The word monk comes ultimately from the Greek monos, meaning one or single. It is not clear historically whether it originally referred to being alone, as in celibate and so forth, or whether it referred to a more interior unity. I think probably it began as a description of a state of life -- single, alone in the relational sense, and then in time had the other meaning added to it. In fact, both are true.
The monastic wisdom of the ages is that you really cannot achieve unity of focus on God unless your external life facilitates that focus. And while very few would say that a conventionally placed person, married or professionally employed, can not focus on God, the preponderance of texts seems to move in the direction of recommending the monos state of life for the monos state of focus on God. But then, many of the ancient texts were written by, and certainly all of them were transmitted by, monks. So there is a certain filter at work in Christian spiritual tradition.
I have, as a monk for 36 years and a monk not in residence and parish priest for 16 of those years, been on both sides of this issue. Not married, of course, but with plenty of experience in befriending and leading in a churchly way a lot of married people. The longer I am at the monk thing the more I am convinced that the point of spiritual life, whether married or single, employed in a career or living in a monastery, is focus. The ascetical disciplines do not exist for themselves but as aids to focus. The life of prayer in its organized forms exists as a way to achieve focus. Our concentration on the person of Jesus is a way to achieve focus. Silent, wordless and (sometimes) formless prayer is a way to achieve focus.
The whole point of any genuine religious life, in fact, is to help us redirect our attention from what doesn't ultimately lead anywhere very productive to the source of life and being itself: God. Focus on God is what we hope to achieve.
And so, yet another exercise in simplicity. What in our external lives, what in our inner lives, gets in the way of focus on God? That, it seems to me, is what the traditional ascetical program is for. That is what the leaving behind of the usual major life commitments for a monk is for. That is what the redirection of the life of a baptized person who is not a monk is for. And, frankly, in many ways, being a monk makes focus on God easier. I think achieving God-focus as a person "in the world" is one of the most remarkable and beautiful things I know. I have been privileged to know more than a few people like that. I admire them, and I know that I probably don't have half of their capacity to achieve that focus in the midst of ordinary life. Which is why I, and I suspect many others, become monks (and nuns, and other type of monos-people).
But all of the people on this path, it seems to me, face very similar challenges, monk or married. In a word, the challenge is to learn to evaluate the phenomena of our life in terms of how they promote this focus on God. This activity, this work that I am doing -- will it in some way bring me closer to God? This thing I have -- does its use help me in some way to get closer to God? This thought, or fantasy, or fear, or dream that I have -- can it open up a door for me to get closer to God?
There are the tried and true paths. Serious seekers will read the scriptures with these questions in mind. They will consult the ancient traditions, made accessible to us in texts like the Rule of Benedict, or John Cassian's Institutes and Conferences, or a thousand other wonderful places. These need to be read with an understanding of their original setting and purpose and the cultures out of which they came. But at a certain point we need to move from study to action. We need to apply what we read. I am going to write something about that process soon. But the bell for Compline is about to ring. And for sure, one of the ascetical practices that monks undertake to help them focus on God is to get into Chapel at the stated times and pray the Divine Office! So, off I go.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
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4 comments:
I appreciate your thoughts on managing the externals in order to focus. I find that sometimes managing the responsibilites or the tasks at hand seem like I am managing the externals, when in reality I am avoiding the focus or the simplicity. Your series encourages me to revisit the "to do" list, and discard what is merely feeding the ego.
I essentially agree with you Adam. Over the years, the word that I have used where you use "Focus" is "Forgetfulness". It's opposite is "Awareness". We forget who we are, what we are meant to be, what we must do to remain aware/focused/remembering. We use different methods to remind ourselves.
I have often said to people, in the daily Reflections I write, "If your Religion does not nurture you in the Way of Love, give it up; find a path that binds you - as "ligaments" do - to your vision for who you are and what the human community is meant to be."
One problem: I think that often the vision of "God" that we have in American society is too poor to sustain us in focus on the great Beauty and Peace that I believe "God" to mean.
This is helpful to read--thanks, Adam. I think our culture is directing us to be less and less focused as our technology drives us to be more multi-sensory, multi-tasking, etc. My paths to God so far have been or seemed less structured--back into Church after many years away, to seminary, to West Park, to considering the ministry. I wonder sometimes if my paths away from God have been similarly less-than-structured. Or if my paths away from God have been paths away. Sometimes one can't really tell what is towards and what is away without a longer focus.
Adam, I appreciate what you have written. I am rather elderly, in my 70's now...but back in high school I knew I had to be a contemplative, and made a beginning. The religious order I hoped to enter did not take me, and so I went to college and got married, and tried to put the contemplative calling out of my life...easy to do with three small children to deal with. But it would not be "put." It kept coming back, and eventually Fr. Turkington helped me make sense of it, and own it, and begin being serious about being a contemplative, smack in the middle of marriage, motherhood and working. I have always been grateful for what he, and Holy Cross, have taught me. Now, in retirement, I have less distracftion from that focus or committment, and more opportunity to develop them, and am trying to make the most of this grace and become more fully and truly a contemplative. Thank you for this blog...it has been a great help.
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