A Course in Desert Spirituality, Page 2

  The Desert Fathers [and Mothers] were not necessarily magic directors, wizard gurus, who had a series of infallible answers on all points. They were humble and sagacious men [and women], of few words, whom the Holy Ghost used for His purposes.1

  (1956)

  __________

  1 Merton doesn’t use the phrase “Desert Mothers” in these lectures, for whatever reason. He uses the more common “Desert Fathers.” Only in this first instance, for purposes of adding this editor’s note, has the editor added “and Mothers” in editor’s brackets. You will see, however, that Merton does discuss women, in addition to men—most of all in Lecture 9.

  LECTURE 1

  Early Christian Spirituality (First and Second Centuries)

  These were the days of the great persecutions. The Christian was above all confronted at any moment with martyrdom. This is the keynote to the spirituality of the first centuries. Together with martyrdom as an ever-present possibility and conceived as the summit of the spiritual life, was also the ideal of virginity.

  Martyrdom and virginity were considered as supreme forms of union with Christ by the sacrifice of all that the world holds dear. Asceticism went with this, hand in hand. The idea was, in all literal fact, to take up one’s cross and follow Christ into the Kingdom where He reigns in glory. The Christian had no perspectives in this present life.

  The life of the Christian was centered in the unity of the Church—a unity of perfect love, in which everything was still very much in common, and in which the Sacred Liturgy, the reenactment of the Redemptive Sacrifice of Christ, was the great communal act, the source of all strength, life, courage to face martyrdom, etc. The life of the Christian was an intense life of love and self-forgetfulness in the community of the faithful, closely united together in Christ by the Liturgy, and daily expecting to bear witness to their faith in Christ by death.

  In this situation there was not much literature, not much “pious reading.” What was written was written to be read to the community, or for the formation of catechumens. Examples include St. Ignatius and his epistles, The Didache or “Teaching” (of the Twelve Apostles), [and] the Shepherd of Hermas (allegorical and apocalyptic visions). Note that the spirituality of the early church was strongly eschatological. [For example], in The Didache: “There are two ways, one of life and one of death; and great is the difference between the two ways” (opening words). The way of life is simply the way of the Gospel and in summarizing it the author repeats and summarizes the main moral teachings of Jesus, quoted from the Gospel. For instance:

  This is the way of life: “First you shall love God who made you, secondly, your neighbor as yourself; and whatever you would not like done to you, do not do to another.” The teaching of these words is as follows: “Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For what is the merit of loving those who love you? Do not even the pagans do this? But, love those who hate you, and you will not have an enemy.”

  Read especially chapters 9 and 10 on the Eucharist—beautiful, simple, deep—[these are] the first beginnings of the liturgy in spontaneous prayer. We should keep this spirit and spontaneity in our own worship. Chapter 10 is a model for the Mass, and can also be a model for our own prayer after communion.

  [Then there was] St. Ignatius of Antioch, the second successor to St. Peter as Bishop of Antioch, an important city. His writings are marked by ardent love for Christ, love for unity of the Church, thirst for martyrdom. Study his conception of the Church and of the Christian life. Read his desire for martyrdom. Hence the spirituality of the age of the martyrs can be summed up as follows.

  Spirituality in the Age of the Martyrs

  1) Everything is centered in the unity of the Mystical Christ: humility and meekness and the virtues that promote unity are paramount, and above all charity. From the Epistle of Clement:

  Make us submissive to Thy most mighty and excellent name, to our princes and governors in this world. For Thou, O Master, hast given them the power of reigning by Thy glorious and unspeakable might, in order that, knowing the glory and honour Thou hast assigned to them, we should obey them and not contradict Thy will. O Lord, grant unto them health, peace, concord, and stability, that they may wield without hindrance the sovereignty which Thou hast given them. For Thou, Master, and heavenly King of all the ages, givest unto the sons of men glory, honour and power over the things of the earth. Guide Thou, O Lord, their counsels according to that which is good, according to that which is pleasing in Thy sight, so that they may use with reverence in peace and mildness the power which Thou hast given them, and enjoy Thy favor (Prayer for the Roman emperors by Clement and the Roman Christians in their liturgical gatherings).

  2) Special emphasis is put on the mystique of martyrdom—the consummation of the Christian’s consecration of himself to Christ in baptism. Tertullian writes: “A prison provides a Christian with the same advantages that a desert gives to a prophet.” This is interesting. Not only are the Desert Fathers heirs to the vocation of the martyrs, but the martyrs are the heirs of those pre-desert fathers, the prophets. In either case, there is the idea of the prophetic vocation of the Christian saint as witness to the presence of Christ in the world (classic example—St. John the Baptist, model of martyrs, of monks, and of prophets). Tertullian encourages martyrs in strength and love of suffering for Christ:

  Blessed martyrs, look upon every hardship you have to endure as fitted to develop in you virtues of soul and body. You are about to take up the good fight in which the living God will award the prize. . . . Christ Jesus, who has anointed you with the Holy Spirit, has willed before the day of battle to take away your freedom and to deal with you stoutly to toughen your strength. Athletes, as we know, in order to harden themselves, withdraw from their fellows to undergo a regime of greater severity. They abstain from all indulgence, all dainty fare, and all too pleasant drink. They do themselves violence, undergo pain, tire themselves out, being surer of winning the more thoroughly they are trained. And yet all this is, as the Apostle says [1 Cor. 9:25] “that they may receive a corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible one.” Let us then regard the prison as the place where we are trained to suffer, that we may be broken in to it when we are led forth to the tribunal. For a hard life increases virtue, softness on the contrary destroys it.

