Practical Wisdom
from the Monastic Tradition
Introduction & Part One
by Abbot Austin G. Murphy, OSB
Preface
In my concern over whether I have been a faithful servant, it has occurred to me that perhaps I am burying a talent given to me, if I do not pass on to others some of the monastic teachings that have been passed on to me. The following therefore contains some basic points from the Christian monastic tradition that I hope will be helpful for all seeking to walk in the way of Christ.
As for my style, I have aimed to be compact. This spares the reader the labor of reading many pages, but it makes some points difficult to understand at first. However, I have tried to craft the writing so that it repays careful study. Also, rather than lose the non-academic reader in technical terms and in making fine distinctions, I have occasionally chosen more intuitive terms and drawn distinctions rather roughly. My hope is to present the general contours of the spiritual life, so that readers may better navigate the spiritual journey.
Abbot Austin G. Murphy, OSB
January 19, 2011
Introduction
Our Situation
No one can escape having to choose. Good and evil options present themselves repeatedly in life and one must make choices, sometimes tough choices, between them. Not facing up to the choice is itself a choice, and an evil one at that. It is true that baptism has put the Spirit in our hearts, so that we have within us a supernatural inclination to the good – yes, even to goodness itself, the Trinity. But even so, sinful inclinations exist alongside that inclination, so that a choice must be made between the former and the latter. Even the person who makes a life-defining commitment to what is good, such as by taking vows in religious life, will find that “sin couches at the door” with its desire to master him (Gen 4:7) and he must choose whether he will submit to it or fight it.
There is no once-and-for-all, over-and-done-with choice for Christ in this life. Being Christians does not remove us from the situation of having to contend with the “ways of the flesh” and of having continually to choose the “ways of the spirit.” Do not fool yourself by thinking one can cruise through life and not have to contend in this way. If one fails to choose the spirit, one has chosen the flesh. We need to be awake, and to notice the chances that are before us for walking in the spirit. These opportunities – including, and especially, the opportunities to do the little things well – are God’s gifts to us. Let us make sure we seize these blessed opportunities!
Standing between flesh and spirit, and having to choose, we are moral creatures. The ancient Christian thinker Origen described this by saying that the soul is situated between spirit and flesh, and that, as the seat of free choice, it must repeatedly choose between the two. The choice of the spirit is a choice for God and the joyful life His reign affords; the choice of the flesh is a choice to serve oneself, which ironically leads to slavery, the slavery to sin.
The following work therefore has three parts, corresponding to the soul, the ways of the flesh, and the ways of the spirit. The first part describes the soul, particularly its make-up; the second part discusses common temptations towards the flesh; and the third talks about the way of the spirit.
God’s Goodness
But a word before we begin. In the struggle between flesh and spirit, we are not left to our own resources. Rather, God is with us. Strangely, Christians sometimes forget this; they even hesitate to believe in God’s love for them! To avoid this, we should think of Christ’s suffering. How can the suffering He underwent to save us not convince us of His love and mercy?
So, do not hesitate to believe in that love. Why doubt it? The Scriptures are clear that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends, and how much more is Christ’s love because He laid it down not for friends, but while we were yet sinners! This is to say nothing of the kind of death He suffered, death on a cross. If the crowd noticed how much Jesus loved His friend Lazarus because He wept over him, then how can you fail to notice how much Jesus loves you, when He more than wept for you, but died for you?! Therefore, do not be unbelieving, but believe! The Lord’s love for you is tremendous, beyond your comprehension.
You must trust in the mercy and love of God during the struggle between flesh and spirit. “Never lose hope in God’s mercy,” says St. Benedict (Rule of St. Benedict 4.74). Yes, never! The difficulties of the struggle will tempt you to discouragement, dejection, and despair. At times, you will come face to face with your sinfulness and it can be overwhelming. But do not despair. Do not think that God rejects you. He did not seek to save you because you are not a sinner, but because you are. Or are you unaware that His love is utterly free, not earned? Again, His suffering for sinners proves this. There will be times when you will not feel God’s presence, but do not think God has abandoned you. Feelings are fickle and not always reliable. Whatever confronts you, never think God has abandoned you, or that He has forgotten you, or that He has no plan for you. That is all a lie, the lie of the Accuser. Instead, believe!
If you are to succeed in the spiritual struggle between good and evil, spirit and flesh, then your piety must not be like the morning mist that at the approach of daytime’s heat passes away. Here is one place where you should be obstinate and stubborn: believe tenaciously and doggedly in God’s love for you. “Never lose hope in God’s mercy.” That mercy is our hope for forgiveness, should we fail, and our hope for God’s help, so that we might succeed. Without His help we would labor in vain, but in the one who strengthens us we can do all things.
