Why Canon 603?

Hi Sister, I found the following questions written to another hermit but I couldn't find an answer anywhere. Could you answer them? Also, I especially wondered if there were no formal or institutionalized forms of eremitical life before 1983. The person writing this question seems to say there was only one traditional form of eremitical life until then and the 1983 canonical form is somehow a perversion or at least a negation of the "traditional form". 

Here is what I read: [[But I do sense and have cited instances noticed, of the division that is being created, plus some detraction even if subtle or recently reworded. Eventhough you state correctly that the centuries-and-into-antiquity style of hermit vocation should not be demeaned, the traditional historic way of hermit life is in effect being negated or presented/treated as illegal by virtue of having the relative recent, diocese hermit path "legalized" by a canon law with procedural structure created by humankind, albeit clerics, but perhaps some who wanted this structure and stature developed, lobbied for and assisted in the creation of the canon law.

So again, to re-cap; my sincere appreciation if you can shed light at least on the reason why a canon law to legalize and make public, organized, and structured a diocese hermit vocation--was determined necessary to begin with, or who promoted the diocese hermit or "by law" type of public profession into the hands of a bishop over private profession in and consecration by God?]]

::Sigh:: I have written about this an awful lot over the past 17 years or so, so let me be brief and point you to past posts. First of all, while one form of eremitical life is called canonical (because it is an ecclesial life that is normative of what the Catholic Church understands such a life to be) and another is called non-canonical (that is, not normative nor appropriately governed as such vocations need to be), this does not mean the second one is "illegal" (nor that those living it are not leading exemplary lives the church respects). Only one person I know of has called the lay eremitical vocation illegal; she did that in a way that tended to demean her own non-canonical vocation and I wrote a piece against this. Later, I had the sense she thought I had said lay eremitical vocations were "illegal".

Some forms of eremitical life have been made canonical (normative) for hundreds and hundreds of years --- long before there was a universal Code of Canon Law. These include monasteries or hermitages associated with the Carmelites, the Carthusians, the Camaldolese, and so forth. In the Middle Ages anchoresses and anchorites (women and men) as well as hermits (always men) were supervised by local bishops and practices governing anchorholds including liturgical praxia were developed as were regulations for hermits seeking permission to wear the hermit tunic or preach openly. In such cases, local dioceses had canons (norms) regarding such vocations, despite the lack of a universal code in their regard. So, no, it is not the case that there has been only one kind of hermit living "traditional" hermit life on their own until 1983 when Canon 603 came to recognize the new possibility of consecrated solitary eremitical life.

Bishop Remi de Roo

The Church, however, came to recognize that God had entrusted her with all forms of eremitical life, and she had failed to sufficiently regard the solitary eremitical life as well as it deserved. Perhaps she distrusted these solitary hermits; perhaps she felt they were too hard to regulate or even shepherd. Sometimes, eccentricity replaced authenticity and individuality detracted from one's participation as a member of the body of Christ. (Paul Giustiniani wrote that solitary hermits were no longer valid given Eucharistic and other sacramental changes in the Church.) 

Whatever the reasons (and there were likely many along the lines noted!) when long-solemnly-professed monks discerned callings to live lives of eremitical solitude, they had to leave their congregations and seek laicization so that they might live as hermits because their congregations did not include this option for members in their proper law. About a dozen of these monks came together as lay (or ordained) hermits under Bishop Remi de Roo in BC, who became their bishop protector and eventually gave a very perspicacious intervention at Vatican II regarding how the Church should esteem these vocations. De Roo recognized that this tiny group of men represented the tip of a potentially very large iceberg and wanted the Church to esteem these vocations as they deserved.

During Vatican II seemingly nothing happened as a result of De Roo's intervention --- none of the documents even mentioned eremitical life. Still, in light of the shifts in church life, attitudes, and praxis brought about by Vatican II, the Code of Canon Law needed to be rewritten. Amid this re-writing, the Church added canons 603-605, recognizing solitary hermits, consecrated virgins living in the world, and the bishop's responsibility to remain open to new forms of consecrated life respectively. What the Church has tried to do with Canon 603 is honor the solitary eremitical vocation as a gift of God to the Church. She has come to recognize its importance to her life and she has provided a canonical (normative) way for individuals who feel called to live this way, to be professed and consecrated by God through the Church's mediation. Hermits whose consecration and professions are canonical become Catholic Hermits, meaning they are permitted to live their lives in "the name of the Church" as God has called them to. Such vocations are mutually discerned while such an identity (Catholic Hermit) is a right and obligation entrusted to the person by the Church herself in a public (canonical) Rite of consecration beyond that of baptism. 

I am convinced that by making the solitary eremitical vocation canonical, the church will say to all genuine hermits, whether canonical or non-canonical, that the church esteems such vocations as a gift of God to the world. At the same time, the Church has recognized that this vocation is a difficult one and relatively rare since few human beings will be called (or able) to achieve the fullness of authentic humanity in the silence of solitude. Far more frequent will be those who seek isolation or individualism, who say with Charlie Brown, [[ I love humanity!! It's People I hate!!]], or who are seeking escape in what contemporary culture calls "Cocooning". The reason for Canon 603 is to codify and provide for the supervision of an ecclesial life that is truly given over to love --- the love of God, of self, and of the whole of God's creation. Hermits generally need such a context if they are not to slide into these forms of eremitical "heresy" or even "apostasy". Common knowledge recognizes and reflects this tendency to distortions and selfishness in all of the stereotypes and derogatory notions it holds regarding what constitutes a "hermit". The establishment of stable forms and states of consecrated life is the task of the Church, and C 603 is part of this achievement for those called to solitary eremitical life.

As I think again about "Why Canon 603?" I remember that when I first googled hermits what showed up was a long list dedicated to "hermit crabs". Second, came all of the eccentric or stereotypical references to "hermits" --- misanthropes, psychopaths, social failures, and so forth. Finally, there were a very few references to authentic hermits whose lives witnessed to a serious commitment to God and authentic humanity lived for the sake of the other. Over the past 40 years, C 603 has become part of helping others reconsider the nature of healthy eremitical life and appreciate the importance of the silence of solitude in every life.

Please check the labels to the right of this post to find similar responses. See especially Canon 603 - history.

Feast of Jesus' Baptism (Reprise)

 Of all the feasts we celebrate, the 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 --- a new way of being human. 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 that 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 ours is a God who becomes completely subject to our sinful reality 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 CVs 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 indicates. 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 that 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 that subordinates one's own being to theirs --- 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 so that God's love may be exhaustively present and conquer here as well.

