On Time Frames and Stages: Coenobitical vs Solitary Eremitical Life

[[ Hi Sister Laurel, you wrote that the reason for the time frames and stages in formation in coenobitic life are not the same as in eremitical life or something like that. I have a bunch of questions. What is coenobitical life? Is it the same as life in community? Are you talking about candidacy, novitiate and things like that? I wondered why eremitical life doesn't share these same reasons, they have the same stages don't they?]]

Hi there yourself! Thanks for the questions!! I appreciate your calling attention to words I use that may not be clear to readers, so thanks especially for that. Yes, you have it exactly right; coenobitical or cenobitical life refers to life in community, especially monastic life. It is the complement of the term eremitical which means a solitary desert dweller and refers to hermit life. 

Stages of Religious Life (Coenobitical context):

Now, for the time frames and stages. I'll start with the stages. You have it essentially right. The stages of religious life are candidacy (postulancy: the word is rooted in the idea the person is seeking or asking to be received into the community and comes from the Latin postulare), novitiate, juniorate, and perpetually (or solemnly) professed -- depending upon the community or congregation. These stages refer to the gradual initiation of a person into life in an institute of consecrated life and especially to the various rights and obligations thereof -- including passive and active voice in determining the way the congregation will continue to live its charism and mission. So, for instance, a candidate is not yet a member of the community and has no rights in its regard, neither passive nor active. A novice has been received formally into the community but is a complete beginner or novice in her understanding of the congregation's charism, etc; she, therefore, has quite limited rights and obligations in regard to the life of the community. 

The next stage is the juniorate, the stage of those who are temporary professed (they are identified as Junior Sisters or Juniors); in this stage Sisters (or Brothers, of course) have passive voice in congregational matters and may attend general chapters, but they may not hold office or submit or vote on proposals, etc. The final stage in formation is entered with perpetual profession (and consecration). These religious (the "Perpetually Professed") also have what is referred to as "active voice" and contribute to and vote on the decisions facing the community; these Sisters are allowed to hold office in the Leadership Council. What I have stressed here and want you to see is the fact that these stages gradually initiate a person into the life, charism, and mission of the community and ready them for responsible places in the mission, governance, and continuation (or completion) of the congregation.

The time frames which are usual today are: postulancy (6 mos to 1 year); the postulancy (or candidacy) may be extended but not by more than six mos. Novitiate; 1-2 years. One of these years is considered a "canonical year" and is lived according to canon law's strictures. There will ordinarily be no participation in ministry, but time to learn about the vows, study re the congregation and the church, and introduction to prayer and all the forms of prayer necessary in the life being embraced. The novice may take graduate level classes in theology and church history, and there will be regular spiritual direction --- usually with an outside director. If there is a second novitiate year (i.e., a year besides the canonical year), there is usually some participation in the ministry of the congregation and education continues. Often the canonical year is the second year. It is called canonical because canon law requires one year given over to what I described above. Novitiate may also be extended by (I think) not more than six months. The juniorate (time of temporary profession) can extend to six years, but (at least in contemplative monasteries) cannot be less than five years from first profession to the day when one makes perpetual profession or leaves the community.

Time Frames and Stages in Eremitical Life:

As you can see, a solitary hermit is not being initiated into common life or prepared for governance (leadership) and other active roles in a given congregation. Neither are they going to graduate school or (generally speaking) otherwise preparing for professional roles in ministry. (Some may take part in a program of formation for spiritual directors, for instance.) The stages outlined above simply don't fit as well or make the same kind of sense in the formation of solitary eremitical life. This is especially true of novitiate, I think. One may be finding ways to support oneself as a hermit, but in that case, it could be argued the person may not be a hermit living c 603 life yet and a mutual discernment process should be postponed until that arrangement is established. 

The point is that in terms of canon 603, one is either living and living more deeply into this form of eremitical life or one is not; there is really no other option. Time frames are far less meaningful here and distinct stages like candidacy and novitiate are artificially established, externally imposed and relatively meaningless. Especially unhelpful and even destructive is the arbitrary application of the time frames appropriate for coenobitical life to solitary eremitical life. Remember that c 603 is written and meant to be used for solitary eremitical life, not semi-eremitical life or life in a laura/lavra using a single Rule and forming new members --- situations where externally imposed time frames may make more sense.

With solitary eremitical life there are no easily distinguishable stages, no. When one turns up at the local chancery seeking to discern a canon 603 vocation, one must already be a hermit in some essential sense. If one is not already a hermit in some very real or essential sense and already lives the elements of the canon, approaching the diocese with such a petition is entirely premature. The period of mutual discernment with a diocese is meant to determine if a person is called to live an ecclesial vocation as a hermit, that is, is she called to live eremitical life in the consecrated state and in the name of the Church under c 603? Dioceses do not form hermits; neither do they oversee a hermit's formation although they may accompany her in her ongoing formation during the period of mutual discernment and assist her in meeting the requirements that she be ready for vows of the Evangelical Counsels, as well as that she write her own Rule of Life. 

Time frames in such cases are entirely individual and, in the process I have outlined, are better keyed to the hermit's various attempts at writing as liveable Rule which can and will eventually bind her in law. The diocesan discernment team adopting such a process would be able to use the various versions of Rule the hermit writes to assist her in understanding where her own eremitical formation needs attention and perhaps where or how the diocese can connect her with various resources she can benefit from. Additionally, the team can use the various versions of the Rule the hermit writes along with conversations with the hermit to gauge readiness for temporary and perpetual professions under c 603. Since there are other forms of eremitical life open to the hermit including lay (that is, non-canonical) hermit life as a solitary hermit, eremitical life lived in a lavra or laura, and semi-eremitical life, only a calling to solitary eremitical life under c 603 is the focus of the diocesan discernment team.

(I should point out that early on chancery personnel were sometimes reported to tell a person that they should "just go live in solitude, that this was all they needed". I disagreed with this advice fairly emphatically 15 or 16 years ago. However, my position may have changed somewhat or become more nuanced at this point. It depends on whether these dioceses asked the persons to return after some time lived this way for another conversation if the person felt the need. If the dioceses meant, "Please go live in solitude until you are made a hermit in that way with the assistance of the Holy Spirit and return to us if you believe you have an eremitical vocation as a solitary consecrated hermit under c 603; at that point we will discuss undertaking a mutual discernment process together", I believe those dioceses were on the right track. 

Remember that the Episcopal Church has c.14 which establishes individuals as solitary religious. I was once told that fewer than 10% of those professed under this canon were actually hermits. It is important that c 603 professions be used for solitary hermits with ecclesial vocations, not lone individuals, who are not and may never become hermits. The latter situation would empty c 603 of meaning and render the solitary consecrated eremitical life in the Roman Catholic Church incredible or void.) This last parenthetical section underscores the rest of the discussion regarding time frames and stages in c 603 vocations. To summarize: Only once one is a solitary hermit formed by the Holy Spirit in the silence of solitude, a process that may take years, is one really ready to petition for canonical standing under c 603, and at that point the mutual discernment and formation process one enters into with a small team representing the diocese is individualized without discrete stages like candidacy, and novitiate becomes meaningful. I hope this is helpful.

