“I have seen a great multitude of people coming to us and wishing to associate with us in our habit of holy conduct and our rule for a blessed religious life. Why, there is still in my ears the sound of them going and coming at the order of holy obedience. I have seen the roads so as to say of every nation coming together hereabouts, filled with the multitude of them.” – St. Francis of Assisi
The Gospel is embodied in the person of the God-Man, the Word-made-flesh. Jesus Christ is the heart and soul of the Gospel. To observe the Gospel means to make Christ the center of one’s life, and the source and summit of one’s activities. That St. Francis accomplished this, even a superficial study of his life will prove.
Yet, not only did Francis reintroduce a personal Jesus to the common man, Francis recovered basic Christianity for the common Christian. Even more, Francis restored the evangelical character of the monk and the contemplative character of the layman. In short, he fulfilled what was asked of him by Christ from the crucifix icon at the church of San Damiano, “Francis, rebuild My Church, as you see it is falling to ruins.”
A NEW TYPE OF MONASTICISM
Monasticism is not bound to any particular spirituality or milieu––not even Franciscan––and it is not confined to a select chosen few. All Christians are able and are called to live the Gospel in the manner and spirit of the early apostles and disciples regardless of one’s station in the Church or status in the world.
As St John Chrysostom said, “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 mediocrity.”
Monasticism, as a way of Gospel life, can be lived not only by religious and clerics in monasteries, convents, sketes (lavras), and hermitages, but also by anyone, anywhere, and at all times whether one is single or married with children, and no matter how poor or rich, young or old, gifted or broken one may be. It can be lived in the context of one’s home, church, school, workplace, coffee house, sports bar, or online social network by those who will interiorize the life of monks within the “sanctuary” of their body and the “cell” of their soul, and who will embrace the entire world?the “global village”––as their monastery and mission field.
This radical but simple dream was the Franciscan Ideal––the original vision of St. Francis for his Seraphic Order––a mission that recently celebrated the 800th anniversary of its founding [1209], and one that is still alive, ever-relevant, and desperately needed today.
On January 14, 1935, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a German Lutheran pastor who was executed by the Nazis in 1945) wrote a letter to his brother, Karl-Friedrick. What Bonhoeffer, now famously, said in that letter was to prove both prophetic and affirming to what which it predicted. “The expansion of Christianity and the increasing secularization of the Church caused the awareness of costly grace to be gradually lost…But the Roman church did keep a remnant of that original awareness. It was decisive that monasticism did not separate from the Church and that the Church had the good sense to tolerate monasticism. Here, on the boundary of the Church, was the place where the awareness that grace is costly and that grace includes discipleship was preserved…Monastic life thus became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity, against the cheapening of grace...The restoration of the Church will surely come only from a new type of monasticism which has nothing in common with the old but a complete lack of compromise in a life lived in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount in the discipleship of Christ. I think it is time to gather people together to do this.”
The "new monasticism" is the resurgence of devoted Christians living midway between the cloister of the monastery and the chaos of secular society––those who remain in the world but who do not wish to be of the world. Christians who, out of the love of God and desire to preserve their divine union with Him, forsake the alluring pursuit of worldly gain for the eternal riches of holiness and salvation. Christians, who––like Mary, the mother of Jesus––remain hidden with Christ in God by living the Gospel according to a monastic way. Christians who manifest their independence from the State and civil society by making themselves slaves to Christ and citizens of a kingdom not of this world, living as strangers––and because of their nonpartisanship––as peacemakers in the world.
Thus guided by the mind of the Church and motivated by the heart of Christian charity––which is the summation of their monastic vocation and the “soul” of their lay apostolate––they more effectively share in the Church’s mission and ministry to build up the Mystical Body of Christ, to spread the kingdom of heaven in the world, to make all men partakers of redemption and salvation, and to establish––in the spirit of the Beatitudes––the right relationship of the entire world to Christ.