  St. Cyprian writes in his Exhortation to Martyrs: “The world becomes a prison, in time of persecution: but the heavens are opened. Antichrist threatens but Christ comes to the rescue; death is inflicted, but immortality follows; the martyr who is put to death loses the world, but restored to life he gains paradise. Temporal life is snuffed out but eternal life is given in exchange.”

  Typical of the spirit of the martyrs, this strength and love of sacrifice is passed on and handed down by the martyr to the monk his successor. How necessary to have some of this spirit in our monastic life. Otherwise how feeble and inert we will be, how lacking in generosity, how tepid in fulfilling our sacred obligations.

  The age of the martyrs looked at union with Christ Crucified, by martyrdom, as the ideal way of fulfilling one’s vocation to union with Christ and swallowing up all sin and burying sin and punishment alike in the Blood of Christ. But not all were martyrs—nor was it sufficient to hope for martyrdom as the exclusive and unique way of being a perfect Christian. What if one did not die a martyr? How should one live? One should live as if preparing for martyrdom. But the Christian virtues should be practiced in a very special way by certain groups within the Church.

  The Ideal of Virgins and Ascetes

  The life of virginity is also a life of union with Christ. The virgin is the Bride of Christ. Those who embrace the life of virginity do not merely renounce marriage and legitimate pleasures of the flesh, but in general they embrace lives of greater mortification. While all the faithful fast on Wednesday and Friday, these have an even stricter rule of life. “We often meet with Christians who might marry and thus spare themselves the aggravation of the st
ruggle between the flesh and the spirit. They prefer to refrain from exercising their right, but to lay upon themselves hard penances, to keep under their bodies by fasting, to bring them under obedience by abstinence from certain foods, and thus in every way to mortify by the spirit the works of the flesh,” wrote Origen.

  Since perfect chastity is a special gift of God, then it must be asked for and preserved by a life of constant prayer. But prayer is not only associated with the virginal life because of its difficulties. Also, the life of virginity fits one to offer special praise to God. It becomes a life of praise, a life devoted (later on) to the opus Dei. The virgins follow the Lamb singing hymns wherever He goes. Apocalypse 14:1-6:

  And I saw, and behold, the Lamb was standing upon Mount Sion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like a voice of many waters, and like a voice of loud thunder; and the voice that I heard was as of harpers playing on their harps. And they were singing as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except those hundred and forty-four thousand, who have been purchased from the earth. These are they who were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were purchased from among men, first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb, and in their mouth there was found no lie; they are without blemish.

  It is especially fitting that pure souls should devote themselves to the praise of God—they are able to love and understand Him better; they are on more intimate terms with Him; praise in the mouth of a pure person is more pleasing to God, etc. This life of prayer early took the form of an embryonic divine office: all Christians assisted at vigils of reading and psalmody in church from Saturday to Sunday (from this arose the office of matins). Virgins and ascetes habitually prayed at set times of the day, especially morning, noon and evening. The prayer life of all was centered, of course, in the Holy Eucharistic sacrifice.

  The life of prayer and penance was also accompanied by good works. Virgins and ascetes were assigned officially to certain works of mercy in the Church, as part of their vocation. Hence the virginal life is the angelic life, a special spiritual gift coming down from heaven. But it must be accompanied with humility and works of charity. (St. John Chrysostom will later point out that the foolish virgins with no oil in their lamps lacked works of mercy and were attached to their possessions.) The pure love of the virgins, far from being sterile, is spiritually fecund (gloriosa fecunditas) in the Church, not only spiritually but even temporally. St. Ambrose was to say later: “Where virgins are few in number there the population diminishes, but where virginity is held in honor there too the number of inhabitants increases,” and he refers to Alexandria as an example.

  LECTURE 2

  Aberrations in the Early Centuries

  In order to understand the Christian tradition of the early centuries we must also know about the aberrations from the true tradition, which had a significant effect. We have to be careful in studying such things: not because we are likely to be led astray by the errors themselves, but because we are apt to make judgements that are too crude both of the nature of error and of the nature of true Christian spirituality. There is a danger of drawing very clear lines of demarcation, with all black on one side and all white on the other, and so a need for greater discernment. For instance, much that was good in Neoplatonism has in fact passed over to the Fathers, for example St. Augustine.

  Hatred of the Flesh

  Encratism (from egkrateia—abstaining), exaggerated asceticism—hatred of the flesh—is not Christian. This error condemned all marriage and all use of meat and wine as evil. On the contrary, St. Methodius gives the true doctrine: “In marriage God associates man with His own creative work.”

