History of Religious Life
The Rise and Growth of Western Monasticism: Part 1
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
The Institute on Religious Life and the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence
of Chicago bring you the fifth in a series of lectures given by Fr. John A.
Hardon S.J. on the theme: The History of Religious Life. Father John Hardon
is a Professor of Theology at St. John’s University in New York. He is a well-known
lecturer and consultant to various national, religious, and educational enterprises
and is renowned as a retreat master and spiritual director. Father Hardon is
the author of many articles and books including Holiness in the Church and
The Catholic Catechism which has been strongly endorsed by Holy Mother
Church. In the following lecture Fr. Hardon speaks on the subject: The Rise
and Growth of Western Monasticism. Fr. Hardon.
As we look at monastic
spirituality, I have here four principal aspects. First, monasticism conceived
as conversion of life, then at greatest length its basic elements on which we
will spend most of the time, then its continuous influence in the Church and
then some permanent values for everyone, whether religious or not.
Monasticism as Conversion of Life
Let’s look at monasticism
as conversion of life. You notice what I am doing; I am not immediately concentrating
on St. Benedict and that for two reasons. One is that everything that I have
here is, in effect, the teaching of Benedict, though not all explicit because
centuries have gone by since he composed his Rule and secondly, as we’ve already
seen, monasticism preceded Benedict. There were elements here before he came
on the scene. Moreover, monasticism has continued, as is obvious, but since
then other forms of religious life have developed on the monastic pattern. In
other words, the monasticism – when it first reached, you might say, its fruition
or at least reached its peak in Benedict – had pretty much a monopoly of the
field. There were, indeed, hermits but, by and large, religious life was mainly
cenobitic and to be specific, monastic. That is not true today where
many religious institutes, in fact in terms of numbers, the majority who are
not technically in the monastic rule of life. But monasticism is the single,
most perduring structured or organized way of life for living out the counsels
that the Church has. And consequently even though, say, we may not, as religious,
been members of a monastic community: we’re talking about monasticism; we’re
talking about the primary analogue, as we say, the primary norm both chronologically
and logically. Hence, a study of monastic spirituality is not merely a dated,
historical recollection of the past. It is that, but not only. It is the study
of a constant given that enters into and somehow undergirds all forms of religious
life whether not called monastic or not.
A Religious Is Constantly Being Converted
First, then, as conversion
of life: I, moreover, inserted to bring out more clearly what Benedict and ever
since those who followed in his spirit understood by religious life as conversion
of life by saying it is a continuing conversion of life. There is none
of the Billy Graham mentality in Benedict; this idea of receiving, somehow,
a grace and announcing yourself as being converted. You know, that’s it.
Oh no! Well, then you’d say that’s not it, that’s the just the beginning
of it. Religious life is a continual – about three words are used that
are almost the same in meaning, the Latin is less specific than the English:
continual, continuing or continuous conversion, No matter what word you use,
be sure you know that for Benedict, a religious is constantly being converted.
Benedict had no starry or romantic ideas about human nature. He believed that
religious enter as sinners and no matter what heights of sanctity they may reach;
for Benedict, they are still sinners; a very healthy attitude.
Conversion: A Turning Towards
Conversion, as we know
it, means a turning. Technically there are two verbs that derive from the same
– verti, to turn. Now it may either be con or it can be a verti.
When it’s conversion, it’s turning towards; when it’s aversion it is, of course,
a turning from.
Turn Away from Sin and Towards God
Benedict, while I’ll keep
using his name, even though I do include more than just Benedict as the source
of all that is on your chart; but Benedict understood that a person will turn
away from sin and turn towards God. Clearly, this turning away from one or towards
another is not some physical turning of the body or of the head. It is a
turning of the will. I know that the language is symbolic; the reality
is not symbolic at all. It means a turning of affection, of love, of attachment,
of enjoyment, of things that are sinful – to God.
Regular or Daily Admission of Faults
Moreover, and this is
well to know because of the present neglect of the Sacrament of Penance in such
large quarters in the Catholic Church, while excluding not a few religious institutes.