Christmas 2023 - New Year's 2024 and the Canticle of the Turning

I have posted this in the past at points when I have experienced something in the day's liturgy that speaks directly to me in a way that lets me know God is present and active, and intimately so. I have written in the past that my spiritual director and I have been doing a particular kind of inner work that leads to the healing of various forms of personal woundedness. There have been moments in the past 7.5 years where I have experienced significant healing and the sense of newness that comes with that and I have written about this occasionally --- the last time with the publication of "Classical Gas" which so well-reflected the way I was feeling. 

This Christmas/New Year's has been the same kind of season: a time of great promise and the realization of that promise achieved in unimaginable ways. God's grace and a lot of hard work (made possible via Grace!) have achieved the deepest and most fundamental healing Sister Marietta and I have been working towards. As a result, the language of Mary's Magnificat has been strong in my mind, along with the promise associated with Paul's letter to the Romans, and also this song that so beautifully echoes the Magnificat. (Because some of my own experience is the result of trauma (childhood and young adult) whose deepest effects reach into the present, many lines in this song speak to me vividly; today it was, [[. . .Your mercy will last from the depths of the past to the end of the age to be.]] God is doing something new (kainetes) in our world with the Christ Event; God is doing something new in (and through) us in Christ. 

Unimaginable healing and growth can come to us when we let the Spirit of the Risen Christ and his Abba work in us in this way. He does not spurn our weakness; instead, it is in and through our weakness that God's power is perfected! (2 Cor 12:9) Through the transformation of that same weakness into the medium of God's grace, our own brokenness can become the astonishing revelation of God's wisdom and justice. Let us open our hearts to God's creative presence in ways that resonate with Mary's song and with this Canticle of the Turning as well! 

My thanks again to Sister Michelle Sherliza, OP for the wonderful video version of this song.

New Year's Day 2024

Some will remember posts on the two Greek words used to speak about newness, particularly kainetes or kaine which refers to the qualitative newness that comes when God heals, renews, and gives us a place to stand in God's life. It contrasts with the form of newness (neos) that is used to refer toa situation like getting a new pair of shoes --- something that is new today and old tomorrow and doesn't really remake us or our future in substantive ways. Our celebration of Christmas is the celebration of God, together with Jesus and his family, beginning something brand new in our world, namely, God's own assumption of a  personal place in space and time. He does this so that he might be the God who dwells with us and in and through us is allowed to touch and recreate the whole of reality so that God might be all in all. This is our vocation. It is also what constitutes us as truly human. At the same time, it constitutes God's own will and destiny. 

I am getting ready to teach Romans this year (Jan-June) and I am anticipating the Spirit of God bringing newness to birth in the lives of those who are participating in the class. Romans will surprise and even shock folks in some ways --- especially if they have tended to hear it in short elections at Mass, or if their notion of salvation is too-highly individualized. One of the most striking things that Paul teaches the early Church is precisely that our God-willed destiny is not about going to heaven, and even less about existing as a disembodied soul after death, but instead is about being part of the new heaven and new earth that will come when God is all in all. As noted above, it is the whole of reality that is recreated, a process that began especially with Jesus' resurrection (the climax of the Incarnation of God in Jesus' life) and the victory of God over godlessness, sin, and death.

We have so focused on "getting to heaven" that many of us have disregarded and even participated without care in the destruction of God's good creation --- as though salvation is an "us and God only" affair. Similarly, Christians have treated God's Chosen People as though God has changed his mind and rejected them, rather than recognizing God's election has been extended to us and to all the nations in the world. We tend to treat the Risen Christ as though he is still locked in his tomb (though we may exchange a tabernacle for a rock-hewn cave here) rather than alive and active in the Holy Spirit everywhere and for/with everyone.

As we begin this new year, we might first take note of what we think we know about God, ourselves, and the future we look forward to -- usually without asking mature and searching questions. How many theological words do we use routinely without ever asking what they really mean? How many know, for instance, that heaven is not so much a place, but a euphemism for God's own self and that it can thus refer to God's own life shared with us? Christian Theologians will recognize that a central task of their work is guarding the docta ignorantia future (the "learned unknowing" of the future). 

Rahner wrote that the "critical role of theology is to resist closure with regard to the future, to recognize what we do not know". (cf. Theological Investigations, vol XII, "The Question of the Future") Christian humility involves this kind of awareness --- though, too often our teachers may have failed to give us a real sense of this. When coupled with a radical trust in God's promise we can enter our world with greater hope and commitment to work in Christ and the power of the Spirit toward that new heaven and earth God so yearns for. While we cannot do this ourselves alone, science tells us time is short and prudent action is urgent; our faith tells us the choice is a critical one (in every sense of the term critical!!).

All good wishes for a fruitful and truly New Year!!

Born in Littleness and Vulnerability: Jesus, God-With-Us

Celebrations of Christmas this year have been bittersweet, both in the larger conflict-fraught world, and here at Stillsong. Many parishioners at St P's have been searching for ways to participate, to worship and celebrate liturgies, and hear homilies that are truly life-giving. Some have gone to other parishes, and others attend Mass some Sundays at a nearby college. All but a few of our small daily Mass community have ceased coming as pre-Vatican II sensibilities replace a vibrant faith life  -- a response that is both completely understandable and very sad. Many have simply given up on the Church as unresponsive and geared toward clericalist retrenchment. The pain of loss is palpable and the hunger for genuine community and a liturgy that can be prayed is a hunger that today is only occasionally met at St P's. 

To be able to come together then Christmas morning for Mass at a nearby chapel was wonderful. We were a small group. That brought resonances of the early church and its house churches for me. There was no choir except ourselves, which was wonderful because everyone sang their hearts out! (Because we were so few, Father asked if we felt up to singing and there was a unanimous "Yes!!") And so we celebrated the feast, a small community of faith gathered around a creche and God's altar.  It is Christmas and God comes to dwell with us in littleness and vulnerability --- both His and our own!! We came together to pray in our own pain, loss, and hopefulness; and today --- we also came together in our joy at God's presence amongst us and the way it draws us together and then sends us out to proclaim the Gospel in our own weakness and vulnerability.

For months now I have been reflecting on the name Emmanuel and the idea that ours is a God who wills to dwell with us. He wills this as his own deepest yearning and destiny. I have written that Emmanuel describes all of this and that it is also a good way to describe our own vocations to authentic humanity. We too are meant to be those with whom God dwells. To be Emmanuel, that is our nature and destiny, God-With-Us. As the reading from Hebrews reminds us, God has been revealed (made known and real in space and time) in partial and fragmentary ways, and now in Jesus, he will be revealed in fullness. Once again we have a chance to recommit to and continue this vocational task ourselves. From the perspective of Jesus' nativity, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we will also grow in grace and stature as God comes to dwell within us more and more fully. With and in Christ we allow ourselves to become more and more transparent to his presence and to authentic humanity, more and more Emmanuel ourselves.