**Please note, the laura/lavra referred to above envisions something like the Hermits of Bethlehem which has become more community than a colony of solitary hermits, each with their own self-written Rule. C 603 is meant for solitary hermits who must be able to support themselves and live their professions should a laura/lavra dissolve.

Why Saint Paul? What Does Conversion Mean to You?

[[Dear Sister Laurel, Happy Feast Day!! [January 25, Conversion of St Paul] I wondered why you chose St Paul as your patron and why this particular feast day. I can understand what conversion expects of us all, but I guess I don't much see a hermit needing to convert or come to conversion. Does conversion mean the same thing to you now that it did when you chose this particular feast?]]

Thanks for the good wishes! I have chosen Paul as my patron and reaffirmed that choice several times since I was in high school and preparing to be baptized as a Catholic. I had read a book called The Great Lion of God and became inspired by Paul when I was about 13 years old. It may well have been part of what led me to an interest in the Catholic Church at the age of 15-16. Despite the book's inaccuracies and naive and harmonizing approach to Scripture, it introduced me to Paul in a way which would stay with me. (After all, I was just becoming a teenager; this was exciting stuff and it never occurred to me that Caldwell read Scripture naively! What would that matter to me then??!!) 

Paul was dynamic, faithful, thought through Judaism in a way which allowed one to see Christ as the fulfillment of the promise of the Hebrew Scriptures, travelled all over the place proclaiming the Gospel, and was incredibly courageous and independent. He captured my imagination and perhaps he began to capture my heart in some way even as he pointed beyond himself to Christ.) I chose him as a patron in a formal way for confirmation (though I had to disguise the name and spell it Paule because I was supposed to choose a female saint/name! It helped that the catechist who refused to allow me to have "Paul" on the card I showed her first (the card was to be handed to the bishop doing the confirming), never questioned me on who "Paule" actually was when I eventually showed her the second card!!!); I chose him again when I was a young Franciscan --- and the Feast Day itself as well in part because I was a convert to Catholicism. I confirmed that choice later on even though I used my given name instead of Paul Maureen in those years as a religious. 

Throughout my education in Theology, I came more and more to truly know and love Paul and his theology, but especially his theology of the cross. I am not sure who or where I would be had it not been for that theology and those who introduced me to it. It has been my companion during many dark days, and the ground of many joyous ones as well. (I have dealt with serious chronic illness from the age of 18 and struggled with it --- especially in finding ways to live my life in spite of it, and later as it became a grace in some ways.) When I made perpetual (eremitical) profession, while I retained my given name (I considered readopting Paul Maureen and the designation "of the Cross") I retained at the same time, the Feast Day, the Conversion of Paul. I expect Paul will continue to accompany, inspire, and instruct me through the rest of my life, especially in allowing it to be shaped in terms of the cross not only in weakness but in terms of God's power. (Thus, as the motto of my religious and eremitical life I chose 2 Cor 12:9, "(God's) power is made perfect in weakness." It is engraved on my ring.)

The question you ask about the meaning of conversion is an important one. Yes, my understanding of the process of conversion and what it requires and points to has changed. In the beginning it was a matter of becoming a Catholic --- and that, of course, meant more than simply being baptized into the Church. It meant becoming a Catholic in terms of theology, doctrine, and spirituality. It meant coming to read Scripture in the way the Church reads it --- not so much in the sense of accepting texts mean one thing and no other (the Church has only done this a handful; of times by the way), but reading it historically-critically, and -- as I studied, learning also to pray with the Scriptures. During these first years I was also introduced to a focused formation as a religious and, more generally, as a human being. Gradually these various streams melded together as I became a theologian and a religious. 

Over time I discovered a vocation to eremitical life in light of c 603. Some years into all of this, I came to know my relationship with Christ as nuptial and over time I grew as a contemplative. That occasioned a new chapter in my own formation as I entered the "gateways" represented by the canon's central elements and discovered the various ways they mediate the Mystery underlying all life in Christ. One piece of this growth was my membership in my parish as I discovered how I might be called to serve it, especially in regard to the Word of God. Even so, at this point conversion was about allowing myself to be made into an instance of c 603 life, a representative of one small but significant strand in the living stream of the Church's tradition of eremitical life. Later (about 10 years after perpetual profession), I began (and continue today), a very intense and focused process of personal formation accompanied by my Director (diocesan delegate). In this process conversion takes on a specifically intense sense of healing and in such healing, allowing the realization of the true self in Christ. Here my Heart and Mind are given over more completely to God.

At every pivotal point in these last 5 and a half years, I have affirmed more and more completely my call to eremitical life and the fact that I live it in the name and on behalf of the Church and her wellbeing. I learned how profoundly I am called to life in "the silence of solitude" (meaning life in communion and even union with God in Christ). Conversion means becoming the person God calls me to be. It means becoming God's own prayer in this world. (Which implies becoming ever more compassionate to and capable of hearing and holding the anguish of the world in conjunction with the unconditional love of God.) I think I am still far from that but on my way. The framework for this is c 603 (which I find beautiful!) and the work I will continue to do with my Director. The driving impulse behind it is the call to abundant life in and with Christ. It seems to me now that conversion is about coming to genuine and ever-deepening freedom with all that requires of letting go, forgiving, healing, and embracing my truest self in conformity with Christ. When I began this journey all those years ago, I thought I was myself. I was mistaken. Again, to truly be myself in the power of the Holy Spirit is my most fundamental vocation. Conversion serves that call. I think Thomas Merton said that holiness was being himself; Merton and I are on the same page with that comment. 

Feast of the Conversion of St Paul (Reprised)

This last week we began a new series for Bible Study. We are reading through 2 Corinthians as a follow up to Galatians, something I hope will continue to provide a greater sense of Paul, his character and his theology. On this feast of the Conversion of St Paul I am very grateful I chose this Letter. In the past week, and mainly because of this Letter I have come to a deeper understanding of Paul's theology, and especially his theologies of the cross and of suffering.

In particular I came to appreciate how radical the difference between Paul's paradoxical theology and the non-paradoxical theology of those Paul calls "Super Apostles". As a corollary to this I came to even greater clarity on what it means to reject certain ways of thinking as "worldly" or "fleshly" and to accept another way of thinking as being, "of Christ" or, "of God". As Isaiah reminds us, God's thought is not like our thought, his ways are not our ways. As high as heaven is above the earth, so God's ways are higher than our ways, and his thought is above our thought. All of this points to the way Paul would like to get the Corinthians to continue their conversion to Christianity, namely, by the renewal of their minds. The remaking of  minds referred to in 1 Corinthians 2:16 is not merely about accepting new doctrinal statements or truths; it is not even about simply saying yay or nay to the resurrection, for instance. Instead it is about allowing our minds to be reshaped by the Holy Spirit in a way which shifts us from non-paradoxical to paradoxical thinking rooted in the risen crucified Christ.