Benedict required, first of all regular, even daily, depending on the monastery,
admission of one’s faults – the Chapter of Faults. Is that phrase familiar
to you, Chapter of Faults? Began in the oldest monastic tradition, then
when there was a priest in the monastery, or as later on more of the monks became
priests; it was not only the admission of one’s faults, say in public, we used
to have ours before dinner and the reader would always wait, start the reading
until, depending how many culprits there were during the day, four, six, sometimes
twenty, would kneel depending on what form of penance they would take or was
assigned to them. We had three principal forms of penance: One for praying with
hands outstretched, the other kissing the feet of some of the Community, or
the third, the taking of one’s meal on one’s knees. I am sorry to report that
the Society of Jesus no longer has those penances. As one who belongs to that
least Society that I love so much; one of my hopes and prayers and efforts,
too, is to bring some of that back!
In any case, it was not
only that; it was, also, sacramental confession. Indeed, most of the books
you will read on the Sacrament of Penance give you a very one-sided view of
that Sacrament. They will leave you with a distinct impression that, well, for
how many years, seven hundred, a thousand years in the early Church, confession
was very infrequent. Often we see it by a person only on their deathbed. But
penances were so horrendous that few people would have the courage to go to
Confession or if they did, they’d have to spend years in doing penance before
they got absolution and those penitential books have made the rounds, and the
Protestants especially Columbia University has made sure they’re widely circulated
to give a totally distorted view of that Sacrament. Was that done? Yes. Everywhere?
No. Universally? No. Was it generally approved by the Holy See? No!
Frequent Confession Goes Back to Earliest Centuries of
Monasticism
One of the most famous
heretics in the Church – whom we referred to last time, Tertullian
– lost his faith and was excommunicated because he claimed the Church was too
soft on sinners. Look at the number of absolutions the Church is giving! All
right? That’s good to hear! To find out what was the parallel tradition along
with the abuses and you name it, we’ve got to go to the earliest monastic practices
where the religious went to Confession often. And as I’ve told you, I don’t
mind repeating it how many years ago when I learned that Pope Pius XII went
every day. I found myself a Confessor; I went to Confession before I finished
breakfast this morning. You see, I not only teach the History of Religious
Life, I’m trying to live it. Frequent Confession goes back to the earliest centuries
of Monasticism. OK?
Vow to Overcome Sin and Work at Sanctity
Where was, as the monastic
form of life understood profession of one’s vows was the sign, the public sign
of a monk or a nun decided to permanently turn away from sin and to live a life
of perfection. That did not mean (how could it) that there would not be further
sins. But that the decision which, by the way, says something about the nature
of the vows. Sometimes we can etherealize religious profession – we take the
vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. So we do. But come, come to grips with
reality. What does it mean in plain English? In plain English, it means when
you take your vows you vow for the rest of your life you’re going to overcome
sin and work at sanctity. It is, if you wish, a vow to become holy.
Lifelong Conversion of Life
And by now I trust we’ve
seen enough to make sense of this statement: In large measure, our progress
in sanctity is our struggle with sin and among the mistakes that we can make,
no matter how many years we have been in the religious life, is to suppose there
has been some mistake because after ten, fifteen, or twenty years I still have
all kinds of irregularities to my character, all kinds of wrong desires, I have
urges by now gosh! I should be rid of this by now. Well yes, you should be over
the sin but rest assured you may still have the urge; the tendencies and the
temptations will be there. So much for a kind of generic definition of religious
life: As understood in the monastic tradition, it’s a lifelong conversion, well
this is an odd one, a lifelong conversion of life! We’re always being
tempted by the world, the flesh and the devil. If it’s not the one, it’s the
other two. And at least the devil, by the way, the devil knows no cloister limits,
if you haven’t been told. He does not respect even papal cloister. He gets in
everywhere.
What Are The Basic Elements of The Religious Life As
Understood in The Monastic Tradition?
