Some Vocational Hazards of a Hermit

These hazards deal mostly with externals, although there are many interior hazards far greater. Just interesting to note that the privately consecrated hermit, hidden and unknown as a hermit to most of humanity and most of the Church, experiences some obstacles not previously pondered.

When one wears no distinguishing habit but blends in, unnoticed as a hermit, others do not comprehend the silence, solitude and stillness. Why doesn't the person interact more with others, or help them, or want to socialize? Even the Protestant evangelicals who say it is "faith alone", chide the hidden hermit for not "doing" works. If the eremitic tries to explain to one such person, perhaps a family member, that it is a hermit and lives a life of stricter separation from the world in prayer and penance, the eremitic is chided for withdrawing--and suddenly it seems the Protestant deems active works alone to be the correct way.

Even many Catholics do not comprehend why a person is seemingly withdrawn, and if they were to be told the one is a hermit, then all manners of expectations come forth, often based upon inaccurate notions of how a hermit is to look, act, and be. Then there can be much judgment made, background chatter, and to what result?

When one is a hidden hermit, living the life and vocation, others may misunderstand the spiritual stance and devotion, what they might observe when the privately professed hermit is at Mass. This is not necessarily an obstacle unless those others become envious or resentful, allowing themselves to feel inadequate or in judging the quiet, prayerful hermit who stays to itself, to be "aloof", or overly assured, or conceited. Oh yes, such comments can be made even to the eremitic itself.

But the eremitic cannot respond or explain. It is unnecessary, and one must recall the Scriptures within itself, not spoken aloud, that by its fruits.... Over time, if ever known.

Then there can be gender obstacles. The hidden hermit is not known as a consecrated eremitic, privately professed but nonetheless approved in the Church and part of that section of the Body called to consecrated life. If a man, women can become attracted, flirt, try to make inroads to this mysterious, sensitive, quiet man who is seemingly unattached and available. And there are many women (older women, too) who long for such a devout and gentle companion.

If the hermit is a female, men (yes, even married men and older) enjoy such flirtations as winking at Mass, even with wife beside them, or simply viewing with eyes of desire, to the unknown hermit who has an allure of something rather mystical in the quiet demeanor which can bring a beauty from within that captivates the admirer's imagination.

To these, the hermit who has been chosen for the private, hidden eremitic path, the reaction remains steady. One does not reveal its vocation, does not explain, but continues to live the life of a soul called to God alone, in the desert, to pray and embrace silence and penance for God's use in the world for souls living and dead.

It is the very misunderstandings that might seem wrong to allow, for some might think it deceitful or hypocritical to seemingly fool others as to one's true self. So then we consider the many hidden examples in Scripture. The burning bush is a marvelous view of how God manifests His presence, His firey love, through a bit of brush He created. (We walk--now drive--past bushes every day and night, hardly noticing.) Yet it was the fire that caught Moses' attention.

And it is the fire of God that in time will burn in the being of a hermit, or off and on little glows of the Holy Spirit will spark. The graceful and gradual continuation of the hidden life, unexplained to others and unknown to the many, will be signed by God in just the way God determines. Early on, the obstacles created by privacy and being being hidden and unknown for its vocation ensure the very types of persecution that God uses to train His hermit in the virtues, particularly of humility, patience and charity.

To be known as a hermit, to wear a distinguishing habit or recognizable sign probably has its own set of vocational hazards. People could assume by the exterior that the fruit is ripe and then be scandalized when it discovers it is not. Sometimes a habit (observed this in rare women or men who are tempted to capture the forbidden in priests and nuns visibly wearing a sign of their celibate vows) can evoke painful memories of past injustice by those in religious life who acted in human sinfulness.

A hidden hermit perhaps needs to remain hidden in order to remove itself from providing damage to others! A hermit is being formed by God and also the Holy Spirit enacting through its director and confessor. There are not the protections as much as being in an enclosed convent. Thus, to be enclosed in anonymity of vocation allows the time out of any knowing eyes of others in the world who might wrongly expect wisdom or knowledge of one who is very much aware of its own nothingness.

Now this nothing must take some stronger over the counter paid reliever, purchased without being noticed other than an ordinary shopper, at a local Walmart store. Time to pray the Morning Office, and ask again the Lord to make His will known as to the direction of the nothing's writing. The confessor said the Lord will tell. At Mass last night, the nothing heard "Do both"--but that must be discerned, and the nothing said back that if so, the nothing will need more energy and more of God's good time!

But, in actuality, the nothing could be better structured and organized, and also now is learning to lop off those lovely exterior acts which people and the hermit, also, "see". But the interior acts of charity, such as knowing God, adoring God on behalf of a distracted and hectic world, and learning to pray for others--are the work of at least this hermit.

Surprising, if the nothing would write down all it "does" in a day, that it is probably "doing" far too much like the little Redirectional Larch planted two weeks ago, and growing its funky little branches in all directions--two inches at least on each branch with more springing out from the trunk! That's fine for that rather unusual fir-looking deciduous, but it is not what the nothing Catholic hermit is to be about!