  True asceticism supposes a balance: perfection consists not in denying oneself but in charity. Asceticism is a means to an end and not an end in itself. Eusebius gives an example of true Christian spirit in the martyr Alcibiades of Lyons. In prison, he was severely abstaining from certain foods. But when it was pointed out that this was troubling others who thought they might be obliged to do the same, he “made use of everything indifferently, thanking God, for the martyrs were not bereft of the grace of God, but the Holy Spirit was their counsellor.”

  Tatian and Encratism

  Tatian was an Assyrian convert in Rome. At first interested in Greek philosophy, he turned against it and remained aggressively opposed to Greek influence in Christianity. In a rigorous opposition against Western Christianity, he emphasized extreme asceticism for all and even opposed marriage and procreation. He was condemned as a heretic in the West. He had a decisive influence in Syrian Christianity. Note his Gospel Harmony [which shows] examples of the way Tatian changed Gospel texts to suit his own rigorous views. He excluded wine from the Kingdom, omitted references to Joseph as Mary’s “husband,” etc. Note: Jerome, commenting on Galatians 6:8 (“He who sows in the flesh . . . ”) attributes to a most zealous heresiarch of the Encratists, Cassianus, the view that this is a text against marriage. This Cassianus may be “Tatianus” (an error of the scribe) or else Julian Cassianus, a Valentinian gnostic. Defending fasting against Jovinian, Jerome mentions Tatian and Marcion as heretics who forbade certain foods out of “hatred for the works of the creator.” The true Christian view: “We give praise for every creature of God”—but Christians fast nevertheless. Fasting is commanded by Christ, but not because any creature is evil. Tatian places great emphasis on suffering in the spiritual life.

  Marcionites

  As a result of dualism, Marcion separated the “good God” of the New Testament and the evil principle of the Old Testament. Creation comes from the evil one. Hence to despise creation is to insult and contemn the evil principle. Marriage was treated with nausea. Only celibates could be full members of the Church (cf. Albigenses). Marcion taught a hatred of the body, a Docetist view of the Incarnation and made the claim that Christ hated the flesh. He taught hatred of food: eating is regarded as a bestial and evil action. Marcionites showed aggressive opposition to the world, courting persecution.

  The Acts of Thomas (Apocryphal)

  This work shows a modified encratism, with an emphasis on virginity. Only the virgins are espoused to Christ, and they alone can enter with Him into the Kingdom. It is also necessary to leave all possessions, for Christ comes only to those who are stripped of all things. Vagrancy is praised. In these sources and others (cf. the Apocryphal Odes of Solomon) we see ascesis regarded as an essential part of the Christian message. The Gospel is only for those who practice extreme asceticism.

  The idea was eschatological: the refusal of procreation had a cosmic significance. It was supposed to hasten the day of the end. The celibate took a real and concrete part in the “reduction of the dominion and duration of the present world.” “Only a church with such qualities could be an instrument working towards the consummation of the cosmic upheaval and the expansion of God’s dominion in the world.” Hence the sacraments were rewards for the continent (for example, Baptism as a crown for the perfect, not an initiation).

  Encratism:

  1) It is dualistic, rejects the Old Testament and ascribes the division of the sexes to the demon.

  2) Therefore it prescribed total abstention from marriage and meat.

  3) A “metaphysical hatred of wine” was carried to the point that water only was used at Mass.

  Tatian [also] taught that Adam was not saved because he married.

  St. Basil’s Master, Eustathius

  Eustathius was St. Basil’s friend and guide, who introduced him to the full ascetic ideal, and urged him to go to Egypt. Basil long remained under the influence of Eustathius but gradually came to differ with him.

  Eustathius [was] Bishop of Sebaste (Armenia), who had travelled in Egypt, admired the monks, propagated asceticism in Asia Minor, [and] had many followers and many opponents. The left
wing of Eustathius’ following tended toward heresy and exaggerated asceticism, preparing the way for Messalianism. The influence of Eustathius precipitated a crisis reflected in the Council (Synod) of Gangres in 341, more than ten years before Basil came under his direct influence, though Basil’s family embraced ascetic life under the influence of Eustathius about ten years after the council. At the Council of Gangres, opposition to Eustathius by conservative elements in the Church crystallized in a “condemnation” of Eustathius or rather of the extreme tendencies which some of his followers promoted. From this council it is clear that the left-wing Eustathians tended toward schism, asserting that only the perfect ascetics were worthy [of] the name of true Christians. Married clergy were despised. The hierarchy was condemned for compromising with the world of imperial power. Ascetes were accused of disrupting the social order, breaking up marriages, urging slaves to flee masters and officials to leave jobs to become monks. Monks refused to pay taxes, etc. Ascetes were accused of contempt for the ordinary liturgical life of the Church, feasts of martyrs (which tended to be social festivities), contempt for created things, etc. Extremists on the other hand found that Eustathius himself was not strict enough. Some of the ascetes protested against his foundation of a hospital at Sebaste as a source of distractions and worldliness. They departed into the mountains with a group of men and women bound to celibate and ascetic life. These extremists, as later the Messalians, exalted the life of prayer beyond all else; prayer supplied for everything, better than work. They also practiced sacred dances and preached “liberation of women.”