Monasticism and the Real World

By Br. Christopher Start truthandcharity.net

It seems the predominant image of a monk in the broader culture is a miserable, meek, suppressed, repressed, and oppressed sap whose sole preoccupation is trying to convince God to save his soul (or attempt to save his own). Perhaps he says nice or wise things to spiritual seekers. At any rate, I bet most people would consider monastic life joyless, frustrating, empty: a vain attempt to escape the real world. On the one hand, I could assert the perception is 98% misunderstanding and the remaining fraction a possible insight into some monks lives. But, Ive not much interest in wasting a blog post on the defensive. Rather, what is it the monastic is doing behind his cloister and what is the real world from which he is accused of fleeing? To answer the first question requires I deal with the latter first. Scripture and Mother Church are crystal clear on the matter: Now this is eternal life. that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ, (Jn 17:3). God created us to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise, (CCC 1721). The point of existence is union with God. That begins in this life, it is not some celestial extra given to some soul which arrives in heaven. Nor is it some warm and fluffy extra to this life: it is the whole point of this world.

All vocations find their meaning and purpose as a path of union with God. Notice, vocation is single, marriage, consecrated life (religious life), and holy orders. Vocation is not your career, wealth, possession, social status, or anything else the world posits as essential (ah, here is a useful connotation of world, to which I intend to return). The call to holiness is universal (cf Lumen Gentium 5). As for the monastic calling, I shall let St Benedict, patriarch of western monasticism, speak: Listen carefully, my son, to the masters instructions, and attend them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from a father who loves you; welcome it and faithfully put it into practice. The labor of obedience will bring you back to him from whom you had drifted through the sloth of disobedience. This message of mine is for you then, if you are ready to give up your own will, once and for all, and armed with the strong and noble weapons of obedience to do battle for the true King, Christ the Lord. (Rule of St Benedict, Prologue 1-3) What is the monk doing with his life? He is putting first things first: seeking Christ. My willfulness, my pride, my sins have estranged me from God. The world from which he flees is the world which suggests mans happiness can be found in this life, be it power, pleasure, or money. The Lord, in His graciousness, calls the monk to seek Him in a focused, simple life. As with all things Good, such a life is diffusive, that is, it sweeps up others with his own. St Therese of Lisieux is the paradigmatic example of what I mean here: the patroness of missionaries is a cloistered Carmalite who spent virtually all of her 24 years on this earth in one small village. Yet, her prayers and writings have swept countless souls up into the paths of holiness. For much the same reason, St Benedict is the patron of Europe. A life devoted to the true, good, and beautiful has a multiplicative (or perhaps exponential) effect for the good on the world around it; even be it unseen, even be it behind the cloister. However, as great and wonderful as that may be, it is ancillary. The beauty of Therese and Benedict is a soul on fire for Jesus, for the Kingdom.

So, I must ask you: are you seeking the True, the Good, and the Beautiful or are you trying to escape the real world? Br. Christopher is a junior monk of St Benedicts Abbey, Kansas. Born and raised a Michigander, his best answer to how he ended up in Middle America is providence the rest is happenstance.