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With
the development of monasticism in the Orthodox Church there appeared a peculiar
way of life, which however did not proclaim a new morality. The Church does not
have one set of moral rules for the laity and another for monks, nor does it
divide the faithful into classes according to their obligations towards God. The
Christian life is the same for everyone. All Christians have in common that
"their being and name is from Christ". This means that the true Christian must
ground his life and conduct in Christ, something which is hard to achieve in the
world.
What is difficult in the world is approached with dedication in the monastic
life. In his spiritual life the monk simply tries to do what every Christian
should try to do: to live according to God's commandments. The fundamental
principles of monasticism are not different from those of the lives of all the
faithful. This is especially apparent in the history of the early Church, before
monasticism appeared.
In the tradition of the Church there is a clear preference for celibacy as
opposed to the married state. This stance is not of course hostile to marriage,
which is recognized as a Holy Sacrament, but simply indicates the practical
obstacles marriage puts in the way of the pursuit of the spiritual life. For
this reason, from the earliest days of Christianity many of the faithful chose
celibacy. Thus Athenagoras the Confessor in the second century wrote: "You can
find many men and women who remain unmarried all their lives in the hope of
coming closer to God".
From
the very beginning the Christian life has been associated with self denial and
sacrifice: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his
cross and follow me". Christ calls on us to give ourselves totally to him: "He
who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves
son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me".
Finally, fervent and unceasing prayer, obedience to the elders of the Church,
brotherly love and humility, as well as all the essential virtues of the
monastic life were cultivated by the members of the Church from its earliest
days.
One cannot deny that the monk and the married man have different ways of life,
but this does not alter their common responsibility towards God and His
commandments. Every one of us has his own special gift within the one and
indivisible body of Christ's Church. Every way of life, whether married or
solitary, is equally subject to God's absolute will. Hence no way of life can be
taken as an excuse for ignoring or selectively responding to Christ's call and
His commandments. Both paths demand effort and determination.
St John Chrysostom is particularly emphatic on this point: "You greatly delude
yourself and err, if you think that one thing is demanded from the layman and
another from the monk; since the difference between them is in that whether one
is married or not, while in everything else they have the same
responsibilities... Because all must rise to the same height; and what has
turned the world upside down is that we think only the monk must live
rigorously, while the rest are allowed to live a life of indolence" . Referring
to the observance of particular commandments in the Gospels, he says: "Whoever
is angry with his brother without cause, regardless of whether he is a layman or
a monk, opposes God in the same way. And whoever looks at a woman lustfully,
regardless of his status, commits the same sin". In general, he observes that in
giving His commandments Christ does not make distinction between people: "A man
is not defined by whether he is a layman or a monk, but by the way he thinks".
Christ's commandments demand strictness of life that we often expect only from
monks. The requirements of decent and sober behavior, the condemnation of wealth
and adoption of frugality 9, the avoidance of idle talk and the call to show
selfless love are not given only for monks, but for all the faithful.
Therefore, the rejection of worldly thinking is the duty not only of monks, but
of all Christians. The faithful must not have a worldly mind, but sojourn as
strangers and travelers with their minds fixed on God. Their home is not on
earth, but in the kingdom of heaven: "For here we have no lasting city, but we
seek the city which is to come" 10. The Church can be seen as a community in
exodus. The world is its temporary home but the Church is bound for the kingdom
of God. Just as the Israelites, freed from bondage in Egypt, journeyed towards
Jerusalem through many trials and tribulations, so Christians, freed from the
bondage of sin, journey through many trials and tribulations towards the kingdom
of heaven.
The early days this exodus from the world did not involve a change of place but
a change of the way of life. A man does not reject God and turn towards the
world physically but spiritually, because God was and is everywhere and fulfills
everything, so in the same way the rejection of the world and turning towards
God was not understood in physical sense but as a change of the way of life.
This is especially clear in the lives of the early Christians. Although they
lived in the world they were fully aware that they did not come from it nor did
they belong to it: "In the world but not of the world". And those who lived in
chastity and poverty, which became later fundamental principles of the monastic
life, did not abandon the world or take to the mountains.