Because of his experience on the road to Damascus where Paul met the Risen Crucified Christ and clearly saw the paradoxes of Christianity embodied in Him, the theology Paul developed and proclaimed is essentially and radically paradoxical. It gives us strength perfected in weakness, triumph fully achieved in failure, eternal treasure consisting of the life of an infinite God revealed in flawed and breakable vessels of clay, and so forth. A non-paradoxical way of thinking can never see that in Christ the poor are truly rich, that the last are really first, that a crucified man is actually the exhaustive revelation of the God of truth and life, that the shame of crucifixion reveals the glory of God, that only the one who accepts suffering knows the God of all comfort, or that in death exists eternal life. The non-paradoxical (Greek) way of thinking says instead, if poor then NOT rich, if cast down then NOT raised up or glorified, if first then NOT last, if weak then NOT strong, if fragile and breakable then NOT a vessel holding (or capable of holding) an eternal treasure, if human then NOT Divine (and vice versa), if shamed then not glorified, and so forth. Paradoxical thinking drops the word NOT from each proposition. In Christ if we are weak then we are strong, if cast down then we are (really) raised up, etc. Paradoxical thinking is what allows Christians to see the world as sacramental and to perceive Christ as truly present in consecrated bread and wine.

Paul's encounter with the Risen Christ changed forever the way he saw reality. (I think this is part of the truth illustrated in the story of Paul's resulting blindness on the occasion of his conversion and commissioning. Because of this encounter Paul moved from non-paradoxical to paradoxical thinking and in light of it his mind was remade. It is not merely that he changed his mind about Jesus as Messiah, it is that he became capable of holding apparent contradictions together to reveal a new and always-surprising truth: God's Messiah is a crucified Messiah, the glory of God is revealed in shame; it is where one is helpless and weak that we see a portrait of Divine strength and sovereignty. All of this and more was embodied in Paul's vision on the road to Damascus. Because of this event Paul's mind was reshaped and empowered to embrace a paradoxical God and radically paradoxical Messiah.

As Paul worked out his theology in his occasional letters written in conjunction with the situations of various churches, Paul's heart and mind were reshaped, his conversion deepened, and he moved from faith to faith. Consequently, he became more and more the Apostle God called and commissioned him to be. As a result, we have a Church which is not merely a Jewish sect but instead, a world-wide people called to be similarly converted and remade in Christ. We celebrate all of this on this Feast Day. I am reminded of one of the first classes I ever had in theology. John Dwyer told us, it is very difficult to think paradoxically; we just don't do it, but in order to do New Testament theology you have to be able to do this. I think now that it is the gift of the Holy Spirit that one is able to think and view reality this way. It certainly is not natural! We have to learn to look at reality and be ready to perceive paradox but, I believe, we also have to be empowered by the Spirit in this.

I am also reminded of when I had my first appointment with (Arch)bishop Vigneron in seeking admission to profession under c 603. As a kind of icebreaker, the bishop asked me who my favorite Saint was. I named Paul and explained that if I could spend the rest of my life coming to understand his theology of the Cross, I would be a happy camper. I laugh at myself now: "Better watch what you ask for Laurel! God just might take you up on it! And so, he has.  In my deepening appreciation of the paradoxes at the heart of the Christ Event, Paul's thought inspires, challenges, comforts, and gives hope. It enlarges my heart and remakes my mind. I should not be surprised; this is the very thing Paul had hoped his letters and ministry would do for his converts in Corinth. So, on this Feast Day (and yes, my own feast day), I have to say, Thanks be to God!

A Contemplative Moment: The Way of Paradox

The Way of Paradox

from The Eremic Life

by Cornelius Wencel, Er Cam

The hermit's life is full of different paradoxes and apparent contradictions. Some of them may surprise the hermit himself and even cause a certain uneasiness in him not to mention others who look at his life from "outside", To many people who look at this way of life and want to be impartial observers of it, the eremitic experience of the desert seems to be an absurdity.

We have already mentioned. . . that the basic motive for choosing a solitary and silent life in a hermitage consists in an existential longing to meet and talk to God. The hermit chooses silence in order to enter fully into a dialogue; he chooses solitude in order to meet closely a personal presence. The way of the desert is thus not a stray and arid path, it does not lead to the negation of all the values of the world and of other people. Just the opposite: it is the way of mutual presence, dialogue, and friendship that shines where two freedoms and two hearts, divine and human, meet. The dialogue between hermit and God means that two persons truly entrust themselves to each other in love, because unconditional trust is a necessary condition of every authentic dialogue. 

For the hermit the gift of faith determines not merely the choice of the way of life, but also an elementary personal dynamism that enables him to go on and finish his journey successfully. The gift of faith makes it possible for us to open our hearts so that we are still better and better prepared to accept God, who wants to entrust Himself to us. Where faith is a dialogue, with two personal mysteries calling upon each other, God is the one who initiates the meeting, and the human respondent should only be obedient. 

Canon 603 Discernment and Formation: Process as More Fundamental than Canonical Form

[[ Hi Sister, if my diocese wants to use a book describing time frames and providing documents marking the various stages for c 603 hermits, how would that work with the process you have set out here? Seems to me they would conflict big time, no?]]

That's a great question and I agree it sounds like it would conflict big time. However, it need not if certain things are borne in mind. What I mean is that one must remember what is more fundamental or foundational and what is entirely secondary to a process of discernment and formation. Above all, the kind of book you describe should not attempt to define or drive the necessary process of discernment and formation of a hermit petitioning for c 603 standing, though it may well be used to mark and document points within the process after they have been achieved or negotiated. For instance, some dioceses have chosen to use The Catholic Formulary, vol 7A by Rev. Peter Apkoghiran, JCD, a book whose clearly stated purpose is [[to guide church officials in drawing up ecclesiastical public documents (and) also ensuring that such documents fulfill the solemnities and requirements of canon law.]] This one is on my mind first because when I read it a year or so ago and saw it as a classically flawed attempt to do more than the canonist could or should do in such a book, and more than the stated purpose. It is also on my mind because (apart from your question) I heard more recently about a diocese using it or thinking of using it for c 603 hermits.

What the book is not meant to do, and I submit, would be well beyond its purview, is to define the structure, content, and time frame of a discernment and formation process or program under c 603. Were a diocese to adopt the process I have outlined here which is focused on writing various Rules of Life to guide discernment and formation until one had a liveable Rule which truly indicated the hermit's lived experience AND reflected the contents of c.603 and had the formation team worked with the candidate to achieve this, the Formulary could be used to "formalize" with canonical documents various steps along the way. However, what is especially important is that it must be the process of discernment and formation that drives matters, not the documents, much less some arbitrary time frame -- even if that time frame works well for coenobitical religious!!! Neither would the hermit be shooting towards achieving what the documents measure or mark, but rather simply towards becoming what God calls her to in terms of canon 603 itself.

Some people see c 603 as inadequate to govern solitary eremitical vocations. After all it doesn't list time frames, or ages, or all kinds of things canonists find necessary or desirable. Non-hermits look at the canon and often find it equally inadequate because it is not a "how to" guide to what is necessary to becoming a hermit, much less a canonical hermit! But c 603 does precisely what it was meant to do, namely, it provides the central non-negotiable elements constituting a solitary eremitical vocation and in sec 2, provides the way it is to be lived out as an ecclesial vocation. It shows us what such a vocation looks like and what the hermit commits herself to living in the name of the Church. I would argue that if one finds the canon inadequate in major ways, they have only understood it in a superficial sense.

