A number of folks have asked me why I, a layman, would devote time to a project on monasticism. It’s a fair enough question and one that deserves an honest answer. Actually, there are, as there are in most things, a number of reasons, existing on a number of levels. I’ll try and explain.
Firstly, I spent time at the Abbey of the Genesee as a postulant and then novice. I came to know the life, for a brief time at least, from the inside. Relatively few people have had such an experience, which ipso facto makes it of value. I can only hope that the insights I express here, gained in large part from this experience, prove helpful to those who care to read them.
Secondly, it’s my belief, certainly not a novel one, that the world is in a defining period of upheaval. There is the cultural and political eruption of Islam and its confrontation with the West, which means, because this is very much a religious phenomenon, a confrontation between religious world views. Also, further complicating our situation, is the West’s widespread disillusionment with its own religious heritage, namely Christianity. There seems to me, to simplify the matter for brevity’s sake, a twofold movement in the Western Christian collapse: one internal and one external.
Internally, the Christian world is suffering in large part as a result of the cumulative effects of the Protestant revolution of the 16th century. The inability of Rome to respond to the crisis of Luther and his followers is in the final stages of playing itself out. There is less and less of a consensus answer to the question: “What is a Christian?” We are a splintered faith tradition and its effects are today fully evident in the indifference throughout Europe and large parts of the United States to Christianity as an institution. Each branch of Christianity is also undergoing internal disintegration. For Catholics in the United States, the clerical sex abuse crisis has been devastating. A veil has been pulled back and what is revealed has turned many away.
Finally, the external pressures of cultural relativism and technological revolution have become so complete that many no longer have the capacity or the will to examine their presuppositions. A cultural amnesia seems to have descended on us and we no longer remember another way. Without the ability to think clearly about the world, about truth itself, things can slip quietly away. Like a critical patient under the effect of a potent narcotic, one ceases to feel the pain, a sign one is critical indeed.
My point simply is to give some context that led me to begin”Monk?” blog. I think its a critical time and those who have something to say now have means never before available to express it.But what has a blog about monasticism got to do with the state of the world? Quite simply, I hold the belief that monasteries are one critical link on the chain of Christian health. As Christians, we have known of cloistered monks and nuns from earliest days. They have been beacons of spiritual and religious striving, proving to the world the power of the Christian message to transform lives. Christianity without men and women willing to respond to the powerful pull to abandon all and seek God alone would mean a Christianity no loner with the power to inspire and motivate people to acts of religious heroism. It would mean a faith without a message.
The Church’s message has been one word, a name, Christ. And yes, he does still call and he does still move some to pursue the invitation to take the narrow road to the monastery where he or she will be challenged to transformation in His name. My intention is simply to get the word out to some people who might be sleepwalking and need someone to open up the question hidden under all the noise of today’s world: “Is there a God? Should I care? Do I want to know? Who are those people chanting in the middle of the night? Do they know something I don’t? Should I take a look?”
I hope “Monk?” blog helps open up these questions for those who stop by. Peace!
Tim