Wouldn't it Be Better to Focus on Christ?

[[ Sister Laurel, did Bishop de Roo write the canon for your vocation? What was Remi de Roo's role in the creation of the canon? Was he pushed into it by the monks who came to him to ask him to lobby for them? Also, why are you so obsessed with this canon? Wouldn't it be better to focus on Christ? I guess I have the same question about trusting in a law made by man and not by God and being consecrated by a man and not by God.]]

Thanks for the questions. I don't believe Bishop Remi de Roo had anything to do with writing or creating Canon 603, per se. At least I hadn't considered that before this last conversation and series of posts. I suppose it is more than possible that Bishop de Roo, and perhaps the hermits he supervised, were consulted on the canon by the panel of Church Fathers charged with actually composing the canon because of his experience with these Hermits of St John the Baptist, but if that is the case, I was unaware of it. The same is true of the role of the Hermits of St John the Baptist. Bishop de Roo esteemed them and the life they led as well as the significant sacrifices they made to embrace secularization in a Church with no universal law recognizing eremitical life. Bp de Roo made a written intervention at the Second Vatican Council affirming the need to recognize the eremitical vocation as a state of perfection. As far as I know, that was the extent of his involvement in the creation of c 603.

Beyond this, the canon itself is a beautiful and integrally complete guide to solitary eremitical life. It is inspired by God and written by human beings, just as much in the Church is written by human beings who were inspired by God, including the Scriptures themselves. We do not treat these as either/or kinds of texts, but rather as both/and -- both of God and of human hands. They are sacramental, just as bread and wine are "made from human hands," but come to us as gifts of God transformed into even greater gifts of God in the Eucharist. Thus, the Church believes this canon, and the vocation it governs, come from God and from the many eremitic lives lived before and after its composition. It certainly reflects their lived experience and inspired wisdom. 

Each Rule of Life, written by each professed and consecrated hermit, acts similarly; each one incarnates the living wisdom of the Canon uniquely as this is reflected in a unique eremitical life. Each one is both inspired by God and constructed by human hands, hearts, and minds. The canon must be contextualized as an ecclesial text, one that cannot be understood or lived out effectively apart from the experience of the whole Church and the Living God who inspires it. We read Scripture and truly appreciate the sacraments the same way. Either/or ways of seeing things, especially when posed as "either of God or of human hands," don't generally work well in such a context.

Can the canon be misused or vocations lived under it be badly discerned and formed? Yes, of course. It can be and has been! It is a rich, yet unprepossessing text that surprises everyone approaching it with its hidden depths and presuppositions regarding what is required to live it well. Those who read it superficially, merely as law, for instance, or from one narrow and rigid ideological stance, for instance, are missing its very heart and charism. This is one reason I have chosen to write or post about the nature of this canon; also, I am concerned enough with the value of the life it governs to try to explain it. In Christ, it has incredible breadth, heights, and depths, and I believe I have been called by God to write about the significance of this life for others, not only for other hermits, but for the marginalized, the chronically ill, the entire Church, and the world beyond her. I believe this enterprise is one way (part of a very much larger way, of course) that I have been called to glorify God.

I did not start out trying to do this, but over the past almost 20 years, I have done so consistently, with deepening experience, reflection, insight, and wisdom. One can mistakenly see my focus as a personal obsession, or one can more rightly see it as a dedicated service to the God who received my profession and consecrated me through the hands of his Bishop, as well as to his Christ, his Church, and his larger world as well. It seems to me that this has sometimes called for significant attention because of the vociferously incorrigible lack of understanding some have apparently shown this canon and the life it codifies. 

Even so, and much more importantly, this canon is a Divine blessing, and like all of God's blessings, it is also an obligation that has mainly been a joy to embrace. Those who believe it is an obsession driven by a need for prestige seem to believe they can read my mind and heart and attribute motives to me when they are absolutely incapable of any such thing. And those who truly know me, and other diocesan hermits, know c 603 is a gift from God that empowers ever greater humility as the nature, especially of its ecclesiality, is more deeply penetrated and embraced. While you may not have appreciated this, it is all about focusing on Christ!