Physical detachment from the world helps the soul to reject the worldly way of
life. Experience shows that human salvation is harder to achieve in the world.
As Basil the Great points out, living among men who do not care for the strict
observance of God's commandments is harmful. It is extremely difficult, if not
impossible, to answer Christ's call to take up one's cross and follow Him within
the bounds of worldly life. Seeing the multitude of sinners, one not only fails
to see his own sins but also falls into temptation to believe that he has
achieved something, because we tend to compare ourselves with those who are
worse than we are. Furthermore, the hustle and bustle of everyday life distracts
us from the remembrance of God. It does not only prevent us from feeling the joy
of intense communion with God, but leads us to contempt and forgetfulness of the
divine will.
This
does not mean that detachment from the world guarantees salvation, but surely
does help us a lot in our spiritual life. When someone devotes himself wholly to
God and His will, nothing can stop him from being saved. St. Chrysostom says:
"There is no obstacle to a worker striving for virtue, but men in office, and
those who have a wife and children to look after, and servants to see to, and
those in positions of authority can also take care to be virtuous".
Saint
Simeon the New Theologian observes: "Living in a city does not prevent us from
carrying out God's commandments if we are zealous, and silence and solitude are
of no benefit if we are slothful and neglectful". Elsewhere he says that it is
possible for all, not only monks but laymen too, to "eternally and continuously
repent and weep and pray to God, and by these actions to acquire all the other
virtues".
Orthodox monasticism has always been associated with stillness or silence, which
is seen primarily as an internal rather than an external state. External silence
is sought in order to attain inner stillness of mind more easily. This stillness
is not a kind of inertia or inaction, but awakening and activation of the
spiritual life. It is intense vigilance and total devotion to God. Living in a
quiet place the monk succeeds in knowing himself better, fighting his passions
more deeply and purifying his heart more fully, so as to be found worthy of
beholding God.
The father of St Gregory Palamas, Constantine, lived a life of stillness as a
senator and member of the imperial court in Constantinople. The essence of this
kind of life is detachment from worldly passions and complete devotion to God.
This is why St Gregory Palamas says that salvation in Christ is possible for
all: "The farmer and the leather worker and the mason and the tailor and the
weaver, and in general all those who earn their living with their hands and in
the sweat of their brow, who cast out of their souls the desire for wealth, fame
and comfort, are indeed blessed" 15. In the same spirit St Nicolas Kavasilas
observes that it is not necessary for someone to flee to the desert, eat unusual
food, change his dress, ruin his health or attempt some other such thing in
order to remain devoted to God 16.
The monastic life, with its physical withdrawal from the world to the
desert, began about the middle of the third century. This flight of Christians
to the desert was partly caused by the harsh Roman persecutions of the time. The
growth of monasticism, however, which began in the time of Constantine the
Great, was largely due to the refusal of many Christians to adapt to the more
worldly character of the now established Church, and their desire to lead a
strictly Christian life. Thus monasticism developed simultaneously in various
places in the southeast Mediterranean, Egypt, Palestine, Sinai, Syria and
Cyprus, and soon after reached Asia Minor and finally Europe. During the second
millennium. however, Mount Athos appeared as the centre of Orthodox monasticism.
The
commonest form of monastic life is the coenobitic communion. In the coenobitic
monastery everything is shared: living quarters, food, work, prayer, common
efforts, cares, struggles and achievements. The leader and spiritual father of
the coenobium is the abbot. The exhortation to the abbot in the Charter of St
Athanasius the Athonite is typical: "Take care that the brethren have everything
in common. No one must own as much as a needle. Your body and soul shall be your
own, and nothing else. Everything must be shared equally with love between all
your spiritual children, brethren and fathers".
The coenobium is the ideal Christian community, where no distinction is drawn
between mine and yours, but everything is designed to cultivate a common
attitude and a spirit of fraternity. In the coenobium the obedience of every
monk to his abbot and his brotherhood, loving kindness, solidarity and
hospitality are of the greatest importance. As St Theodore of Studium observes,
the whole community of the faithful should in the final analysis be a coenobitc
Church. Thus the monastic coenobium is the most consistent attempt to achieve
this and an image of Church in small.