As a reminder, the process I have outlined here over the years grows organically out of the canon itself. It is more fundamental (foundational) than the canonical documents provided in The Formulary. The Formulary thus can be useful, but the moment it supplants the actual process of coming to write a liveable Rule of Life as c 603 requires, it becomes destructive. Unfortunately, because human beings are tempted to replace Gospel with law (sometimes this is the simple expedient), and too to multiply law to deal with perceived insufficiencies, canonists and other diocesan officials are tempted to add to canon 603, or to shoehorn it into an alien framework, instead of first understanding how the discernment and formation of hermits actually looks on the ground. In such cases they more often end up with lone individuals who can jump through canonical hoops but will never be a hermit formed in the silence of solitude by the Holy Spirit. When that happens c 603 becomes incredible and the work of those who composed the canon will be eviscerated. 

Hermits who really understand and live c 603 will be highly disciplined, on the other hand, and far more likely to be allergic to such hoop jumping! They may seek to be professed under c 603 and be an excellent example of solitary eremitical life lived as an ecclesial vocation --- but if The Formulary type of text with all its artificial stages, etc., is imposed needlessly, these vocations are more apt to be lost to the Church. What I am saying to you is the The Formulary and texts like it create documents which may be appropriate to formalize a truly foundational process of discernment and formation rooted in c 603 itself, but the documentation is not meant (and should not be used) to create or define ahead of time a process of discernment and formation. The two elements (process and canonical documents or form) absolutely need not conflict "big time", as you put it, so long as one does not put the cart before the horse!!! Again, what is most fundamental is the canon and the process which derives directly and indirectly from c 603 itself, namely, the requirement that the would-be canonical hermit write a (liveable!) Rule of Life of c 603 based in her own lived experience of eremitical life. 

In other words, the process deriving organically from c 603 itself should drive matters, not the documents canonists determine to be important for other (and secondary, though important) reasons. And yet, letting the documents drive matters is the danger of using a text like the Formulary if one does not already have a sense of what c 603 itself requires of an individual in terms of personal growth and maturation as a hermit. Adopting something like The Formulary without a clear and appropriate process, which is truly organically derived from the canon itself, being treated as more foundational is deceptive and self-defeating. I should also note that unless it is made clear at every turn that The Formulary is secondary to the canon itself with all that implies in terms of learning to live it ever more-deeply, there is an ever-present danger that dioceses seeking information on how to proceed with candidates for c 603, will take hold of The Formulary and leave the less concrete and far more fundamental discernment and formation process behind.

On Dismissal from the Eremitical State

[[Dear Sister Laurel, I wondered what happens to a consecrated Catholic Hermit who leaves the Catholic Church. Does s/he remain a Catholic Hermit? When I say s/he leaves the Church I mean s/he stops going to Mass, denies the hierarchical nature of the Church, rejects Church law, and refuses to believe in the importance of incarnation in the life of the Church.** I am also wondering about what happens if s/he stops keeping her vow of obedience. Can a diocese just deny they know her?]]

Serious question! If a publicly professed hermit does any of the things you have described, her bishop or diocese will take steps to dismiss her from the eremitical life and in so doing, dispense her of her vows. The process would be analogous to c 694.1. In such a case a perpetually professed hermit can be held ipso facto dismissed from the consecrated eremitical life if he or she has defected notoriously from the Catholic faith. A hermit can be dismissed for other reasons as well. These certainly include habitual neglect of the obligations of her state of life, repeated violations of her vows or other sacred bonds, and stubborn disobedience to the legitimate requirements of her bishop (and/or delegate) in grave matters. Also included are grave scandal which stem from the hermit's culpable behavior, and stubborn adherence to or diffusion of doctrines condemned by the teaching authority of the Church.

There is a procedure involved in such dismissals involving cc1732-1739. To summarize, however, the diocese will gather the facts and evidence regarding the hermit's behavior. If the evidence supports the accusations, the accusations and evidence will then be communicated to the hermit and the hermit will be given an opportunity for self-defense. A first canonical warning is given along with sufficient time for the hermit to repent and amend her life as appropriate. If she fails to do this within the time allotted, a second canonical warning is given. If the hermit remains recalcitrant and is deemed incorrigible the bishop can issue a decree dismissing the hermit from the consecrated eremitical state.

Beyond this specific procedure and, really, implied by it with the two canonical warnings and time for repentance and rehabilitation is all the help a diocese can muster for someone who has made such a serious canonical commitment. Dismissal is a serious process, of course, but it is also meant to be loving, honest, and corrective, and to benefit not only the hermit, but the health of the eremitical vocation more generally, and the Church herself. There is nothing impulsive about such a dismissal any more than the admission to perpetual profession is ever done impulsively or carelessly. Certainly a diocese cannot simply deny knowing such a person. They have a responsibility to her and to her vocation (i.e., solitary eremitical life) more generally, just as her canonical vows obligate her to an ecclesial vocation lived under her bishop's supervision.

** I may be mistaken, but as I understand the question regarding the "Incarnation in the life of the Church" it means denial of the historical church, the Church which exists in time and space as the Body of Christ. Just as Jesus existed as an undeniable spatio-temporal (historical) reality, so does the Church as the Body of Christ. This does not exhaust the reality of the Church any more than it exhausts the reality of the Risen Lord, but it is real and an undeniable part of what we believe when we say in the creed, "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church".

On Consecrated Widows in Western and Eastern Churches

[[Dear Sister Laurel, you have articles on hermits and consecrated virgins. I wondered if you have any information on consecrated widows. John Paul II mentioned them once or twice that I know about, but I can't find out anything more about them. Should I contact my diocese the same way someone wanting to become a hermit should do?]]

Hi and thanks for your questions. It is true that in the early Church consecrated widows were a pivotal segment of the Church and central to her ability to carry out ministry, maintain house churches, etc. Over time, however, this particular vocation became less pivotal, in part as the Church opted for male deacons and codified their roles for men (vir) only. While c 605 instructed bishops on their responsibility to pay attention to new forms of consecrated life, and while St John Paul II wrote about consecrated widows, the contemporary Western (Roman Catholic) Church as such has never implemented this vocation except sporadically. It is not included in the CIC, the Roman Catholic Church's Code of Canon Law, although there is room for it because of c 605. Rome would need to concur, however, and establish the vocation officially in universal law. Under John Paul II, a canon was included in the CCEO (1990), the Code of Canon Law for Eastern Churches. While individual Roman Catholic bishops have "consecrated" some widows, it remains the case that the vocation is undefined (what are these persons actually called to in the church?) and the canonical authority to do so is currently doubtful. 

I believe you should contact your diocese, yes, but I cannot honestly encourage you to believe or hope that they will consecrate you; that is unlikely in the extreme unless you live in a diocese where this has already been done. Even then, the nature and content of this vocation is unclear which tends to empty it of meaning in the eyes of the Universal Church. On the other hand, if you have the courage and the will to go this route you could be among those who help to define such a vocation in the Western Church, sort of as the monastics who allowed themselves to be laicized in order to pursue eremitical life. Eventually this led to recognition of solitary eremitical life under c 603. Since c 605 already exists to encourage bishops to be attentive to new forms of consecrated life (approval can only be given by the Apostolic See), you would be a pioneer possibly helping in a humble way to move the Western Church towards canonical approval of Consecrated Widows as a specific public and ecclesial vocation.