They are, and the words
are familiar but the meaning is quite different to what we have come to attach
to active life and contemplative life. The active life includes two kinds of
activity. The first is with one’s self and the other is with others. It’s remarkable
how many religious now a day, sometimes writing learned monographs on the subject,
seem to forget that no matter how much you say in favor of the contemplative
life which has to do with God, or how much emphasis you give to the apostolic
life which refers to the neighbor: We better place first things first. What
about the active life with myself? As you will notice the longest single treatment
in all the Monastic Masters, especially Benedict, is on the spiritual combat
that each person must wage inside of his own soul. How I wish we could spend
at least, say, a month on this subject. It deserves it. I ask you to read carefully
and try to prayerfully make sense and by the way a good thing to meditate on
Scripture always, top priority, the teachings of the Church, top priority; also
the writings of the great Saints, the great Masters of the Spiritual Life, your
own Founder and Foundress and others too, especially those, as in this case,
that somehow are our fathers in God; the men and women who preceded us and except
for whom there wouldn’t be an Institute – to whichever one we belong. Just necessarily
a word about each; I wish it could be a lecture on each.
Begin the Spiritual Combat by Leaving the Crowd
This is Benedict’s sequence:
You begin the spiritual combat by leaving the crowd. That decision must be made.
We’ve already talked about separateness remember way back in the early Church
– those who were specially intent on following Christ had to settle for somehow
separating themselves from others, even physically but always spiritually. Blessed
Solitude – memorize the Latin if you haven’t heard it: Beata Solituda.
That’s more than blessed – happy solitude, but it begins there; and either we
decide and each one pretty much must do this for him or herself; to spend a
certain amount of time alone with God or nothing else will happen.
Discernments of Spirits
Secondly, all of
that solitude and I trust you saw some of that in Antony – O I wish I could
quote some of your passages on what you found or thought you found in Antony.
It was delightful. Well, just for the record, no, Antony was not a psychopath
(laughter). No doubt, no doubt some of our modern psychologists would put him
down as such – so much the word, the words from modern psychologists. It’s true
that anyone intent as St. Antony was of living alone, that the devil will realize
what a powerful good he would become – would tempt him. So the second step is
inevitable; you live alone, I don’t mean, you know, living alone in your own
apartment, but the kind of solitude that we’re talking about – The more you
are alone with God and with your own thoughts, the more you will have to make
all kinds of discernment of spirits because maybe for the first time in your
life you will realize gosh! I never knew this – there are all kinds of different
spirits. Some people don’t even know – they are so little alone with their own
mind; they don’t even realize that their mind is being buffeted in one direction
and the other. One thing you find out as you’re alone is that your mind is a
marketplace for all kinds of wares. No bazaar of Naples or Calcutta has more
unpredictable and indescribable wares than of the human mind. You name it, and
we think it. And what you soon find out – you can’t think too long about anything.
Memorize this: You cannot for too long think anything without desiring it. It
took me thirty years to learn that. If you want to stop desiring something,
either make up your mind to get it off your mind or it’s going to become a desire
that you will not be able to master. You expose your mind to whatever ideas:
You’ve got to take the consequences – those ideas are going to be on your mind.
And either you get rid of them or they are going to become desires.
Discernment of spirits,
therefore, and the plural is deliberate. It is plural for two reasons: both
because as Benedict understood spirits, he first meant good and evil which is
already plural; but also within the good spirits (they are plural) and the evil
spirits as the Gospels tell us their number is legion: To distinguish, therefore,
between the good and the bad, and then among the good which are the better,
and which are just good.
Compunction Is the Basis for the Awareness of Sin
Then compunction for sin
– in Benedict’s vocabulary, and his vocabulary by the way,
is very clear. The Latin,
depending on which translation or version we follow, the Latin leaves no doubt
as to what Benedict was talking about. Compunction is the basis for the awareness
of sin. In other words, if I’m going to grow in the humility of which Benedict
was the greatest master in the history of the Church – his twelve steps for
arriving at humility even if others may have added a step or two, nobody has
improved on Benedict. But if you’re going to arrive at humility, you’ve got
to start as we’ve tried to do today at Mass – by looking into our own souls.