In its
"fuga mundi", monasticism underlines the Church's position as an
"anti-community" within the world, and by its intense spiritual asceticism
cultivates its eschatological spirit. The monastic life is described as "the
angelic state", in other words a state of life that while on earth follows the
example of the life in heaven. Virginity and celibacy come within this
framework, anticipating the condition of souls in the life to come, where "they
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven".
Many see celibacy as a defining characteristic of monastic life. This does not
mean, however, that celibacy is the most important aspect of the monastic life:
it simply gives this distinctiveness to this way of life. All the other
obligations, even the other two monastic vows of obedience and poverty,
essentially concern all the faithful. Needless to say, all this takes on a
special form in the monastic life, but that has no bearing on the essence of the
matter.
Keeping the Lord's commandments requires effort and sacrifice. Fallen human
nature, enslaved by its passions is reluctant to give the effort or make the
sacrifice. It seeks pleasure and avoids the pain involved in fighting the
passions and selfishness. The monastic life is so arranged as to facilitate this
work. On the other hand, the worldly life, particularly in our secular society,
makes it harder to be an ascetic. The problem for the Christian in the world is
that he is called upon to reach the same goal under adverse conditions.
The tonsure, with cutting of hair, is called a "second baptism". Baptism,
however, is one and the same for all members of the Church. It is participation
in the death and resurrection of Christ. The tonsure does not repeat, but renews
and activates the grace of the baptism. The monastic vows are essentially not
different from those taken at baptism, with the exception of the vow of
celibacy. Furthermore, hair is also cut during baptism.
The
monastic life points the way to perfection. However, the whole Church is called
to perfection. All the faithful, both laymen and monks, are called to become
perfect following the divine example: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your
heavenly Father is perfect"20. But while the monk affirms the radical nature of
the Christian life, the layman is content to regard it conventionally. The
conventional morality of the layman on the one hand and the radical morality of
the monk on the other create a dialectical differentiation that takes the form
of a dialectical antithesis.
St Maximus the Confessor, in contrasting the monastic with the worldly life,
observes that a layman's successes are a monk's failures, and vice versa: "The
achievements of the worldly are failures for monks; and the achievements of
monks are failures for the worldly. When the monk is exposed to what the world
sees as success- wealth, fame, power, pleasure, good health and many children,
he is destroyed. And when a worldly man finds himself in the state desired by
monks- poverty, humility, weakness, self restraint, mortifcation and suchlike,
he considers it a disaster. Indeed, in such despair many may consider hanging
themselves, and some have actually done so".
Of course the comparison here is between the perfect monk and the very worldly
Christian. However, in more usual circumstances within the Church the same
things will naturally function differently, but this difference could never
reach diametrical opposition. Thus for example, wealth and fame cannot be seen
as equally destructive for monks and laymen. These things are always bad for
monks, because they conflict with the way of life the monks have chosen. For
laymen, however, wealth and fame may be beneficial, even though they involve
grave risks. The existence of the family, and of the wider secular society with
its various needs and demands, not only justify but sometimes make it necessary
to accumulate wealth or assume office. Those things that may unite in the world
divide in the monastic life. The ultimate unifier is Christ Himself.
The
Christian life does not depend only on human effort but primarily on God's
grace. Ascetic exercises in all their forms and degrees aim at nothing more than
preparing man to harmonize his will with that of God and receive the grace of
the Holy Spirit. This harmonization attains its highest expression and
perfection in prayer. "In true prayer we enter into and dwell in the Divine
Being by the power of the Holy Spirit". This leads man to his archetype and
makes him a true person in the likeness of his Creator.
The grace of the Christian life is not to be found in its outward forms. It is
not found in ascetic exercises, fasts, vigils and mortification of the flesh.
Indeed, when these exercises are practiced without discernment they become
abhorrent. This repulsiveness is no longer confined to their external form but
comes to characterize their inner content. They become abhorrent not only
because outwardly they appear as a denial of life, contempt for material things
or self-abandonment, but also because they mortify the spirit, encourage pride
and cultivate self- justification
The
Christian life is not a denial but an affirmation. It is not death, but life.
