If you study the Life of Antony by St. Athanasius, one striking aspect of the story is the "anachoresis" of Antony - his withdrawal into solitude and into the desert. It is often tempting to write this off as anacharistic, the spirituality of another time period. But if those beginning to pray would have something new to offer the world, finding solitude and making desert retreats are key.
Henri de Lubac, in his work Paradoxes of the Faith, put it this way:
"There is no serious study without withdrawal, a temporary refusal which may look like desertion, an evasion. It is however not by keeping au courant with daily facts or by discussing the slogans of the man of the street and the latest formulations of current objections that you live in your time and perpare for action." San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987, p 55.
To understand part of what de Lubac is getting at, it is important to associate two activities that today are seldom associated at all: prayer and study. Nearly everyone agrees that study entails a quest for the truth. But in the West, since the time of Francis Bacon and St. Thomas Aquinas, we have been divided on what Truth is. For Baconians and most scholars today in whatever field, truth is whatever is verifiable or demonstrable by supporting data. Here, study does not require solitude and has no relation to prayer whatsoever. It requires hypothesis, collaboration with peers, finding and assessing data in light of the hypothesis, to prove or disprove its validity. For St. Thomas, Truth is above all a Person, a Someone whom you encounter. We can find Truth first of all because He has revealed Himself in what He has made. He has also revealed Himself in the history of human events. Finally, he continues to reveal Himself to us personally, above all in prayer. Because of the way He has revealed Himself, we constantly find Him anew through both study and prayer, faith and reason.
Why can we discover Him through a disciplined and prayerful use of reason? St. Thomas understood that Truth is Reason or Logos Himself - the very Creator of human reason. In creating human reason, He made it so that it could help us find Him, because far from being indifferent, the Word yearns for each one of us, particularly, and longs for us to be in communion with Him and one another. Yet, human reason by itself is not enough to find Him. The light of reason needs the light of faith to find what it searches for. Whereas reason is given by virtue of our nature, faith is a sheer gift. To recieve it, we must ask the One who made us, and this petition requires a humble prayer, a cry in the dark. And His answer is more clearly heard in solitude, in the wilderness, by waiting in vigil even through the night. If the Gospels are read carefully, we discover that this is precisely the way Jesus prayed, the way He studied the Will of the Father, so that through the obedience of Christ to his Father we too might become the sons and daughters of God.
The discoveries of science have greatly benefited the world in most cases, but the discoveries of faith have saved it from destruction. The world without God exhausts itself because it cannot generate anything beyond itself. It is growing old and sick. All the great efforts even in science begin to seem more and more futile because science cannot address the deepest things of the human heart. To really thrive, the world must live in the light of heaven, of something more beautiful than itself. This is as true on the world stage as it is in our families and local communities. No real Christian can be indifferent to this. Christ commanded us to love and when we see others who fail to thrive our own hearts must be pierced - or we are not worthy to be called Christian. We know world needs the Lord, and that the Lord in his mysterious plan has chosen us to witness in the world. But how can we witness to someone whose heart we have not studied? This is why we must imitate Christ in attending to the heart of the Father through constantly making time for solitude, study and prayer.
Great post, thank you. It reminds me of Evagrius' saying, "One who truly prays is a theologian; and a theologian is one who truly prays." Peace, Mike
ReplyDeleteThank you Dr. Lilles. You are giving me courage. I shall keep this posting and read up on your former blogs. I also have the Catholic Encyclopedia, and all of my 'atheistic philosophy books', which I am not sure need necessarily be interpreted as atheistic. Confused maybe, as much as I am, but I'm confident that all of the 'cross talk' will eventually be worked out. Have just discerned for instance that all of the talk about there being no truth is addressed to the restoration of Rhetoric as a discipline. And even though Heidegger left 'the church', he is still speaking about the need for 'praise'. As he said, we just have to learn 'how' to 'think', or is it 'pray'. God Bless.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably too far-fetched to even think that it could happen... but wouldn't it be wonderful to consider a faith and life sabbatical every so often? Allowing people... challenging people to consider what we are doing... what we are here for... e.g. how is my faith journey since last check-in? How is our family doing? What are our values? What course corrections should I consider? Am I nurturing and sharing love? Or another approach which sounds so radical... but is so laden with potential... a weekend with the Bible and nothing else. No headphones, no people, no noise... inviting the Word to speak with us. Blessings. deacon tom
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how the human mind works. As it grows older, it gains more knowledge and wisdom, so that it can make better choices and live a more fuller life, and yet, in spite of this maturity of the mind, one cannot say that they have discovered something new about the world that has not already been discovered by billions of other souls before it, because, while the world changes, it really only stays the same world, it dose not become a new world, for that will only happen at the end of the age. New discoveries about the ancient past or about the workings of the world or other scientific finds are made all the time, so finding something new isn't new at all, but, what one finds is certainly new; yet, the world is still the same, we have just only found something else about it that we did not know about beforehand. Yes it is very interesting how the mind matures and learns what its ancestors knew long before it. This is not to say all knowledge and wisdom is worthless, but that any knowledge or wisdom one gains is ancient, and so, valuable, even priceless. Thank you for sharing your words, they are a priceless treasure among priceless treasures, which, of course, all comes from God.
ReplyDeleteGood dy greetings in Christ. I find your topic interesting, and i wanted to share a bit of my being a simple me. I learned my faith when I was in my elementary days thru our religion teacher. And she told me that if I wanted to talk to JESUS talk to Him in the Blessed Sacrament. So that's what I did until now and I learned so much experiencing the beauty of knowing God thru His Holy Spirit and testing my own self if I really have that faith in Him, the trust, surrendering to His will my life, spirit, heart and soul. And everytime I ask Him questions, He talk and show to me the answer, first in my dream and then I see it happen in reality, though it takes time, but in some important cases, God just answer it in the last 2 minutes of my life. I then discovered it for myself that God has, long been, given us His words and teaching first in the Bible, thru His church - which I Believe is the catholic church, and then thru His people.. shall I say to all believers, like you and me who faithfully follow His commands and teaching. I have tried it and believed that the true mark of a full pledge Christian are - being Prophetic, Priestly and Kingly. God bless us all and let the peace of God stay in our hearts forever.
ReplyDeleteThank you for an interesting post. A reminder of the importance of solitude.
ReplyDeleteIn the silence we learn to listen, in listening we learn to discern. If we don't return often to solitude in our christian prayer, we may not hear what the Spirit is saying.