Compunction is a combination of regret, concern, a desire to change, to amend,
to correct but never, never sadness, never discouragement or worry. It
is facing the facts of life and the facts of our lives are sinful facts, not
only but we’re talking about this, then, the twelve steps of humility. Read
them for yourselves. They are worth memorizing; trying to figure out where am
I? Fifth step? Sixth step? And these are somehow sequential in that the first
not merely precedes the one that follows but, somehow, is a condition for the
next one.
Humility - Right Relationship with God
In general, as Benedict
understood humility unlike, as many others, perhaps popularly conceive it, humility
is mainly directed towards God. Our practice of humility as we shall see, will
indeed involve our social life. But humility per se is, first, the right
relationship towards God. That’s the first step; a filial fear of God. This,
of course, is not servile fear. It is the kind of fear that a child or anyone
has not to offend someone you love. It is filial because it is the fear of a
son or daughter, a filius or a filia; the fear not precisely that
God will punish; but the fear that I will betray the one that has been so good
to me.
Distrust of Self-Will: Trust in God’s Providence
Second, self distrust:
Realizing how prone I am to sin, knowing that my own will is so weak, I distrust
myself, but watch this Benedictine nuance, it is not only or even mainly, distrust
of my will for being weak – that too, of course. It is mainly distrust of my
will for being blind. It’s not just strength that I lack: it’s light;
it’s knowledge, it’s wisdom. And if you re-read the Scriptures from these perspectives,
it’s remarkable how much men like Benedict and Francis and Dominic discovered
in the Bible that the rest of us read too.
Obedience to the Superior’s Will
Third: If we are
thus blind and therefore should distrust ourselves, evidently we must trust
someone. Oh, that’s easy. Benedict would say that’s what Superiors are for.
In other words, they are the ones who enlighten our admittedly – provided a
person admits it – inadequate will. Blind and not being able to see and weak,
even though it sees what should be done but as St. Paul so humbly admitted,
but we tend to do what we’re not supposed to. Obedience, therefore, to the Superiors
will. So distrust of self-will is the pre-condition for trusting God’s
Providence; like he would not have allowed me, this is Benedict’s thesis,
God would not allow a sincere soul to entrust itself to another human being
and then not have that other human being supply for what the person needs. And
with the Church’s approval of that, we are, thereby, saying that the first condition
for religious knowing what should be done is inquiring the Superior’s mind.
Those three go together and they are the first set, which are the steps toward
humility on the interior level; the 8 to 12 will be the exterior ones.
Patience under Obedience
Fourth step; now
he’s got the religious under obedience, but obedience to the Superior’s will
is not yet as high a degree as the next step is because it’s all very well for
me to trust the Superior’s will; it’s something else, how shall I put it, to
put up with the Superior: Patience under Obedience because it’s not as though,
once I resolve to be obedient, gee this is great! I thought life was difficult,
all you’ve got to do is to be obedient; trials, sufferings, the Cross – that’s
all past history. Oh no! Because this Divine Providence somehow directing the
docile soul through obedience is positively uncanny in the things that the one
who had originally said I’m going to be obedient; Big me, I’m going to be obedient,
come what may. Well, come what may! But, I didn’t expect this. (laughter) Is
this obedience too? Yeah, that’s obedience too. There must be some mistake.
No. In other words, there’s such a thing as being tried, under obedience, by
all the manner of means that obedience can try us, sometimes a Superior, usually
what we’re told to do.
Manifestation of Conscience
Fifth: In order
for the soul of the religious that wants to give itself totally to God to be
directed by obedience the way, well, obedience should direct. Since the Superior
is not God: God knows what is on my mind before I tell Him. The Superior doesn’t,
it’s just as well; (laughter) But if you could coin a phrase, obedience should
be patient, but obedience should also be enlightened. In other words, I must
have the humility to manifest myself to the one who is to direct me, sufficiently
well, to enable that authority to be exercised the way it should so that I might
not be told to do things, or forbidden to do others which, in one case, I’m
not up to and the others that I should do. It is not, therefore obedience to
obey like an automat, and if I don’t know what kind of automats you have, but
in New York City many of them just don’t work. You put your quarter in and well
you put the quarter in, (and what I’ve done sometime I press the other to see
if I can change back. But I watched one man (this is an automat on the train)
he put in, whatever it was, fifty cents for a package of cigarettes, fifty cents,
two quarters dropped in – no cigarettes. I was sitting just in front of him
where the automat was. He pressed, he pushed, he had to talk to the machine;
since nothing happened; he began to kick. (laughter) So if even automats are
not automatic, human beings cannot guide us unless they know whom they are guiding.