Peace to all of you who read here. I wish you a wonderful Christmas season!! 

Sister Laurel O'Neal, Er Dio

Diocese of Oakland

A Lullabye for the Infant Jesus

 I spoke with a Franciscan friend this afternoon about Christmas plans. She shared that, partly to mark the 800th anniversary of St Francis and the Creche, her house was using the above carol (and the same version) to conclude their evening prayer. Susan believes that trumpets are more suited to Easter; for Christmas we need lullabies!! I love the Celtic sound and the minimalist accompaniment done by Yo Yo Ma who supplements the drone of bagpipes. All good wishes for this Christmas Feast. May it truly be a time of nativity, new birth and new creation for us all. 

Wexford Carol

Good people all, this Christmas time,

Consider well and bear in mind

What our good God for us has done

In sending his beloved son

With Mary holy we should pray,

To God with love this Christmas Day

In Bethlehem upon that morn,

There was a blessed Messiah born.

The night before that happy tide,

The noble Virgin and her guide

Were long time seeking up and down

To find a lodging in the town.

But mark how all things came to pass

From every door repelled, alas,

As was foretold, their refuge all

Was but a humble ox’s stall.

Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep

Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep

To whom God’s angels did appear

Which put the shepherds in great fear

Prepare and go, the angels said

To Bethlehem, be not afraid

For there you’ll find, this happy morn

A princely babe, sweet Jesus, born.

With thankful heart and joyful mind

The shepherds went the babe to find

And as God’s angel had foretold

They did our Saviour Christ behold

Within a manger he was laid

And by his side the virgin maid

Attending on the Lord of Life

Who came on earth to end all strife.

There were three wise men from afar

Directed by a glorious star

And on they wandered night and day

Until they came where Jesus lay

And when they came unto that place

Where our beloved Messiah lay

They humbly cast them at his feet

With gifts of gold and incense sweet.

Irish Version 

(Carúl Loch Garman).

Ó, tagaig’ uile is adhraigí

An leanbh cneasta sa chró ‘na luí

Is cuimhnígí ar ghrá an Rí

A thug dár saoradh anocht an Naí.

’S a Mhuire Mháthair i bParrthas Dé,

Ar chlann bhocht Éabha guigh ‘nois go caomh,

Is doras an chró ná dún go deo

Go n-adhram’ feasta Mac Mhuire Ógh.

I mBeithil thoir i lár na hoích’

Ba chlos an deascéala d’aoirí,

Go follas don saol ón spéir go binn

Bhí aingle ‘canadh ó rinn go rinn.

“Gluaisig’ go beo,” dúirt Aingeal Dé,

“Go Beithil sall is gheobhaidh sibh É

‘Na luí go séimh i mainséar féir,

Siúd É an Meisias a ghráigh an saol.”

Gaudete Sunday and the Sacrament of Anointing (Revised)

 Each year on this Sunday we celebrate the Anointing of the Sick; we did NOT do so this morning. I missed it for I am always really moved as we each come forward and stand in a semi-circle in front of the whole assembly while facing the altar as the priest moves to each of us, lays on hands, prays, and then comes to each of us again anointing us on forehead and hands. I ordinarily come forward because I live with chronic illness and because I want to remain open to God bringing good out of whatever suffering is involved --- including whatever deep healing (God) will accomplish within me.

In the past I have felt keenly my need for healing, but too, my compassion for all those who stood in front of our brothers and sisters in Christ and implicitly proclaimed our vulnerability and need for one another and the prayers of each and all. We each have our own story of personal suffering, brokenness, illness, and neediness --- and we also have our significant stories of the Christ who comforts and strengthens us in every difficulty. I don't know the details of all of these stories -- though yes, I know a few; in every case, however, I know how moving it is to witness to the Gospel in weakness and brokenness and how inspiring to stand silently with others who, though tacit about what the details of their vulnerability involve,  say clearly with their presence that they trust in God, trust in the Sacraments, trust in the support of the ecclesia and cannot, in fact must not, do otherwise.

We each come to this Sacrament looking for God to work miracles -- "acts of power" as the NT puts it ---  whether or not there is physical healing. We come as supplicants looking for God to transform our weakness into a complex canvas at once flawed and sacred, a Divine work of art, Magnificats proclaiming the One who is sovereign and victorious over the powers of sin and death even as (he) embraces and transforms them with his love and presence. It is especially significant that we do this on the day proclaiming the greatness of JnBap who is the greatest of "those born of women" and who prepared the way of the Lord who, [[Strengthen(s) the feeble hands, (and) make(s) firm the knees that are weak, say(s) to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.]] (Isaiah, today's first reading.)

Through the years I have written of a vocation to chronic illness -- a vocation to be ill within the Church, to bear our illness in Christ and (thanks to James Empereur, sj) of the sacrament of anointing as a prophetic sacrament of commissioning and call. This is what we have celebrated at St P's on this Gaudete Sunday: brothers and sisters in Christ who came forth together in their vulnerability and need in order to be strengthened in our witness to Christ and help inspire the faith and prayer of the entire assembly. Physical healing is not necessary for the effectiveness of this sacrament (though we certainly open ourselves to it) but the increasing ability to bear our illness in Christ --- the ability to trust in and witness to the God whose power is perfected in weakness and who puts an end to fear and deep insecurity is the real vocation here. 

All of this becomes especially meaningful in light of Gaudete Sunday with its strong notes of hope and joy. It is also critically important because the sacrament of anointing (or of the sick) is a vocational sacrament. As I noted last week, Paul's theology recognizes such a vocation to suffering precisely because as Christians, we are not preparing to escape to heaven, but rather are called to be those who allow God in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to be Emmanuel here and now. The God of Jesus Christ has determined he will be God-with-us as he recreates heaven and earth so that ultimately he might be all in all. Today we celebrate the joy we know because of this divine will and the hopefulness we trustingly hold despite our suffering. As Isaiah reminds us, such trust can lead to strong hands capable of touching others with compassion and gentleness; likewise, it can result in "knees" that support us as we try to stand tall in our own truth --- glorifying God and singing our lives with a joy that comes when we truly know and entrust ourselves to his creative love.