Follow up on Time Frames, Regularity and Structure with C 603 Vocations

[[ Dear Sister, I just noticed the addendum you wrote for the blog post on my question. Thanks for doing that. I was going to ask the question again and then go a little farther. Maybe I can do that now. How do we know that the authors of canon 603 didn't simply expect the Church to apply the same time frames to that canon as they do to other forms of religious life? Do you accept any time frames for discernment and formation of a c 603 vocation? In the answer you gave earlier you referred to the doctoral student perpetually writing his dissertation and suggested one should not discern forever, but how would a diocese know when to cut off the process? I am wondering at what would seem to be a lack of structure and regularity in what you are suggesting.]]

Thanks for these follow up questions. I apologize for missing that one question; I'm glad you saw the addendum on the post. (On Being a Hermit Before One Petitions) Though I wish I could refer to conversations on the development of various editions of the canon, those are physically unavailable to me. For this reason I can only list the following reasons: 1) the canon's authors clearly understood solitary eremitical life and stated carefully the essential elements that must come together in a person's life for them to be considered a hermit and then to live this life in the name of the Church; They allowed for (in fact, they required that) the hermit (to) write her own Rule of Life which indicates to me that they clearly saw the way the Holy Spirit worked in this person's life was primary and neither should nor would be subordinated to arbitrary or artificial time frames or unnecessary canonical requirements; 2) commentaries on the canon perceive the life it defines and governs as a second half of life vocation, not as a vocation for a beginner or youngster in the spiritual life. This seems to presuppose at least the kind of formation most hermits experience at the hands of ordinary faithful living and discovery over (relatively) long periods of time. If the individual has been a religious (as in the situation which triggered Bp De Roo's interventions at Vatican II), then that formation would have occurred over years of (usually) perpetual commitment. 

3) the eremitical vocation, but especially the solitary eremitical vocation is rare in the Western Church and living it well is demanding; the authors of the canon seemed not to be thinking many people would be approaching dioceses requesting profession and consecration as a canonical hermit. For this reason, they could (and would have) envision(ed) a careful and individualized process of discernment and profession, not one which was regularized from diocese to diocese. The way the canon is written underscores all of this just as does the fact that commentators note that this is to be used for solitary not communal or semi-eremitical vocations; when canon 603 is used for hermits coming together in lauras, each hermit must still write and live her own Rule and move though an individualized discernment and profession process with and under the supervision of the diocese. (I personally believe lauras must be composed of professed c 603 hermits; they are not houses of formation, nor are solitary hermits called to take on such a responsibility for the diocese. On the other hand, I do believe some hermits in the laura may be a resource for those who are responsible for c 603 vocations in the diocese.) 

4) because it is about solitary eremitical life, the c 603 vocation is one of the most clearly personal and least externally or canonically structured in the entire scope of religious life. For this reason, it only makes sense that it be maintained in the same way. Semi eremitical institutes of consecrated life will have more externally regularized lives with common Rule, constitutions, and expressions of the Evangelical Counsels, and for this reason will imply greater need for canonical regulation.

Do I accept any time frames?

In general, I accept some temporal guidelines can be helpful, yes. For instance, I generally agree with my former Bishop that no one be admitted to profession (temporary) unless they have lived as a hermit for at least five years. However, in cases where one has lived and been formed in religious life beyond novitiate and hopefully, into perpetual profession, I appreciate discernment and formation may take less time. That is especially true for monastics and those who leave their congregations in order to specifically pursue a vocation to eremitical life. However, in these cases, I also recognize that there is a grieving or transition process that must be negotiated before readiness for profession under c 603; other necessary personal growth may require more time as well. For instance, former religious from active congregations are likely to need to develop as contemplatives before becoming hermits at all, and monastics may need to rethink many of the elements of canon 603 in order to embrace this life in a way which honors both its demands and its freedom. All candidates for c 603 profession will need to find a way to secure themselves materially and financially while being faithful to the nature of eremitical life. This itself is no easy task and it will require some time for the individual and the Church to determine the hermit has secured herself in the way she needs and the canon requires.

As noted in earlier posts, the majority of any process of discernment and formation will happen long before a person speaks with her diocese about the use of canon 603 -- usually with the accompaniment of a good spiritual director. Only once the person is actually a hermit in some essential sense does it make real sense to approach one's diocese. After all, one needs the diocese's assistance and participation in a mutual process of discernment about profession and consecration under c 603; dioceses do not form hermits, nor (one hopes) do they profess or consecrate lone individuals who are not yet hermits. The admission of someone to temporary profession is done to allow the person to try their vocation as a solitary hermit in an ecclesial vocation for some years before making a life commitment. During this time the hermit may decide to try eremitical life in a laura or to join a semi-eremitical institute instead, for instance. Still, because people do approach dioceses prematurely, a process of mutual discernment and formation can make sense by focusing on the various Rules of Life the individual writes as her experience of herself and the eremitical life grows. This process can be immensely helpful to the diocese and expedite the process of discernment and formation in terms of focus and assistance or support with resources. Ultimately, it can provide the grounds for determining a candidate's readiness for profession and consecration.

I also accept that a diocese might not be willing to work in this way for more than five years. If that is the case, however, such a diocese should be open to reopening conversation with the individual should the person return in time with greater discernment and formation and still be convinced they have an eremitical vocation. If it is clear to the diocese that the person is unsuitable for profession under c 603 (that is, they are not called to an ecclesial vocation as a solitary hermit), then they should be honest with their findings and carefully explain the reasons to the individual and (if this seems helpful), to her director. I would sincerely hope in such a case that the diocese would help point the candidate in other directions. Equally, I would hope the diocese would be open to educating themselves further on the ways successful hermits under c 603 have lived the life and represented the vocation well. (Discernment and formation need/must not only oblige the hermit or hermit candidate!! But that's another topic!!) Since eremitical vocations take time to develop and reveal themselves clearly, I am not putting any terminal numbers on this idea of returning for periods of mutual discernment with the diocese. What must guide everyone is loving honesty --- humility. It is not loving to drag out a process unnecessarily, nor is it honest or loving to cut someone off prematurely, especially in such an unusual vocation which most diocesan staff must educate themselves in in order to truly understand themselves. (Another reason dioceses tend to take refuge in arbitrary canonical time frames!)**

Lack of Regularity and Structure?

Your concern about a lack of regularity referred I think, to c 603 vocations within a diocese, true? Since such vocations are rare, I think this is not the problem you may be imagining. In any case, I believe the process I have outlined re using the Rule of Life and the task of writing a liveable Rule as a focus of discernment and formation and certainly the canon itself provides sufficient structure for any solitary eremitical vocation. The one place the canon needs to be spelled out a bit is in regard to the phrase "supervision of the bishop". Ordinarily one does not work with (or sometimes, even meet!) the bishop of a diocese in regard to c 603 until the Vicar for Religious recommends one for profession. (This does presume the diocese is open to implementing the canon at all.) Ordinarily, even when a hermit meets annually or bi-annually with her bishop, a delegate is chosen by the hermit to work with her on behalf of the diocese. Sometimes bishops desire more input with regard to the hermit's life and meet one on one with them, and sometimes it will be only the delegate with whom the hermit meets --- it depends upon the bishop. But it is the case that the hermit requires someone besides her spiritual director with whom she may talk frankly regarding her vocation who also serves the diocese and diocesan bishop in this way.

