The Solitude of Death
excerpt from The Eremitic Life
by Cornelius Wencel, Er Cam
The solitude of the desert teaches a person to be at home in the face of death. The hermit sees everything through a child's eyes and heart. Since he is not attached to any popular views or widespread opinions, his solitude becomes a foretaste of eternity. The holy time of liturgy, the time of embracing past, present, and future things, is his time. The hermit does not meet eternity in the way gnostics are tempted to meet it. He does not reject what is temporal. He has his share of eternity by raising all earthly things up to their ultimate fullness by virtue of Christ's redemptive love. This gives him an inner peace which helps to overcome the fear of death.
. . .A special dimension of joy, springing from what we can call for short "the wisdom of life", permeates the hermit's solitude. Of course, the harmony and simplicity that accompany the hermit in everyday life do not shield him from experiencing pain and suffering. The very decision for the solitary life in service to God and specific people involves the danger of being deeply hurt and the possibility of experiencing various torments. To remain bravely and persistently within the limits of one's cell means to accept defeats, personal crises, and temptations of losing the chosen way of life. It means to give one's consent to all those difficult moments that can crush even the strong. But such an acceptance has nothing to do with resignation or passive approval for whatever blind fate may bring. The hermit's faith and prayer enable him to gradually transform his pains into a creative form of love. . . .
For the hermit, these difficult periods of suffering are not only the path toward his own sanctity. But also, by touching the dark side of existence, the hermit strives for a blessing for all humanity. We have to remember that the calling to solitude is a special charism in service to the Church and the whole world. And this is another reason why the hermit's solitude does not mean loneliness, but just the opposite: the hermit knows that he is close to the whole world in joy, suffering, death, and resurrection.
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