As one who has guided religious most of my priestly life beginning with my Jesuits
whom I was teaching – not many classes, nine hours at most a week, but I’ve
stopped counting the number of hours they keep me in counseling – far into the
night. One of the hardest things for some people is to manifest themselves.
Well that doesn’t mean telling everything because there are some things that
maybe we shouldn’t tell. It’s not just like a broken record, going over a lot
of things, repeating them. It’s not bringing up all kinds of sordid details.
It is to know what I am to manifest so the one who is directing me will know
whom he or she is directing.
Fifth: On the Way of Christian Perfection by Way of Humility
So manifestation of conscience
a prosaic phrase for a very important step to be exact, number five: On the
Way of Christian Perfection by Way of Humility. Most of us like to keep and
this we sometimes tell ourselves, well at least this is my own, at least I can
keep my own thoughts. Well, not quite. Now clearly there’s a difference unless
my Superior is a priest and the circumstances are such that I am to manifest
myself as I wish; in the Society of Jesus we have the privilege of manifesting
our consciences to our Priest- Superiors under the Seal of Confession.
Compulsion Forbidden
Superiors or those that
direct us do not have the right to in any way compel or coerce. And there are
even Canons in Canon Law forbidding compulsion by whatever means; straightforward
or devious. But if that’s the duty for the Superior, the religious has the corresponding
duty – a religious is obliged to manifest as much of his or her conscience as
before God they believe the one who is to do the direction should know, to be
able to direct them as the life requires. In case of doubt a person could ask,
say, a confessor to find out “Should I say this?” “Do I have to?” Well, my recommendation
to religious has always been; rather say more than less. I’m talking to the
religious understand, not the Superior. They are totally at the mercy of the
individual. Right? In any case, manifestation of conscience.
Sixth: Joy in Recognizing One’s Own Worthlessness.
Sixth: worthlessness.
Only the saints could talk this language. Joy in recognizing one’s own worthlessness.
Now you say to yourself, Oh no! Joy we understand, Worthlessness we understand,
but not joy in recognizing one’s worthlessness. So what’s the source of the
joy? Clearly, it is not the being worthless not the being weak or sinful. Guess
– it is that provided I humbly acknowledge that of myself I am nothing and I
mean it before God; God will take over in my soul and give me every reason for
rejoicing. If there’s any source of sadness we should have, it should be reliance
on self. That doesn’t mean we don’t use our wills, it doesn’t mean that we don’t
exercise our freedom. It does mean that we realize that of ourselves, except
for the grace of God, we could not live up to the demands that he makes on our
souls.
Conviction of Ones’ Own Nothingness and God’s Majesty
Seventh: Let me
finish this – I’m watching that clock carefully. You might say six is bad enough
(laughter) but then he adds seven: Conviction of One’s Own Nothingness and God’s
Majesty. Where joy is in the will and emotions; conviction is in the mind. Those
two phrases; one’s own nothingness and God’s Majesty are to be taken side by
side. In other words, clearly we are not nothing; we are something. And, indeed,
in God’s eyes, we are precious. But compared with God, that’s what we are –
nothing. Now that really is the basis of humility, because man compared with
God (writing on the board) God is Infinite. No matter what we’ve got, we are
finite. (writing on the board) And even that finitude such as it is a hundred
twenty or thirty pounds of body that we’ve got or whatever else there is to
us; even that little which we call our own which we treasure so dearly; even
that, except for the Will of God, wouldn’t exist. In fact, we can change that
subjunctive mood. Except for the Will of God not only would we not exist; we
do not exist except for the Will of God. No contrasts our minds can show us
between who God is and what we are would mirror the reality. We cannot be less
nothing, then to depend on the Will of God even to be. He made up His Will to
make us. He can make up His Will to unmake us. And that’s it! That constant
realization – how many times I’ve had to tell myself especially when sometimes
things get hard; God is behind it. Who am I to question His Providence? Doesn’t
make sense, the more, the grossest kind of injustice: but who am I?
