Every so often I continue my meditation, or reflection, on what the Catholic Church asks of her hermits. From The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the two sections 920, 921 are pertinent to either privately or publicly professed hermits, listed under "The Consecrated Life of the Church", then "Eremitic Life".
Below is cited the second portion, Section 921, which is poetic prose, so beautifully written and filled with vast passageways for a consecrated Catholic hermit to explore.
921 "They manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, that is, personal intimacy with Christ. Hidden from the eyes of men, the life of the hermit is a silent preaching of the Lord, to whom he has surrendered his life simply because he is everything to him. Here is a particular call to find in the desert, in the thick of spiritual battle, the glory of the Crucified One."
.
I will focus on the first line: They [Catholic hermits] manifest to everyone....
Manifest, we know, means to "make clear or obvious to the eye or mind," to demonstrate, to show by essence or action. This may seem ironic given that hermits remain mostly hidden to the eyes of others--yet we manifest to everyone. We consecrated Catholic hermits thus make clear or obvious by the essence, the interior nature of our lives of praise of God and prayer and penance, of our devotion to Christ, our great love of God.
That we manifest to everyone includes those alive on this earth or alive in the spirit, no longer in temporal bodies but alive in eternity--in process of purgation and in having been purified to union in the fullness of light of the Holy Trinity. We manifest to everyone causes those of us who are consecrated Catholic hermits--and those interested in learning more of this vocation and life--to take all the more seriously the value and honor of this eremitic calling.
For we manifest to everyone includes those who are not believers, who do not have an inkling that we are called by God to profess the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, obedience and to devote our lives in stricter separation from the world, to devote ourselves to God, in praise of God and for the salvation of souls. All these aspects of what is a hermit, of what we are to do and how we are to be embodies the essence of our souls' love of God in ways beyond the usual, the normal, of even the very good of lay persons' lives, by means of how we live out our days and nights, of our profession and what vows offered, and in the extent of devotion, mostly unseen by others in the externals but made manifest all the same.
Simplified, we are to manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church. The interior aspect is relatively synonymous of our hidden lives, of not the externals of which we consecrated Catholic hermits are most often viewed or objectified by others when they find out we are eremites.
I'm realizing all the more the value and importance of a hermit's anonymity and of remaining private rather than public. Some might disagree--no doubt those who have chosen a more public path in their profession of the evangelical counsels, known to those about them in name and externals. We risk interfering with the interior aspect, in a way, of what it is that we are to be manifesting to everyone, for people are prone to being distracted by the externals, and we humans are prone to criticizing and judging what we "see" from our visual observations of externals.
Critical judgment it can be called, which is well and good for our minds' critical thinking skills, but that can easily hinder the spiritual view of the interior aspects, especially in being open to and beginning to grasp the mystery not only of the Church but of the mysterium tremendum of God in Himself. Thus I am recognizing the value of the interior aspect of the hermit vocation as well as the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, and how my mentioning, thinking I needed to explain to less than a handful of others recently, that I am a consecrated Catholic hermit.
Even in such minor mention, thinking it would help them understand why I do not have a social life network, I realize that in each case, the persons began critical thinking based on their views of the external aspects of what they think a hermit ought be. In this, I negated the effect of manifesting to a handful, let alone everyone, the interior aspect not only of my vocation but of the import of what this vocation is to manifest to everyone--the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church.
All the more now, I understand why anonymity and privately professed as a hermit is the better part, a more spiritual mode of living out my eremitic vocation. Once more I grasp the wisdom of why the Carthusians, in their writings, remain anonymous. How easily can we disrupt the flow of manifesting the interior aspect when we confuse people by trying to conflate hermit essence with unavoidable externals of human instinctive.
(I'm now rethinking, which is the purpose of my reviewing and pondering these sections pertinent to a consecrated hermit's vocation as set forth in sections 920, 921 of The Catechism. While I have maintained anonymity in my blog writing, and by name in other media sharing, I'm content to remain a writer henceforth, and that writing to remain a more personal, spiritual progression of one soul, in an eremite vehicle for this life's journey. I'm wondering even of the handful of friends who know of my hermit vocation, how their judging from time to time, might have been eliminated had I kept my vocation hidden, as in their connecting me with the vocation which of course destroyed the interior aspect in vary degrees, and perhaps confounded what for them could be a better grasping of the mystery of the Church which is to be exemplified, manifested by my life. Regardless, these are fascinating considerations of which I'm thankful to the Holy Spirit for opening them to me in this way, through this simple statement from section 921.... I'll continue to pray, ponder, and resolve.)
I'm not sure what is the mystery of the Church, other than I know that the Church is a mystery as it is living and active, is the Body of Christ and He is Her Head. These actualities in themselves are mysteries to be plumbed to their depths, knowing that we cannot fully grasp and perhaps not even much grasp, the vast implications of the embodiment of Christ Who Is God in His Sonship, and the Holy Spirit Who Is God Is Love in the Trinity, and of God the Father--all in one, the Church, and we the Church's Body.
Jesus explained by the grape vine parable, our interconnectedness, and by the Head and Body image, as well. But as a hermit is to manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, much grace and openness to Christ's teaching and the Holy Spirit guiding is required of us hermits, and of anyone therein seeking union with God and the living out our faith in our daily lives no matter the vocational vehicle. As Christians, we are called by God; we are to seek and find, to obey and desire God's will of deeper conversions into full union with Christ.
It is for the hermit to manifest to everyone the interior aspects of the mystery of the Church. And, as we read and ponder the four words which conclude the first statement in section 921, in further explanation of what a hermit is to do and be, the interior aspects of which we hermits are to manifest to everyone--the mystery of the Church involves, is, that is: personal intimacy with Christ.
I will leave off my thought exploration, in writing, with this personal intimacy with Christ being the mystery of the Church, and in effect, the interior aspects of the mystery of the Church. This personal intimacy is a valid consideration when it comes to publicly identifying oneself or even to a select few around us in ways external, as to our vocation. What are we to be manifesting--our vocation as a hermit, or the interior aspects of the mystery of the Church, that is, personal intimacy with Christ?
This is a good question, worthy of my pondering as I get up and dress, after much of this day being in bed on the icy pad, sleeping and then praying over various news stories and the people involved, in reminding in some comment sections of our call as Christians to pray for the people involved in a variety of situations in the news and of all other people who suffer similarly to the publicized ones.
I'm going to dress and head out for a walk. I know and trust the Holy Trinity, His Real Presence, will guide me further into what has been exposed to me of the importance of these interior aspects of the mystery of the Church, of the personal intimacy with Christ, and how my vocation as a consecrated Catholic hermit is to manifest these aspects to everyone.
Early this morning, before falling back to sleep, this portion from Psalm 39 from today's Mass Scriptures, caught my mind and heart:
"I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad."
God bless His Real Presence in us!
No comments:
Post a Comment