And it is not only affirmation and life, but the only true affirmation and true
life. It is the true affirmation because it goes beyond all possibility of
denial. It is the true life because it conquers death. The negative appearance
of the Christian life in its outward forms is due precisely to its attempt to
stand beyond all human denial. Since there is no human affirmation that does not
end in denial, and no worldly life that does not end in death, the Church takes
its stand and reveals its life after accepting every human denial and affirming
every form of earthly death.
The power of the Christian life lies in the hope of resurrection, and the goal
of ascetic striving is to partake in the resurrection. The monastic life, as the
angelic and heavenly life lived in time, is the foreknowledge and foretaste of
eternal life. Its aim is not to cast off the human element, but clothe oneself
with incorruptibility and immortality: "For while we are still in this tent, we
sigh with anxiety; not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further
clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life" (2 Cor 5:4).
There are sighing and tears produced by the presence of sin, as well as the
suffering to be free of the passions and regain a pure heart. These things
demand ascetic struggles, and undoubtedly have a negative form, since they aim
at humility. They are exhausting and painful, because they are concerned with
states and habits that have become second nature. It is however precisely
through this abasement and self-purification that man clears the way for God's
grace to appear and to act within his heart. God does not manifest Himself to an
impure heart.
Monks
are the "guardians". They choose to constrain their bodily needs in order to
attain the spiritual freedom offered by Christ. They tie themselves down in
death's realm in order to experience more intensely the hope of the life to
come. They reconcile themselves with space, where man is worn down and
annihilated, feel it as their body, transform it into the Church and orientate
it towards the kingdom of God.
The monk's journey to perfection is gradual and is connected with successive
renunciations, which can be summarized in three. The first renunciation involves
completely abandoning the world. This is not limited to things, but includes
people and parents. The second is renunciation of the individual will, and the
third is freedom from pride, which is identified with liberation from the sway
of the world.
These
successive renunciations have a positive, not a negative meaning. They permit a
man to fully open up and be perfected "in the image and likeness" of God. When
man is freed from the world and from himself, he expands without limits. He
becomes a true person, which "encloses" within himself the whole of humanity as
Christ himself does. That is why, on the moral plane, the Christian is called
upon to love all human beings, even his enemies. Then God Himself comes and
dwells within him, and the man arrives to the fullness of his theanthropic
being. Here we can see the greatness of the human person, and can understand the
superhuman struggles needed for his perfection.
The life of monasticism is a life of perpetual spiritual ascent. While the world
goes on its earthbound way, and the faithful with their obligations and
distractions of the world try to stay within the institutional limits of the
church tradition, monasticism goes to other direction and soars. It rejects any
kind of compromise and seeks the absolute. It launches itself from this world
and heads for the kingdom of God. This is in essence the goal of the Church
itself.
In the tradition of the Greek Orthodox Church, this path is pictured as a ladder
leading to heaven. Not everyone manages to reach the top of this spiritual
ladder. Many are to be found on the first rungs. Others rise higher. There are
also those who fall from a higher or a lower rung. The important thing is not
the height reached, but the unceasing struggle to rise ever higher. Most
important of all, this ascent is achieved through ever increasing humility, that
is through ever increasing descent. "Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not",
was the word of God to Saint Silouan of Mount Athos. When man descends into the
hell of his inner struggle having God within him, then he is lifted up and finds
the fullness of being.
At the top of this spiritual ladder are the
"fools for Christ's sake", as the Apostle Paul calls himself and the other
apostles, or "the fools for Christ's sake", who "play the madman for the love of
Christ and mock the vanity of the world", Seeking after glory among men, says
Christ, obstructs belief in God. Only when man rejects pride can he defeat the
world and devote himself to God.
In the lives of monks the Christian sees examples of men who took their
Christian faith seriously and committed themselves to the path which everyone is
called by Christ to follow. Not all of them attained perfection, but they all
tried, and all rose to a certain height. Not all possessed the same talent, but
all strove as good and faithful servants. They are not held up as examples to be
imitated, especially by laymen. They are however valuable signposts on the road
to perfection, which is common for all and has its climax in the perfectness of
God.