Second Sunday of Advent: Waiting Upon God in Hope

During the past month, I have been reading NT Wright's, Into the Heart of Romans in preparation for Bible study on the book of Romans. Wright's work is an intense "deep dive" into the 8th chapter of the letter, the heart of the book and perhaps the most sublime piece of all Paul's writing. I am anticipating this study being full of surprises and challenges for our class, especially in two areas: first, the ultimate promise of Jesus' death and resurrection and the sending of the Spirit is NOT a disembodied eternal life in heaven, but the eventual coming of a new heaven and a new earth in which God, in the language of Revelations, is all in all. NT Wright has rather famously said, [[the goal of our lives is not life after death, but life after life after death]]. 

This leads to a theology where the goal of life is not "getting to heaven" but instead to an ongoing commitment to a world where the creator and covenant God dwells with and through us as he did in and through Jesus. The second related area of surprise and challenge is a shift in our theologies of suffering. Ordinarily, we think of suffering as the result of estrangement from God; intimacy with God is marked by peace and the absence of suffering. However, in this theology where we are on the way to a new heaven and new earth, we suffer with and in Christ in the power of the Spirit as we live in love and hope so that we might demonstrate the full content of the Gospel to others. These two shifts have repercussions for our faith all along the line, not least in terms of ethics, character development, our commitment to God's good creation, the way we approach life in this world, the idea of vocation, any suffering that comes our way, etc. The climax of Romans 8 is expressed in two statements, 1) Therefore there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, and 2) Nothing at all can separate us from the love of God. We are called to live our lives in light of these related affirmations.

During the rest of Advent, I will try to write a bit more about Wright's reading of Paul's theology and some of the implications. For now, I want to focus on the fact that Paul has reworked his Jewish faith in terms of the God of creation and covenant who is fully revealed in Jesus as Emmanuel. We believe in a God whose greatest desire is to dwell with us and who, in Christ's life, death, and resurrection, has begun the complete recreation of heaven and earth. This means that the human vocation is to live a covenantal life with God so that in and with us in the power of the Spirit God may be glorified in his creation --- the WHOLE of God's creation. 

At a time when Christians often treat reverence for creation as something far down any list of priorities because their sights are set on heaven (some even suggest destroying this world to initiate the end times and get them to heaven more quickly!), Paul's vision of God's will and intentions may be a shock. Those embracing a dualistic spirituality where heaven and a disembodied existence leaving material bodies behind forever will be similarly astounded when this vision is revealed to be contrary to both God's will for his creation and humanity's ultimate destiny. For those who suffer in various ways and who tend to associate suffering only in conjunction with personal sin and a lack of intimacy with God, or who may believe that because one suffers one must not pray well enough or must have a deficient spirituality, this alternate vision will also be a surprise. After all, it means we are invited to understand our present suffering as part of an inestimable vocation to be images of God's presence in our world in, with, and through God's Christ and the power of the Spirit. 

Today's readings focus on images related to these "new" theological ideas. Even so, I was struck as I listened to them just how infrequently homilists take them seriously or preach on them. For instance: [[According to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness (God's justice-making presence, especially when embraced by human beings) dwells.]] (2 Peter 3:8-14) God is doing something new and is doing it in our midst.  Importantly, God depends upon our cooperation for the fruits of the new creation begun in Jesus' death and resurrection to be fully realized. God desires that new heaven and earth where, through Jesus' death and resurrection, God dwells with, in, and through us as Emmanuel.

Waiting is rarely easy and Advent puts a significant accent on waiting. But we are not called merely to wait passively; instead, we are called to wait upon, and even more specifically, to wait upon God. Of course, we wait for God's will to be completely accomplished in our world, yet we do this by waiting upon God in the sense of serving him and his will until the "final" day. We are those who do the will of God in this world as we anticipate the coming of the new heaven and new earth. This means our waiting is active and full. In waiting we act to let God make us the people God calls us to be. This means we act to steward our world in the way the Creator God wills and always did will us to steward it.  It means we commit freshly to allow God to be Emmanuel, and to make us more and more into those who are Imago Dei for one another and for the sake of the whole of God's creation. 

Already, because of Christ's death and resurrection, our world is not the same as it was before the Christ Event. And now, we are asked to claim our vocation to work with God freshly -- as he brings that changed world to an unimaginable completion. It is not a medieval disembodied heaven we are working and living towards. It is a new heaven and a new earth. We are called to participate in that recreation and completion NOW by glorifying the God of creation and covenant in this world. Reclaiming that vocation by stewarding his creation and suffering with and in Christ is something we embrace in hope remembering that in light of Jesus' death and resurrection, there is no condemnation, and too, that nothing at all can separate us from the love of God. 

First Sunday of Advent (Reprise)

All good wishes on this first Sunday of Advent! "Adventus" is a season where we prepare to see the surprising ways God works in our lives, where we are especially cognizant of the choices that allow God to be active deep within our own hearts and within our larger world; it is where we learn to look more closely and attentively at everything within and around so that we are prepared to respond as fully as possible to this God of newness and surprises.

For many of us there is a paring down to the essentials to make all this possible. We also take greater care and time with our own self-inventory, our own inner work --- especially as that allows the life of God to move through and fill us. And of course, we make sure there is sufficient silence to truly hear the movements of our own hearts and the God who would be Emmanuel by taking up complete residence there. These are the really essential "preparations for Christmas" which put shopping and other things we also must do in their proper place.

I find it awesome to consider that the God who would "tent" among us has chosen my own heart and soul, my own mind and body --- with all of their flaws and weaknesses --- to reveal the fullness and perfection of Divine love made manifest in Christ. But through the past months I have watched the greening of new life nascent within me; I have seen it where I thought it could never be and sometimes where I thought it had been quenched forever. Ours is a God of newness and life and we are called to allow these to spring up within us wherever they will. He is faithful beyond telling and does not disappoint. So I am reminded that the season begins with a single candle in the darkness. It will end with a blaze of light and warmth -- and especially that of the light of Christ within us --- if only we allow it.

 May these weeks of preparation see the kindling of new life and light even when it begins with a small and sometimes stuttering flame in the midst of great darkness. Especially, may we all come to know more intimately the surprising God of newness who takes up residence and "tents" within and among us in Christ; He is the God who treasures our poverty and weakness and transforms and transfigures these into the mangers and lamps of his life and love.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

Miserando atque Eligendo: A Mercy That Does Justice as it Creates a Future (Reprise)

Quite often this blog is a way in which I work out theological positions, especially in terms of the nature and charism of eremitical life, the relation of Gospel and Law (often canon law!!), or of mercy and justice. In reflecting on Friday's readings from 1 Sam and Mark I was reminded of Pope Francis' jubilee year of Mercy and of his coat of arms and motto: Miserando atque Eligendo. In 1 Sam David shows mercy to Saul despite Saul's commitment to killing him and is deemed by Saul to be worthy of Kingship by virtue of this act. An act of mercy is presented as having the power to change Saul's heart as nothing else does. The lection from Mark deals with the calling of the twelve. Together they represent a single pastoral impulse, a single imperative, the impulse and imperative also marking the entirety of Francis' Episcopacy and Pontificate and this Jubilee year of mercy as well: Miserando atque eligendo.

