christians. My own involvement tends to be much more limited than that of most folks; it often takes the form of theological reflection, a bit of teaching, and spiritual direction. It does not allow blindness or complete disengagement from our world's struggle against evil because, after all, this precise kind of engagement (not enmeshment!!) is the will of God for every Christian.

A Life Rooted in the Scriptures:

Finally, my life is a life of prayer rooted in God and our Scriptures. Because of this, I pray these lines as part of the Magnificat every evening: [[. . . He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly . . .]] Clearly, Luke, and presumably Mary, the Mother of Jesus, were very much aware of the political and religious situations of the time. Clearly, they saw the way the sovereignty of God --- what we often call the Kingdom of God or of heaven --- countered the political and religious powers that thought they were sovereign and stood in God's place. Luke and the early Christians praised God for this, even though "a power perfected in (the) weakness" of a Crucified Christ accomplished this victory radically differently than they had expected. 

Similarly, as I noted in an earlier article, I have been reflecting on Jesus' encounter with Pilate as part of my way of keeping centered on Christ. What this raises immediately for me is the conflict between truth and untruth that these two persons represent. Jesus does this in the name of God. That is, he stands in the power and presence of the God who is truth, and in doing so, he confronts Pilate with the very incarnation of truth, both divine and human. Pilate stands in the name of the supposedly divine Caesar; he, therefore, represents the incarnation of untruth revealed in this-worldly human power and arrogance. 

I think we often tend to hear Pilate's question, "What is truth?" in an innocent or even irrelevant sense --- as though Pilate is inviting an intellectual debate or discussion on the nature of truth while Jesus is on trial for his very life. But Pilate poses this question in a sneering way. From the Gospel's perspective, the question is meant to be provocative and prompt us to ask, "What is going on here?" (or to respond, "You're looking at it!). In no way is it innocent or irrelevant! Pilate's contemptuous question is profound and revelatory. It defines the essence of the confrontation between Pilate and Jesus. It demonstrates someone who holds power and is empty and dismissive of truth; he is, therefore, epitomized by this question. Pilate is someone who, when confronted with authentic humanity that thus trusts in the sovereignty of God, can only diminish Jesus' emphasis on the truth ("It is you who say it!") and act to destroy that humanity, even though he does so while ostensibly washing his hands of the matter!! (In our present situation, I can only say, "Let those who have ears to hear, hear this!!") In other words, Jesus IS the very embodiment of Truth confronting an embodiment of untruth and worldly power. I believe every authentic Christian is called to do the same in whatever way they can. This is what it means to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am absolutely not called to become enmeshed in this world's politics, nor is any hermit. However, to the extent I live in communion with God, I am certainly called upon to proclaim the Gospel with my life and in any other way my talents and training allow. I would argue that my vocation as a hermit gives me the space and time to engage with God and the Scriptures in a way that demands I confront untruth, carelessness, inhumanity, and idolatry when I perceive it. Ordinarily, this does not involve politics in any granular way; today, however, we are looking at a crisis that threatens our entire democracy and perhaps authentic Christianity as well! It threatens millions of lives in this country and around the world. It endangers the ability to pursue authentic religious belief and morality in Christian discipleship and prevents us from following God wherever God summons us. 

Please note where the accent in what I am saying here falls! Check out the posts that caused you to write me as well. Reread them. In each and all of these pieces, my focus is not on politics per se or on countering untruth in some merely abstract way; rather, it is on proclaiming the Gospel of God in Christ so that its light shines concretely in the darkness and untruth of a world God is gradually recreating and transfiguring and will one day bring to fullness. I believe this serves the Church and the larger world and allows people to have hope despite great difficulty. It is precisely because I am a hermit and theologian whose life centers on God in Christ that, in the current situation, I don't believe I can do anything else.

How do we Maintain Hope in These Days?

[[ Sister Laurel, given everything that is happening in the country right now, how do we hang onto hope? I know it is supposed to be a jubilee year focused on hope, but how do we do that? I am so scared and depressed that I don't have a drop of optimism left in my body!!]]

Your questions are good ones, thanks for asking! There are two critical things to remember when we think about hope. The first is that hope is not the same as optimism. One can be a person steeped in hope without being particularly optimistic. Given the situation in the country currently, it is really difficult to be optimistic. So many people are being hurt by the completely careless and blind, not to mention the illegal actions of President Trump,  Elon Musk, and his DOGE actors, it is hard to be optimistic about anything that is going on. It gets even more difficult when we consider that working through the situation will take time and become even more critical and complex as that goes by.

The second critical thing to remember is that hope is always based on reality and rooted in truth. It is not about wishfulness. It is the attitude of someone who knows that they stand firmly in something that is strong and certain, even when there is little to be optimistic about. Christians hope in Christ and the victory Jesus won over sin and death. We hope because we know that God's love is stronger than death and that the evil human beings do will never have the final word.  We trust in that!  As you can see, I think, it is possible to have hope and not be particularly optimistic. After all, sin and death are still with us, yet at the same time they have ultimately been defeated and one day will be no more. We look forward to that day and we do so by staying in touch with the sovereignty of God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit that is real right here and right now.

As I have written many times over the years, reality is ambiguous. In the days of the Reformation, we heard the reformers speak of Christians as both sinner and justified. We recognize today that heaven and earth interpenetrate one another and at the same time God is not yet all in all. In other words, the world is ambiguous; it is both justified and sinful, both good and flawed, godly and godless until God does become all in all. To be people of hope means to be people who live in light of what God has already done in Christ and who also look forward to what will one day be fully realized. We work toward that reality, not in terms of wishfulness, but because of what is already true. 

So, how do we maintain hope? We do it by staying in touch with the living Christ. We do it by recognizing that Christ is truly sovereign and is rightly treated as the sovereign of this world who, we affirm, is seated at the right hand of God. We do it by remaining aware of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Father and Son who enlivens and empowers us in this way. Hope is very much the result of a living faith in a similarly living God. Thus, to be people of hope we must be people of prayer --- not in the sense of asking God to take away our troubles (though we will certainly pour out our hearts to God), but in the sense of allowing a growing intimacy with that God and all a relationship with God brings into our lives. 

To be people of hope is to be people who allow God to love us, and in allowing that, to become ever more aware of the unconquerable power of that love. This is what Jesus knew intimately and exhaustively; he knew his Abba's love in a way that saw it overcoming both sin and death. Granted, Jesus' trust in his Abba's love did not prevent the worst that human beings could do, but it did allow that love's victory over this-worldly realities. That, by the way, also means it is crucial to take all the action we can legitimately do to remain involved and working towards the goals we recognize as supporting our democracy (or in other situations, any of the values we truly support). In other words, we must be persons of love as well as of hope; we must be people who are committed to doing a justice which is rooted in and helps strengthen both of these. As Christians, we continue to act and work toward the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. No, we don't build that Kingdom ourselves, but wherever the goals of that Kingdom overlap with the goals of this world --- for instance, in making sure our country maintains its focus on the dignity of every person by working for a world where every person is a genuine neighbor whose fundamental needs are met wherever we can assist with this --- we work towards an ethos Jesus would delight in and give his entire life to and for. Maintaining hope requires all of this.