New monastics are characterized by a similar devotion and zeal as the early Christians and monks. They are an active reminder that the Church was established upon a commitment to simple gospel living and unity of faith, liturgical prayer and communal worship, the necessity of the sacraments and holiness of life, communion with the apostles and their successors, and the example of the martyrs and saints. They continue the traditions of showing hospitality to the stranger, caring for the sick, the imprisoned, and the poor, carrying out missions to the outcasts of society, and remaining devoted to the restoration and development of culture. Thus, by the grace of God, lay monastics––with the Clergy, Consecrated Religious, and all the Christian Faithful––will help serve in moving the People of God forward by actively rebuilding the Church upon these foundations.
For this so-called new monasticism of lay monastics is not new at all, but something old. As Peter Maurin (co-founder, with Dorothy Day, of The Catholic Worker) said, “It’s a vision so old it looks like new.” Monastic Christianity is nothing extraordinary, but is basic and essential. And it emerges and manifests itself not through Christians being more “monastic”––i.e., imitating the life of the monastery––but through being more Christian––imitating the life of the monk; or better said, imitating Christ.
Lay monasticism, in a certain sense, is nothing more than a truly devout Christian lifestyle, where the Christian clothes himself (or herself) in the “habit” of Christ and lives liturgically according to the rhyme and rhythm of sacred space and time, though amidst the ever-changing trends and distractions of this earthly pilgrimage, among one’s fellow pilgrims. However, lay monasticism embodies a more literal implementation of the Gospel than a purely secular spirituality and apostolate.
For lay monasticism does more than simply invite Christians to make retreats at monasteries, or to become loosely affiliated associates to “real” religious orders. Lay monastics are truly called to live in essence the life of those who live in monasteries, and are to fulfill in spirit what the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience are to those who make formal vows. Though not all are called to renounce their possessions, all must relinquish their possessiveness and attachment to desires and things. Though not all are called to celibacy, all must be chaste (pure) in body and soul and put God before all others. Though not all are called to follow a monastic rule and spiritual master, all must be obedient to the precepts of the Gospel as members of Christ’s Mystical Body the Church, uniting one’s will with God’s will in holy abandonment to Divine Providence.
If lived correctly, lay monastics fulfill their unique role in the Church not as elites away from society (or even their local parish)––abandoning the common man and common good to replicate and emulate the trappings of a past epoch or perceived golden age––but as a “society” in society amongst everyday people and amidst ordinary life. By nature of their secular status as lay Christians in the world, they are sent forth as apostles into the highways and byways to bring the monastery to the world, boldly proclaiming by word and example, “You don’t have to be a monk to live like one.” St. Basil the Great (an Eastern monastic father of the 4th Century) said that total separation from human society is “nothing but a mark of self-will and remains foreign to those who honor God.” “Nothing is as proper to our nature as to enter one another’s society, to have need of one another, and to love the man who is of our human race.”
We must remember that when we fulfill our duties of work and serve those in need, we have not ceased praying but have continued our conversation with God, and only then rightfully have completed and fulfilled our prayers. Through our poverty and self-martyrdom we have conquered our fear and need for defenses, and as pilgrims and oblates, we possess a new openness to share God's life and love with others––more than a mere hospitality of home, but it is one of the heart. Thus we receive this divine life and love back in greater abundance through those we serve––seeing only the image (icon) of Christ in them––because we are no longer attached to or in need of anything they themselves can offer us since we have held on to nothing and seek nothing but God alone. As St. Theodore the Studite puts it, “A monk is he who directs his gaze towards God alone, and who, being at peace with God, becomes a source of peace to others.”
O, how we need a monastic revival, renaissance, and revolution today! If only we, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Francis, and all the monks, mystics, martyrs, and saints who have walked the Royal Way of the Cross and climbed Jacob’s Ladder of Divine Ascent before us, will choose the one thing necessary––the best part––it will not be taken from us. We will no longer be like children playing imaginary games of shallow pietism or (even worse) empty activism, but will aspire to the sober, vigilant, tested and proven maturity of the saints, properly disposed to attain the fullness of the knowledge of Christ and unity of faith in His Universal Church as one Flock and under one Shepherd. This is our Christian duty, our right, and privilege. The Church needs us. The world needs us. Therefore it is not permissible for anyone to remain idle. May God grant us the courage and the grace!