** I am always comforted by the fact that though initially disappointing, when I met with my bishop after years of discernment and the Vicar's recommendation that I be professed, he said, "I have not read anything you have written (which included published material on prayer, etc). I wanted to meet you first. I hope this is not too disappointing but (now that we have met) I have a lot to learn before I can give you an answer (regarding profession). We will meet a number of times more." That (then Bishop) Abp. Allen Vigneron took seriously his own need to educate himself and, that he took me seriously as well, is immensely helpful to me. Similarly, I am reminded that when I worked with the diocesan Vicar for Religious in earlier years, Sister Susan and another diocesan official took a long trip to New Camaldoli to speak with the Prior there about hermits, what constituted a healthy eremitical life, etc. (I only learned of this much later!) Understanding a c 603 vocation requires much more education than learning the canonical requirements that apply!!!

Feast of St Paul of Thebes: Hermit

It seems to me it's rare to get feast days for hermits but today is one of those! Since the only thing I really know of St Paul (ca. 228- ca.342), often identified as the first hermit in the Catholic Church or Christian Tradition, is what is found in writings attributed to St Antony (also a hermit) I am going to borrow here from those (credit to Give Us This Day).

[[ According to his biographer, St Jerome, this Paul, known as "the Hermit," deserves recognition as the first desert monk. Apparently, he stumbled on this vocation by accident. Jerome relates that Paul was a rich young man of Thebes whose parents died when he was sixteen. when a storm of persecution swept over the Chruch in Egypt, he decided to ride out troubles from the seclusion of a cave in the wilderness. But by the time it was safe to return he had come to love his solitary life and decided to stay.

Nearly a hundred years passed, and many others had discovered the singular attractions of the ascetic life. The greatest of these, St Antony, heard there was someone in the desert whose lifetime of solitude surpassed his own. Guided by the Holy Spirit, Antony found his way to the cave of Paul, where the two immediately recognized each other as kindred spirits and fell into a warm embrace.

While Paul asked for news of the world, a raven arrived with a loaf of bread for their meal. He observed matter-of-factly that he had thus been sustained during his many years. Feeling that his end was near, Paul greeted Antony's arrival as heaven-sent to prepare for his burial. He sent Antony off to fetch a cloak, but when Antony returned, he found Paul's lifeless body kneeling in prayer.]]

The actual account is embroidered with a number of details including the fact that Antony saw Paul ascending to heaven before he arrived to find his body posed in prayer, or that there were two lions there, digging Paul's grave. I recognize the ways such stories are made to reflect holiness and the extraordinary nature of the life lived, but in this case I like the story without the embroidery. It is very simply told, and the bare facts are extraordinary and striking all by themselves. We don't need lions or visions, I don't think. We simply need to hear the facts: viz., a young man, wealthy by all accounts, is orphaned during the persecutions in the early Church and hides himself in a cave to remain safe. In his seclusion he discovered something he may not have expected, namely, the silence of solitude, i.e., life with God alone. He allowed that very specific eremitical solitude to speak to him and, in fact, to seduce him, and he remained a lover of God in the silence of solitude for the rest of his days while God provided for him faithfully.

Given today's pandemic and its requirements of increased isolation and quiet, I admit I wondered how many people will, like Paul, accidentally stumble across their life calling to the silence of solitude and embrace eremitical life. Beyond that, once the pandemic is simply endemic, how many will continue in this calling and more, how many will manage a faithfulness of something approaching nearly 100 years? Like Paul, I never set out to be a hermit, but circumstances brought me to this vocation, and I am grateful to God for the gift! May he, St Antony, St Romuald, and, of course, St Paul of Thebes help all hermits to continue to be faithful to and grow in their calling, whatever the form or state of life in which it is lived!!                                               

Like Water on Rock, the Hermit's Faithfulness to Her Rule of Life

[[ Hi Sister, I really liked your post on the process of discernment and formation and the way these grow organically out of the canon 603. Did you pick the picture you did, the one with the footprints worn in the floor to demonstrate the organic linkage to canon 603? I really love that picture!!]]

Yes, it's an incredibly evocative picture, I think. There is a second one which is like it that I also use sometimes. Yes, I did choose to use it because it reminds me of something growing organically out of the life of the canon. Hermits are formed in long periods of the silence of solitude, and these don't tend to fit normal canonical time frames that are more appropriate for the person in a coenobitical religious life. In some ways the picture also makes me think of the tedium of the cell and the hiddenness of the hermit's formation. Change happens so slowly-but-surely in the silence of solitude and faithfulness to one's commitment to prayer and the whole of one's Rule of Life; the picture also reminds me of this. 

If I were to entitle the picture, I might call it Stability (as in Benedictine stability) because it accents change and growth while remaining in the same place. Benedictines make a vow of stability because they believe God gives us all we need to grow to fullness of life in a given house or monastery. The grass may look greener elsewhere, but Benedictines trust they will be fed in precisely the way they need in the place they make their commitment. Finally, these pictures evoke for me the humble but real and, in fact, the powerful effect the hermit's life has on the Church and world simply by being faithful to the Rule of prayer and life the hermit has embraced. It is like water dripping on rock and is profoundly countercultural given our world's insistence on instant gratification and our expectations of immediacy (and disposability) in everything. It's a welcome reminder of a different wisdom, a different way of looking at reality. Thanks for the question!!

Private Vows, Not an Act of Profession and Not the Way to Consecration as a Hermit

[[Dear Sister, if someone writes: that their vows were received by a Catholic priest on behalf of the Church and God Himself and that they are a consecrated hermit as a result, can this be the case? Can my spiritual director receive my vows and consecrate me in this way? I would rather do it this way than go to my bishop (just being honest!).]]

LOL!! I appreciate your honesty and understand what you are saying!! The answer to your question regarding intention is no, no priest or priest spiritual director unless specifically designated to do so on behalf of the diocese by the local ordinary, can receive vows or consecrate you in the eremitical life. The Church has only two ways for such a thing to happen: 1) she professes and consecrates you as a member of a semi-eremitical or eremitical congregation, and 2) using c.603, you make your profession in the hands of the diocesan bishop or his explicit designee. 

Both of these options involve public vows and a change in one's state of life. A priest can certainly witness private vows (a private dedication, not consecration) --- for these do not involve a public commitment, new rights and obligations, or a new state in life -- but (without acting on behalf of the bishop with regard to c 603) he cannot do so with the intention to consecrate nor to participate in an act of profession. (Profession, which involves more than the making of public vows, is, by definition, always a public act involving new canonical rights and obligations. If these new public rights and obligations are not involved, then the act is not profession even when vows are involved.) I've written a lot about this so check out labels re private vs public vows, etc., if you need more. 