Eighth Step: Conformity to Rule, No Singularity
The last five of the twelve
steps of humility are essentially of its external practice. The eighth step
talks about conforming one’s self to the Rule and practicing the humility of
universality. This is as I found out, is one of the hardest forms of humility
to practice. We are all congenitally and understandably individuals. The menus
in a restaurant, the women’s designs along 5th Avenue in New York;
each one of us wants to be an individual even to the choice, for example of
the dressing on your salad: What difference objectively, in the metaphysical
order, does it make? (laughter) Whether it is French or Mayonnaise
or Thousand Island or I’ve seen Green Goddess, Russian and other languages.
We want to remain ourselves. I’ve lived with religious long enough; I’ve taught
them for too many years not to know that the hardest thing, I don’t say to shed;
you’re not meant to shed our personalities but in Religious Life, and Benedict
made it very plain the first of the steps that have to do with the practice
of humility, to sacrifice; to sacrifice our individuality for the sake of universality.
And his condition for, thus, sacrificing one’s personal, distinctive individuality
is to keep the Rule because, by definition, the Rule is the same for all. When
that bell rings in the morning, according to Rule, no two of us have exactly
the same metabolism, have exactly down to the minute the same need of sleep;
maybe just five or ten minutes more and you’re sure when that bell rings, we
need more; the bell rings and we begin to sacrifice our individuality if we
get up on time. The uniform guard in a Religious Institute the going to meals
at the same time and what no restaurant could survive, I would say for three
weeks always, everyone gets the same. Now there are certain options, but not
that many. In New York it’s very simple; you can exercise your option but what
you don’t take – at least in a Jesuit House, somebody else will. They waste
very little food. That’s the 8th step: Conformity to Rule, no singularity.
When on rare occasion the Lord visits us and we receive extraordinary gifts
to embarrass us, as being specially gifted, if we’re going to be singular, let
it be the Lord who makes us singular.
Taciturnity: Wise Silence or Silence That Is Thinking
Number Nine: A
word that is not much used nowadays, taciturnity. What does that taciturnity
mean? Somebody who has a grasp of her vocabulary; I’m seeing heads shaking –
taciturnity oh yes! Yes? Being quiet, being quiet. All right. I’m building on
the Latin; Benedict wrote his Rule in Latin. He spoke of tacere from
which the English word taciturnity is derived. That is not quite the same as
silare. You see the ancient Greeks and Romans had a lot of words for
things that we pretty much doesn’t matter to us what word you use. Well, not
quite; being taciturn is a little different and more than just being silent.
Silence is essentially negative. I just don’t talk. Maybe I have nothing to
say. Maybe I don’t want to say it. Maybe I don’t want to say it to this person
or I’m just in, well, a silent mood. Taciturnity is no mere absence of speech.
It is indeed silence, but with a purpose. A taciturn person is a person who
does not speak because given the circumstances here and now, they either call
for not saying anything, or saying just, say, twenty words and not twenty-five.
A taciturn person does not necessarily not speak, but tries to adjust his or
her speech to the purpose – for speaking. In other words, taciturnity is wise
silence or silence that is thinking.
This concludes the first
part of Father John Hardon’s lecture on the Rise and Growth of Western Monasticism.
Part two will be found on the next tape.
Conference transcription from a talk that Father Hardon gave to the
Institute on Religious Life
Institute on Religious Life, Inc.
P.O. Box 410007
Chicago, Illinois 60641
www.religiouslife.com
Copyright © 1998 by Inter Mirifica
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