Francis translates the first word of his motto as a gerund, "Mercifying". He sees his episcopacy as being about the mercification of the church and world; the motto as a whole means "To Mercify (to embrace wretchedness) and to Call". This can even be translated as, "I will mercify (that is, make the world whole by embracing its wretchedness in the power of God's love) and (or "and even further") call (or choose) others" who will be commissioned in the same way. Francis speaks of the meaning of his motto in his new book, The Name of God is Mercy . He writes, "So mercifying and choosing (calling) describes the vision of Jesus who gives the gift of mercy and chooses, and takes unto himself."  (Kindle location 226) This is simply the way Francis chose to be a Bishop in Christ's Church; it is certainly the face God turned to the world in Jesus and it is the face of the shepherd we have come to associate with the Papacy. It is the way the Church is called to address and transform our world, the way she is called to literally "embrace wretchedness" and create peace and purpose. Mercifying and calling. It is the Way into the future God wills for everyone and everything.

Paul too saw that mercy was the way God creates a future. He writes in his letter to the Romans, [[Or do you hold his priceless kindness, forbearance, and patience in low esteem, unaware that the kindness of God would lead you to repentance?]] In other words it is the kindness or mercy of God, God's forbearance and patience that will create a way forward --- if in fact we take that mercy seriously. What I saw as I read that line from Paul was that Divine mercy is always about creating a way forward when our own actions close off any way of progress at all. God's mercy draws us out of any past we have locked ourselves into and into his own life of "absolute futurity". Let me explain. Often times I have written here that God's mercy IS God's justice. Justice is always about creating and ensuring a future -- both for those wronged, for society as a whole, and for the ones who have wronged another. Justification itself means establishing a person in right relationship with God and the rest of reality; it indicates that person's freedom from enmeshment in the past and her participation in futurity, that is in God's own life. Mercy, which (as I now see clearly) always includes a call to discipleship, is the way God creates and draws us into the future. What is often called "Divine wrath" is just the opposite --- though it can open us to the mercy which will turn things around.

Divine Wrath, Letting the Consequences of our Sin Run:

Wrath, despite the anthropomorphic limitations of language involved, is not Divine anger or a failure or refusal of God to love us. Rather, it is what happens when God respects our freedom and lets the consequences of our choices and behavior run --- the consequences which cut us off from the love and community of others, the consequences which make us ill or insure our life goes off the rails, so to speak, the consequences which ripple outward and affect everyone within the ambit of our lives. Similarly, it is God's letting run the consequences of sin which  lead us to even greater acts of sin as we defend or attempt to defend ourselves against them, try futilely to control matters, and keep our hands on the reins which seem to imply we control our lives and destinies. But how can a God of Love possibly allow the consequences of sin run and still be merciful? I have one story which helps me illustrate this.

I wrote recently of the death of my major theology professor, John Dwyer. In the middle of a moral theology class focusing on the topic of human freedom and responsibility John said that if he saw one of us doing something stupid he would not prevent us. He quickly noted that if we were impaired in some way he would intervene but otherwise, no. Several of us majors were appalled. John was a friend and mentor. Now, we regularly spent time at his house dining with him and his wife Odile and talking theology into the late hours. (It was Odile who introduced me to French Roast coffee and always made sure there was some ready!) Though we students were not much into doing seriously stupid things, we recognized the possibility of falling into such a situation! So when John made this statement we looked quickly at one another with questioning, confused, looks and gestures. A couple of us whispered to each other, "But he LOVES us! How can he say that?" John took in our reaction in a single glance or two, gave a somewhat bemused smile, and explained, "I will always be here for you. I will be here if you need advice, if you need a listening ear. . . and if you should do something stupid I will always be here for you afterwards to help you recover in whatever way I can, but I will not prevent you from doing the act itself."

We didn't get it at all at the time, but now I know John was describing for us an entire complex of theological truths about human freedom, Divine mercy, Divine wrath, theodicy, and discipleship as well: Without impinging on our freedom God says no to our stupidities and even our sin, but he always says yes to us and his yes to us, his mercy, eventually will also win out over sin. John would be there for us in somewhat the same the merciful God of Jesus Christ is there for us. Part of all of this was the way the prospect or truth of being "turned over" to our own freedom and the consequences of our actions also opens us to mercy. To be threatened with being left to ourselves in this way if we misused our freedom --- even with the promise that John would be there for us before, after, and otherwise --- made us think very carefully about doing something truly stupid. John's statement struck us like a splash of astringent but it was also a merciful act which included an implicit call to a future free of serious stupidities, blessed with faithfulness, and marked by genuine freedom. It promised us the continuing and effective reality of John's love and guiding presence, but the prospect of his very definite "no!" to our "sin" was a spur to embrace more fully the love and call to adulthood he offered us.

How much more does the prospect of "Divine wrath" (or the experience of that "wrath" itself) open us to the reality of Divine mercy?! Thus, Divine wrath is subordinate to and can serve Divine mercy; it can lead to a wretchedness which opens us to something more, something other. It can open us to the Love-in-Act that summons and saves. At the same time it is mercy that has the power to redeem situations of wrath, situations of enmeshment in and entrapment by the consequences of one's sin. It is through mercy that God does justice, through mercy that God sets things to rights and opens a future to that which was once a dead end.

Miserando atque Eligendo, The Way of Divine Mercy:

What is critical, especially in light of Friday's readings and Francis' motto it seems to me, is that we understand mercy not only as the gratuitous forgiveness of sin or the graced and unconditional love of the sinner, but that we also see that mercy, by its very nature, further includes a call which leads to embracing a new life. The most striking image of this in the NT is the mercy the Risen Christ shows to Peter. Each time  Peter answers Christ's question, "Do you love me?" he is told, "Feed my Lambs" or "Feed my Sheep." Jesus does not merely say, "You are forgiven"; in fact, he never says, "You are forgiven" in so many words. Instead he conveys forgiveness with a call to a new and undeserved future.

This happens again and again in the NT. It happens in the parable of the merciful Father (prodigal son) and it happens whenever Jesus says something like, "Rise and walk" or "Go, your faith has made you whole," etc. (Go does not merely mean, "Go on away from here" or "Go on living as you were"; it is, along with other commands like "Rise", "Walk" "Come",etc., a form of commissioning which means. "Go now and mercify the world as God has done for you.") Jesus' healing and forgiving touch always involves a call opening the future to the one in need. Mercy, as a single pastoral  impulse, embraces our fruitless and pointless wretchedness even as it calls us to God's  own creative and meaningful blessedness.