On Being a Hermit Before One Petitions for C 603 Standing

[[Hi Sister Laurel, in the process you are describing about c 603 discernment it sounds sort of like you are saying a person already needs to have discerned a call to contemplative and then eremitical life before she or he approaches her/his diocese with a petition to be professed under c 603. Is that right?? Is that why c 603 has no provision for periods of formation and all that goes with those? Your use of the term "shoehorning" in your last post was helpful, a pretty vivid way of describing a process which could never really fit into arbitrary time frames and canonical schemata.  Also, it was important that you noted that the majority of the process would never involve the diocese at all. I could see clearly that the really important formation must go on apart from the diocese -- in solitude between the person, God, and perhaps a good spiritual director. Should dioceses be thinking that c 603 is to be used to raise to canonical standing a vocation that has been long in development and is already largely "formed"? Is that what you have been talking about when you say the candidate "must be a hermit in some essential sense" already?]]

Thanks for your questions and comments. I think you've got it, yes!! The history of c 603 grew out of a situation in which a number of solemnly professed monks had discerned vocations to solitude over long years of monastic life, ongoing formation, commitment, and service. To retell the story briefly, in order to follow an eremitical vocation they had to leave their vows and monasteries and be secularized. They then had to find a way to live an eremitical life as best as they could apart from their monasteries in more ordinary surroundings. Roman Catholicism had a history of such persons coming under the protection of the diocesan bishop and eventually this occurred with a dozen or so of these men coming together in a laura under the aegis of Bishop Remi de Roo who, at Vatican Council II, brought up the need to recognize the genuine eremitical vocation as a "call to perfection." Only after another 20 years did the Revised Code of Canon Law include the solitary hermit call in law in canon 603. 

The canon itself presumes and implies a personal history of spiritual and personal formation as a hermit prior to contacting one's diocese re c 603 even though it does not spell this out. For instance, "stricter separation from the world" is not simply about closing the hermitage door on the things outside these premises, but rather about separating oneself more strictly from the things which are contrary to or reject Christ while one cleaves to Christ more strictly and wholeheartedly with all one has and is. Assiduous prayer and penance are not about more prayer and penance than usual in Religious life, or at least it is not only about this; it is primarily about being a truly human person whose heart, mind, body and spirit, are given over to their source, ground, nourishment, and enrichment in God alone in the silence of solitude. 

This takes time; finding the way God calls one to this takes serious weighing, trying, and discerning the various paths to God any life offers as one grows first as a person of prayer, then as a contemplative, and then as a solitary hermit. It is possible to read the central elements of c. 603 in a more superficial way. The silence of solitude, for instance, can be read merely as describing a context for eremitical life, but for the actual hermit, the silence of solitude is also the charism of her vocation, and, in fact, a goal -- the way to describe a fully human life lived alone in communion with God, a life of shalom and wholeness in the silence of solitude.

In other words, c 603 was never meant for beginners in the spiritual life, nor were dioceses meant to form such persons in the eremitical life. (I'll say more about this below.) Canon 603 was meant to be used for hermits (not those who were still hermit wannabe's) who had lived into their vocations over a span of time and brought themselves to their diocese because they recognized that this service (eremitical life lived in and on behalf of the Church) was an essential part of their call to life in solitude. It was meant, this means, to be relatively rarely used when strong candidates with experience as contemplatives and deeper yearnings for solitude presented themselves with a petition to be professed. The canon defines eremitical life as the Catholic Church regards it and adds certain conditions to those who feel called to live this life as an ecclesial vocation in the name of the Church. 

In some ways this is a tension-filled and paradoxical situation. The Church defines the signs and ways to genuine freedom in Christ found in hermit lives throughout her history and otherwise: stricter separation from the world, a life of assiduous prayer and penance, the silence of solitude, ordered according to a Rule the hermit writes herself, framed in terms of the Evangelical Counsels, and then provides a canonical framework to live such freedom in the name and on behalf of the Church. In this way, the Church entrusts an ecclesial vocation to someone committed to the freedom of a prophetic life of grace. Thus, the person should also have the wisdom to deal with a vocation which is at once ecclesial and also deeply prophetic. None of this indicates or implies a vocation which is to be embraced by beginners or those without sufficient experience and (even) expertise (e.g., the ability to write a liveable Rule, for instance, or an articulable sense of the way the silence of solitude functions as more than the context for one's life -- a sense which is rooted in the hermit's lived experience).

Dioceses do not and apparently were never meant to form hermits. This is so not only because hermits are formed in solitude (you restated my position very well), but also because dioceses tend to need time frames into which the formation program can fit without lots of flexibility or freedom --- for the hermit and for the Holy Spirit! And eremitical vocations require time, freedom, and greater flexibility sometimes than canonical norms can ensure. Also, while dioceses have within them people who could effectively accompany a hermit in her formation and discernment, the diocesan offices of Vicar for Religious, etc., ordinarily don't have the time even if they should have the expertise and willingness (and my sense is this is rare). However, after the hermit is formed in an essential way, and know they are called to eremitical life (which may require the assistance of a Delegate for the Diocese and Hermit candidate), dioceses (beyond the Delegate) are precisely the ones to assist in the discernment of a c. 603 vocation. Thus, your final question is exactly right. Dioceses should think that c 603 is to be used to (admit) to canonical standing a vocation that has been long in development and is already largely "formed". After all, there are other ways to live eremitical life. C 603 is only one way and not everyone is meant to live as a solitary hermit in the name of the Church even when their eremitical vocation seems very certain.

Again, because I believe in this approach to c 603 vocations, I have written about a process which can work for dioceses and for hermits and their Directors (diocesan delegates). It is not a program, but a process drawn organically from the requirements of c 603 itself, and for that reason does not impose arbitrary time frames or stages which are more appropriate for coenobitical religious life. I believe the canon was artfully (wonderfully!) wrought; it stresses the freedom of the hermit within a given set of essential (not optional!) characteristics. The addition of additional and strict time frames, etc., which are not drawn from the canon itself will actually "offend" against the sufficiency and beauty of the canon and the life it defines. Ironically, only a process drawn directly from the canon itself can do justice to the canon and the vocation it governs. 

The single point in the canon which allows this, the single requirement marking the combination of lived experience, one's personal and mature embrace of the essential canonical elements, institutional supervision and accompaniment, and one's growth in and commitment to an authentic (responsible and ecclesial) eremitical freedom is the requirement that the hermit write her own (liveable) Rule of Life. The process, therefore, grows directly and organically out of the hermit's varying and various attempts to fulfill this requirement. 

Addendum: A postscript on the absence of time frames from c 603:

One final word re your question on why c 603 does not provide time frames as a kind of P.S. Given the care with which the canon has been crafted, my sense is the authors wanted dioceses to use the contents of the canon itself to gauge the quality and readiness for consecration of the vocation in front of them. I believe they knew that once time frames were set up in one diocese others would follow and the time frames themselves would become the markers used for gauging readiness, etc. In the various offerings of canonists writing on c 603, what stands out is the use of time frames without any real discussion of the depths of the vocation itself or the essential characteristics of the c 603 vocation. Thus, as dioceses pick up these books, they fasten on the time frames (for these are more easily understandable and accessible) and not on true discernment of an eremitical vocation. The approach of hermits to the matter is quite different --- give the individual time to grow into a contemplative and then, if they feel called to this, into a hermit, and perhaps too, to one with a c 603 vocation (again, there are other avenues for living eremitical life, after all). In such a process, the hermit will need to find someone who can accompany her through all of this, and she will turn to the diocese with whom she will discern the vocation mutually when she reaches this point of readiness.

Feast of the Baptism of Jesus (Reprise)

 Of all the feasts we celebrate, this Sunday's feast of the baptism of Jesus is one of the most difficult for us to understand. We are used to thinking of baptism as a solution to original sin instead of the means of our initiation into the death and resurrection of Jesus, or our adoption as daughters and sons of God and heirs to his Kingdom, or again, as a consecration to God's very life and service. When viewed this way, and especially when we recall that John's baptism was one of repentance for sin, how do we make sense of a sinless Jesus submitting to it?

I think two points need to be made here. First, Jesus grew into his vocation. His Sonship was real and completely unique but not completely developed or historically embodied from the moment of his conception; rather it was something he embraced more and more fully over his lifetime. Secondly, his Sonship was the expression of solidarity with us and his fulfillment of the will of his Father to be God-with-us. Jesus will incarnate the Logos of God definitively in space and time, but this event we call the incarnation encompasses and is only realized fully in his life, death, and resurrection -- not in his nativity. Only in allowing himself to be completely transparent to this Word, only in "dying to self," and definitively setting aside all other possible destinies does Jesus come to fully embody and express the Logos of God in a way which expresses his solidarity with us as well.

It is probably the image of Baptism-as-consecration and commissioning then which is most helpful to us in understanding Jesus' submission to John's baptism. Here the man Jesus is set apart as the one in whom God will truly "hallow his name." (That is, in Jesus' weakness and self-emptying God's powerful presence (Name) will make all things Holy and a sacrament of God's presence.) Here, in an act of manifest commitment, Jesus' humanity is placed completely at the service of the living God and of those to whom God is committed. Here his experience as one set apart or consecrated by and for God establishes God as completely united with us and our human condition. This solidarity is reflected in his statement to John that together they must fulfill the will of God. And here too Jesus anticipates the death and resurrection he will suffer for the sake of both human and Divine destinies which, in him, will be reconciled and inextricably wed to one another. His baptism establishes the pattern not only of HIS humanity, but that of all authentic humanity. So too does it reveal the nature of true Divinity, for our's is a God who becomes completely subject to our sinful reality in order to free us for his own entirely holy one.

I suspect that even at the end of the Christmas season we are still scandalized by the incarnation. (Recent conversations on CV's and secularity make me even surer of this!) We still stumble over the intelligibility of this baptism, and the propriety of it especially. Our inability to fathom Jesus' own baptism, and our tendency to be shocked by it because of Jesus' identity, just as JohnBp was probably shocked, says we are not comfortable, even now, with a God who enters exhaustively into our reality. We remain uncomfortable with a Jesus who is tempted like us in ALL THINGS, and matures into his identity as God's only begotten Son.

We are puzzled by one who is holy as God is holy and, as the creed affirms, "true God from true God" and who, even so, is consecrated to and by the one he calls Abba --- and commissioned to the service of this Abba's Kingdom and people. A God who wholly identifies with us, takes on our sinfulness, and comes to us in smallness, weakness, submission and self-emptying is really not a God we are comfortable with --- despite three weeks of Christmas celebrations and reflections, and a prior four weeks of preparation -- is it? In fact, none of this was comfortable for Jews or early Christians either. The Jewish leadership was upset by JnBp's baptisms generally because they took place outside the Temple precincts and structures (that is, in the realm we literally call profane). Early Christians (Jewish and otherwise) were embarrassed by Jesus' baptism by John --- as Matt's added explanation of the reasons for it in vv 14-15 indicate. They were concerned that perhaps it indicated Jesus' inferiority to John the Baptist, and they wondered if maybe it meant that Jesus had sinned prior to his baptism. And perhaps this embarrassment is as it should be. Perhaps the scandal attached to this baptism signals to us we are beginning to get things right theologically.

After all, today's feast tells us that Jesus' public ministry begins with a ritual washing, consecration, and commissioning by God which is similar to our own baptismal consecration. The difference is that Jesus' freely accepts life under the sway of sin in his baptism just as he wholeheartedly embraces a public (and one could cogently argue, a thoroughly secular) vocation to proclaim God's sovereignty. The story of the desert temptation or testing that follows this underscores this acceptance. His public life begins with an event that prefigures his end as well. There is a real dying to self involved here, not because Jesus has a false self which must die -- as each of us has --- but because in these events his life is placed completely at the disposal of his God, his Abba, in solidarity with us. Loving another, affirming the being of another in a way which subordinates one's own being to theirs but gains authentic selfhood in the process --- putting one's own life at their disposal and surrendering all other life-possibilities always entails a death of sorts -- and a kind of rising to new life as well. The dynamics present on the cross are present here too; here we see only somewhat less clearly a complete and obedient (that is open and responsive) submission to the will of God, and an unfathomable subjection to that which human sinfulness makes necessary precisely in order that God's love may be exhaustively present and conquer here as well.

Feast of the Epiphany

There is something stunning about the story of the Epiphany and we often don't see or hear it, I think, because the story is so familiar to us. It is the challenge which faces us precisely because our God is one who comes to us in littleness, weakness, and obscurity, and meets us in the unexpected and even unacceptable place. It is truly stunning, I think, to find three magi (whoever these were and whatever they represented in terms of human power, wealth, and wisdom) recognizing in a newborn baby, not only the presence of a life with cosmic significance but, in fact, the incarnation of God and savior of the world. I have rarely been particularly struck by this image of the Magi meeting the child Jesus and presenting him with gifts, but this year I see it clearly as a snapshot of the entire Gospel story with all its hope, wonder, poignancy, challenge, and demand.

If the identities of the Magi are unclear, the dynamics of the picture are not. Here we have learned men who represent all of the known world and the power, wealth, and knowledge therein, men who spend their lives in search of (or at least watching for the coming of) something which transcends their own realms and its wisdom and knowledge, coming to kneel and lay symbols of their wealth and wisdom before a helpless, Jewish baby of common and even questionable birth. They ostensibly identify this child, lying in a feeding trough, as the King of the Jews. Yes, they followed a star to find him, but even so, their recognition of the nature and identity of this baby is surprising. Especially so is the fact that they come to worship him. The stunning nature of this epiphany is underscored by the story of the massacre of the male babies in Bethlehem by the Jewish ruler, Herod. Despite his being heralded as the messiah, and so too, the Jewish King, there is nothing apparently remarkable about the baby from  Herod's perspective, nothing, that is, which allows him to be distinguished from any other male baby of similar age --- unless of course, one can see him with eyes of humility and faith --- and so, the story goes, Herod has all such babies indiscriminately killed.

One child, two antithetical attitudes and responses: the first, an openness which leads to recognition and the humbling subordination of worship; the second, an attitude of a closed mind, of defensiveness, ambition, and self-protection, an attitude of fear which leads not only to a failure of recognition but to arrogant and murderous oppression. And in between these two attitudes and responses, we must also see the far more common ones marking lives which miss this event altogether. In every case, the Christ Event marks the coming of the sovereign, creator, God among us, but in the littleness, weakness, and obscurity of ordinary human being. In this way God meets us each in the unexpected and even unacceptable place (the manger, the cross, human being, self-emptying, weakness, companionship with serious sinners, sinful death, etc) --- if we only have the eyes of faith which allow us to recognize and worship him!