The problem of balancing mercy and justice is a false problem when we are speaking of God. I have written about this before in Is it Necessary to Balance Divine Mercy With Justice? and Moving From Fear to Love: Letting Go of the God Who Punishes Evil. What was missing from "Is it necessary. . .?" was the element of call --- though I believe it was implicit since both miserando and eligendo are essential to the love of God which summons us to wholeness. Still, it took Francis' comments on his motto (something he witnesses to with tremendous vividness in every gesture, action, and homily) along with the readings from this Friday to help me see explicitly that the mercification or mercifying of our world means both forgiving and calling people into God's own future. We must not trivialize or sentimentalize mercy (or the nature of genuine forgiveness) by omitting the element of a call.

When we consider that today theologians write about God as Absolute Futurity (cf Ted Peters' works, God, the World's Future, and Anticipating Omega), the association of mercy with the call to futurity makes complete sense and it certainly distances us from the notion of Divine mercy as something weak which must be balanced by justice. Mercy, again, is the way God does justice --- the way he causes our world to be transfigured as it is shot through with eschatological Life and purpose. We may choose an authentic future in God's love or a wounded, futureless reality characterized by enmeshment and isolation in sin, but whichever we choose it is always mercy that sets things right --- if only we will accept it and the call it includes!! Of course it is similarly an authentic future we are called on to offer one another -- just as David offered to Saul and Jesus offered those he healed or those he otherwise called and sent out as his own Apostles. Miserando atque Eligendo!! May we adopt this as the motto of our own lives just as Francis has done, and may we make it our own "modus operandi" for doing justice in our world as Jesus himself did.

St Paul of the Cross (reprise)

Several years ago I did a reflection for my parish. I noted that all through Advent we sing Veni, Veni, Emmanuel and pray that God will come and really reveal Godself as Emmanuel, the God who is with us. I also noted that we may not always realize the depth of meaning captured in the name Emmanuel. We may not realize the degree of solidarity with us and the whole of creation it points to. There are several reasons here. 

          + First, we tend to use Emmanuel only during Advent and Christmastide so we stop reflecting on the meaning or theological implications of the name. 

          + Secondly, we are used to thinking of a relatively impersonal God borrowed from Greek philosophy; he is omnipresent -- rather like air is present in our lives and he is impassible, incapable of suffering in any way at all. Because he is omnipresent, God seems already to be "Emmanuel" so we are unclear what is really being added to what we know (and what is now true!!) of God.  Something is similarly true because of God's impassibility which seems to make God incapable of suffering with us or feeling compassionate toward us. (We could say something similar regarding God's immutability, etc. Greek categories are inadequate for understanding a living God who wills to be Emmanuel with all that implies.) 

          +  And thirdly, we tend to forget that the word "reveal" does not only mean "to make known," but also "to make real in space and time." The eternal and transcendent God who is revealed in space and time as Emmanuel is the God who, in Christ, enters exhaustively into the most profoundly historical and personal lives and circumstances of his Creation and makes these part of his own life in the process.

Thus, just as the Incarnation of the Word of God happens over the whole of Jesus' life and death and not merely with Jesus' conception or nativity, so too does God require the entire life and death of Jesus (that is, his entire living into death) to achieve the degree of solidarity with us that makes him the Emmanuel he wills to be. There is a double "movement" involved here, the movement of descent and ascent, kenosis and theosis. Not only does God-in-Christ become implicated in the whole of human experience and the realm of human history but in that same Christ God takes the whole of the human situation and experience into Godself. We talk about this by saying that through the Christ Event heaven and earth interpenetrate one another and one day God will be all in all or, again, that "the Kingdom of God is at hand." John the Evangelist says it again and again with the language of mutual indwelling and union: "I am in him and he is in me," "he who sees me sees the one who sent me", "the Father and I are One." Paul affirms dimensions of it in Romans 8 when he exults, "Nothing [at all in heaven or on earth] can separate us from the Love of God."

And so, in Jesus' life and active ministry, the presence of God is made real in space and time in an unprecedented way --- that is, with unprecedented authority, compassion, and intimacy. He companions and heals us; he exorcises our demons, teaches, feeds, forgives and sanctifies us. He is mentor and brother and Lord. He bears our stupidities and fear, our misunderstandings, resistance, and even our hostility and betrayals. But the revelation of God as Emmanuel means much more besides; as we move into the Triduum we begin to celebrate the exhaustive revelation, the exhaustive realization of an eternally-willed solidarity with us whose extent we can hardly imagine. In Christ and especially in his passion and death God comes to us in the unexpected and even the unacceptable place. Three dimensions of the cross especially allow us to see the depth of solidarity with us our God embraces in Christ: failure, suffering unto death, and lostness or godforsakenness. Together they reveal our God as Emmanuel --- the one who is with us as the one from whom nothing can ever ultimately separate us because in Christ those things become part of God's own life.

Jesus comes to the cross having apparently failed in his mission and shown his God to be a fraud. (From one perspective we could say that had he succeeded completely there would have been no betrayal, no trial, no torture and no crucifixion.) Jesus had spoken truth to power all throughout his ministry. On the cross this comes to a climax and in the events of Jesus' passion, the powers and principalities of this world appear to swallow him up. But even as this occurs and Jesus embraces the weight of the world's darkness and deathliness, Jesus remains open to God and trusts in his capacity to redeem any failure; thus even failure, but especially this one, can serve the Kingdom of God. Jesus suffers to the point of death and suffers more profoundly than any person in history we can name --- not because he hurt more profoundly than others but because he was more vulnerable to it and chose to embrace that vulnerability and all the world threw at him without mitigation. Suffering per se is not salvific, but Jesus' openness and responsiveness to God (that is, his obedience) in the face of suffering is. Thus, suffering even unto death is transformed into a potential sacrament of God's presence. Finally, Jesus suffers the lostness of godforsakenness or abandonment by God --- the ultimate separation from God due to sin. This is the meaning of not just death but death on a cross. In this death Jesus again remains open (obedient) to the God who reveals himself most exhaustively as Emmanuel and takes even the lostness of sin and death into himself and makes these his own. After all, as the NT reminds us, it is the sick and lost for whom God in Christ comes.

In perhaps the most powerful passage I have ever read on the paradox of the cross of Christ, John Dwyer (my major professor until doctoral work) speaks about God's reconciling work in Jesus --- the exhaustive coming of God as Emmanuel to transform everything --- in this way:

[[Through Jesus, the broken being of the world enters the personal life of the everlasting God, and this God shares in the broken being of the world. God is eternally committed to this world, and this commitment becomes full and final in his personal presence within this weak and broken man on the cross. In him the eternal One takes our destiny upon himself --- a destiny of estrangement, separation, meaninglessness, and despair. But at this moment the emptiness and alienation that mar and mark the human situation become once and for all, in time and eternity, the ways of God. God is with this broken man in suffering and in failure, in darkness and at the edge of despair, and for this reason suffering and failure, darkness and hopelessness will never again be signs of the separation of man from God. God identifies himself with the man on the cross, and for this reason everything we think of as manifesting the absence of God will, for the rest of time, be capable of manifesting his presence --- up to and including death itself.]]

He continues,

[[Jesus is rejected and his mission fails, but God participates in this failure, so that failure itself can become a vehicle of his presence, his being here for us. Jesus is weak, but his weakness is God's own, and so weakness itself can be something to glory in. Jesus' death exposes the weakness and insecurity of our situation, but God made them his own; at the end of the road, where abandonment is total and all the props are gone, he is there. At the moment when an abyss yawns beneath the shaken foundations of the world and self, God is there in the depths, and the abyss becomes a ground. Because God was in this broken man who died on the cross, although our hold on existence is fragile, and although we walk in the shadow of death all the days of our lives, and although we live under the spell of a nameless dread against which we can do nothing, the message of the cross is good news indeed: rejoice in your fragility and weakness; rejoice even in that nameless dread because God has been there and nothing can separate you from him. It has all been conquered, not by any power in the world or in yourself, but by God. When God takes death into himself it means not the end of God but the end of death.]] Dwyer, John C., Son of Man Son of God, a New Language for Faith, p 182-183.

A Contemplative Moment: Morning Prayer

Morning Prayer

by John Philip Newell

In the morning light, O God,

may I glimpse again your image deep within me

the threads of eternal glory

woven into the fabric of every man and woman.

Again may I catch sight of the mystery of the human soul

fashioned in your likeness

deeper than knowing

more enduring than time.

And in glimpsing these threads of light

amidst the weakness and distortions of my life

let me be recalled

to the strength and beauty deep in my soul.

Let me be recalled

to the strength and beauty of your image in every living

soul.

_______________________________________________________

The dignity of the human person is not easy for some to believe in, or even to glimpse, much less to stay attuned to and live in light of. The inner work I do is strongly oriented towards awareness of the presence of God within us as ground and source of all the potentiality we hold uniquely and realize over time. As we abide in God and God abides in us, this incredible revelation of life and divinity at our very core demands our awareness and cultivation if we are to live life as abundantly and authentically as God desires and wills for us. John Philip Newell's prayer captures all of this as it provides an invitation to get in touch with God's call to live the graced integrity we know as imago dei.

Have Mercy on Us (Porter's Gate)

 

 The paradox of Christianity celebrated in song!! 

 [Verse 1] 

The goodness of the Lord is the kindness of the Lord 

With ev'ry breath we take, the gift of life and grace 

The power of the Lord is the meekness of the Lord 

Who bore humanity with brave humility 

 [Chorus]

 Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

 [Verse 2]

 The beauty of the Lord is the suff'ring of the Lord 

Is Christ upon a tree, stripped of dignity 

The glory of the Lord is the mercy of the Lord 

Gives life for us to see a new humanity 

 [Chorus] 

Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

 [Bridge 1] 

When they see us, may they see 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

When they know us, may they know 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

When they see us, may they see 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

When they know us, may they know 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

 [Chorus]

 Let Your mercy flow through us

 Your mercy, Your mercy

 Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

 [Bridge 2]

 Bless the hands and feet 

Of those who serve in need 

Of the broken and ashamed 

Bless the weary soul 

The Lord will make us whole 

God, speak peace to those afraid 

May the words we speak 

Build a bridge for peace 

Your loving kindness shows the way 

Open up our doors 

Giving refuge for 

All the weary and afraid… 

 [Chorus]

 Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy

 Let Your mercy flow through us

 Your mercy, Your mercy 

 [Outro]

 Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

Hermiting: A Life Lived Entirely for God is also a Life Lived Entirely for Others

[[ Hi Sister O'Neal, Congratulations on the Camaldolese leading Morning Prayer for the Synod! It must be exciting to know someone there -- almost like being there yourself in some way!! I read your post on readiness for profession and also the post linked to it on basic questions to ask oneself in writing a Rule, which I hadn't read until tonight. They're both very good but also kind of daunting!! I understand that they are part of an ongoing process of dialogue with formators so that sort of helps them seem less daunting. What struck me clearly was the emphasis on the hermit living her life for the other. I don't think it was ever so clear to me as it was in reading your post on readiness, what a difference it must make whether the hermit life is lived for others or whether it is just about oneself and one's own selfish approach to solitude. 

I've read your pieces for a while now and the "for others" dimension of your life is always there at least implicitly. I never got a sense that your life was selfish, but in thinking about a hermit candidate for profession "struggling" with the paradox of "stricter separation from the world" and being able to articulate how this vocation is really lived for the sake of others, I got a sense of how important it is to you and to the Canon governing your life that the hermit life not be a selfish one. How hard that must be!!! You are asked to separate yourself from the world and live a life of silence and solitude and yet to be engaged with it in a way that helps it be redeemed! Wow!! You know, I thought I had a question for you but now all I have is that "Wow"! 

Does it ever cease to be a struggle -- the balance between solitude and living one's life for others? Do all hermits succeed in not living a selfish life by going off into solitude? I don't know if those are the questions I really want to ask but maybe you could say a little more about all of this when you have time. Oh, I found my question! Do you have it in your mind all the time that your life is lived for the sake of others? Is it something that drives who you are and what you do?]]

Thanks for your comments and your (eventual!) questions!! Good that the one you really wanted to ask came back to you!! I'm glad the emphasis on a life lived for others came through so clearly for you. It is one of the most counter-intuitive pieces of the vocation --- at least when we are thinking of hermits the way most folks tend to do. Today we have a term being used by some, "cocooning", that essentially refers to the idea of shutting oneself away from others. It gained real speed during the pandemic and today is recognized, not as a fad, but as an evolving trend. Some recognize three distinct types of cocooning, some speak of hyper-cocooning to measure the way technology has kept up and combined with the drive to cocoon, but most see all of this as a contemporary version of hermiting. One of the things Canon 603 makes very clear is that this is not so, and one element of Canon 603's vision of ALL eremitical life that does this most vividly is its insistence that eremitical life is a life lived for "the salvation of others".

Yes, this idea is in my mind somewhere all the time --- though not always consciously. Usually, my thoughts go this way: [[This life is lived from, with, and for God, that is, on God's behalf in all of these ways. For this reason, it is also lived for the sake of those whom God loves, and for that reason it should edify and be a source of healing and redemption for them as well. It is unlikely that I will do this in the same way the apostolic Sister does, but hermiting should definitely be ministerial.]] Because I believe that hermiting witnesses with a kind of vividness to what it means to be truly human my sense of being human implies a responsibility to become and be that as fully as possible. One does that by allowing God to be God for us and within us as fully as possible --- even to the point of our becoming transparent to God as Jesus was wholly transparent to God. What we show others then is that human being is a task we are given to accomplish by the grace of God and in which relating to and with God is central. 

For some hermits, all of this will necessarily spill over in some way for the direct benefit of others. Some will write about Eremitical Life or Prayer, for instance. Some will teach Scripture to their parish community, some of us have blogs and do spiritual direction, and some serve as EEMs or Lectors. Even when the hermit's presence in these ways is minimal or she rarely leaves her hermitage or speaks to others, the hermit raises questions for those paying attention: How can she live alone like she does? Does God really call some to give their lives to others in this way? Who could pray all day, how silly (boring, empty, meaningless, etc.) is all that; so why does she do this? Why would she come to minister to us in such minimal ways when she is a religious; shouldn't she be doing more (teaching CCD, RCIA, or leading workshops for Adult Faith Formation, etc.)? Is it really true her life is a ministry all by itself? What can I learn from her?

What I hope you hear in all of this is that the hermit's life is first of all, all about God and all about letting God be God. But this also means God will love the hermit into wholeness. And because of this all of it also means that such a life will reveal to others the very nature of being truly or authentically human, whether this happens through active forms of ministry or not. If the hermit focuses on God and on allowing God to be God, she will become an expression of God's love and that will inevitably spill over in some way to others. Perhaps she never leaves her hermitage except for occasional shopping trips or attendance at Church. Even so, her very life is a ministry for those with ears to hear and eyes to see. At other times, the hermit's life with God will spill over into discrete ministries. Still, in either case, it is not about balance so much as it is about what must always come first, and what will invariably also occur in light of that.

And so it is with every disciple, everyone who desires to minister to others. What the hermit says to the entire Church of ministers is that it is always primarily about letting God be God and loving us into wholeness.  Active ministry must always be built upon this. I remember that (Arch)Bishop Vigneron noted in his homily at my consecration that what I was reminding everyone of on that day is that we each need a place within ourselves that is given over entirely to God. I would push that a bit further because I understand the truth is paradoxical. I would say instead that each of us must be, first and foremost, entirely (wholeheartedly) about letting God be God and then too we can and will also be entirely (wholeheartedly) about the other --- each in our own way as our state of life calls us to be. 

What I try to keep in my mind all the time is this paradox. (It is actually made up of the same thoughts I began this piece with above and both parts drive me.) It helps prevent my life from becoming one of self-absorbed navel-gazing and concern with my own holiness or spiritual 'progression', and on the other hand, it also helps me when I am tempted to say yes to too much active ministry. In this paradox, there will be both work and progress toward greater and greater holiness AND there will be significant ministry. I suppose it is the hermit's outworking of the scripture, [[Seek ye first the Reign (or empowering sovereignty) of God and his righteousness (that is, let God be God), and all of these things shall be added unto you (i.e., everything else will flow freely).]] It is also, of course, an exemplar of the Law of Love.

Camaldolese Lead Morning Prayer at the Synod

Excited not only by the Synod, but by the fact that It is Camaldolese monks leading the schola for yesterday's Morning Prayer. (I understand they will lead MP every day.) I only know Fathers Cyprian (Prior, New Camaldoli) and Matteo (Monestero di Camaldoli), but they are with Br Thomas . (Not sure about the fourth monk.) Play to the end and you can access other segments of the Synod session.

The Sound of Silence (Reprise)

I asked an old monk, "How long have you been here?"
"Forever," he answered. " I smiled.
"Fifty years, Father?"
"Forever."
Did you know St. Benedict?"
"We are novices together."
"Did you know Jesus?"
"He and I converse every day."
I threw away my silly smile, fell to my knees, and clutched his hand.
"Father, " I whispered, "Did you hear the original sound?"
" I am listening to the original sound."

Those who pray contemplatively know this experience. It is the experience of being at the center, of having everything make a new kind of sense and having it feel alive with a new kind of life and light; colors are more vibrant, and flowers and plants seem lit from within with a unique iridescence; the gentle movement of the breeze through the branches occasions awe and even a sudden intake of breath as the everpresent movement of the Holy Spirit becomes symbolically "visible" for a moment. It is the experience of being part of the same story with our Sisters, Mary and Claire, and our Brothers, Paul, Francis, and Benedict, alive in the God who grounds us and resides deep in the core of our being, but who silently and as insistently summons us from without as well.

It is the experience of resting, really resting -- of being where one is meant to be, where one has ALWAYS been meant to be --- the experience of stepping out of time and taking up a place in the eternal heart of the Holy Trinity. God in us, we in Him, a communion of saints learning to love as God loves, to listen as God listens, to sing our lives and celebrate the singing of others' lives, to be the inestimable gifts to one another in Him we were always called to be --- and yet, always beginners, and always with everything ahead of us. It is the experience of being comprehended in every sense of that word: being profoundly heard, understood, known, held securely in God's hands, and completely encircled by his presence. It is the sound of silence and the compassionate space of contemplative solitude.

Time travel is an interesting subject for speculation, but for contemplatives, it is something known from regular experience. Every day eternity breaks in upon us. Every day we slip the bonds of mere temporality and participate in time's transfiguration. Chronos becomes Kairos; linear time dissolves into an eternal now, and our citizenship in this world is shown for the pale reflection it is of our truest citizenship in the Kingdom of God. But we do not do this to reject the created realm for some "supernatural" one, much less to leave it behind in a misguided anti-world asceticism. We do it so this world may BE transfigured, and God may come to be ALL in ALL.

Contemplation, after all, is not escape, but a quiet confrontation, a gentle capitulation to being, and the silent mediation of life; it is not flight, but the still celebration of an all-accepting and transforming presence. The hermitage or cell is separate from the world only so the world may be truly loved into its own in genuine intimacy, for real intimacy requires distance as well as closeness. An anchorite has a window into the church and peeks out onto eternity as it breaks in on the world in the liturgy. But really, every true hermitage (and every true hermit!) is a window through which the love of the living God radiates to transform the world of space and time into heaven itself.

First published 1/20/2008. I thought it was timely given recent posts. Tweaks to include Claire and Francis as I should have done originally!!! (Apologies to them!)