Part I: The Soul
Chapter 1: Desire
Drawn by perceived goods
The soul does not stand between the options of good and evil as a disinterested observer and, likewise, it does not make choices out of a state of indifference. Rather, the soul is drawn. What looks good to it attracts it. Just because something looks good, does not mean, of course, that it is truly good. All that glitters is not gold and all that seems good is not so. Still, we are drawn by what we perceive to be good, whether or not that perception is correct. This makes perceptions very important. The more correct our perceptions are, the more our souls are drawn toward what is truly good.
Here when we speak of good vs. bad we do not mean good or bad in itself. Everything the Lord has made is good in itself. However, not everything is good in a particular situation. Fire is good in itself, but in a library filled with books it is not good. On a very cold night, though, fire in a fireplace is good. Good vs. bad here means what is rightly desired vs. rightly shunned. Fire in a library is rightly shunned and thus is an evil, but fire in a fireplace on a cold night is rightly desired and thus is a good. As these examples imply, whether something is good or bad can depend on the context or situation. This is true in many cases, although there are some things – such as murder or adultery – that are never rightly desired.
We will say much about perceptions in the following pages. They are a complicated topic, but having a simple definition can be helpful. A perception is how one looks at something. A correct perception looks at something so as to know correctly whether it is a good to be desired or an evil to be shunned. Again, correct perceptions are important, if we are to be drawn towards what is truly good.
Desire
To say that the soul is drawn by things is to say that there is a part of the soul that desires. I will simply call this part “Desire” with a capital D, to distinguish it from any particular desire for this or that. For those familiar with Plato’s tripartite division of the soul, it might seem that Desire here means the concupiscible part. But in fact the parallel would be both the concupiscible and irascible parts. It is what some monastic authors and also St. Thomas Aquinas have called the passionate part of the soul and what St. Bernard sometimes means by the term affectus.
Desire is a formidable force and each of us has to reckon with it. Just as we cannot get around having to choose between good and evil, so we cannot get around having to contend with Desire. When Desire becomes misdirected it can be a frightful force! Many of our difficulties in following Christ are from battling the wayward tendencies of Desire. Desire is like a torrent of water that comes from deep within a person: when it flows into its proper channels, it gives life, but otherwise, it can destroy like a flood.
The difficulty of dealing with Desire has led to two mistakes. One is to go along with whatever Desire says. Some do this because they think that resisting Desire is futile or that following Desire’s wishes is the only way to be happy. The other mistake is to fight against Desire’s wayward tendencies, but to do so by trying to root out Desire altogether.
Both are wrong. Rather than go along with whatever Desire says and rather than try to uproot it, the proper approach is to train and educate Desire. This is what true asceticism does and it is what causes virtues to arise in the soul. The training of Desire is a great work and a very arduous one, but all the labor is well worth it, for when properly channeled Desire wells up to nothing less than eternal life!
Chapter 2: The mind
Mind
There is no chance of educating Desire unless we use our minds. The mind is the privileged place, says St. Paul, for discerning the good vs. the bad, the way of the spirit vs. the way of the flesh. It is where the will of God is known and also delighted in. What a beautiful gift within our human nature the mind is! It is important not to think narrowly of the mind, as our culture tends to do. Do not think it is only for a dry abstract or academic kind of knowledge. It is rather something much more expansive and wonderful. With the mind we breathe in the fresh air of the Spirit and we are opened up to the expanses of God’s own life. The mind is where we engage and hold converse with God.
To extol the mind is not to demean the body. Nor is it to demean Desire, which is connected to the body. Rather, the mind is what elevates Desire. Without the mind’s guidance, Desire becomes debased, as it gives itself over to shameful things. But with the mind’s guidance, it can partake of the things of God! This is not to say that the mind itself cannot go astray. It can make erroneous judgments. It can also choose to serve Desire’s whims rather than God’s commands. In that case, its marching orders are what Desire wants and the mind uses its thinking to figure out how to attain those wants and even to justify them.
Mind’s governance of Desire
Instead, the mind is meant to govern Desire. But to understand this governance correctly, we should note its two modes. First, the mind has a certain veto power with regard to Desire. When Desire urges a path to take, the mind can withhold its consent, so that Desire’s urging is not carried out. This is important to remember, especially in moments of temptation, lest we think we have to carry out Desire’s demands. One need not go along with a prompting of Desire, because the mind need not consent.
In addition to this veto power, the other mode of the mind’s governance is leading Desire in the right direction. But this cannot be done by simply commanding Desire this way or that. Aristotle wisely compared the mind’s leadership to political vs. despotic rule. The despot tells his subjects what to do, while the leader of a free city (called a polis in Greek – hence, “political”) must convince its citizens to seek this or to shun that. The mind leads Desire in the latter way: it must convince Desire to seek something or not to seek it. We will say more about this in later chapters.
The training of Desire is a mixture of these two modes of government, that is, of vetoing and of persuading. In the early stages of the spiritual life, before Desire has much training, there will be much vetoing. This will make the spiritual life seem like little more than saying no to oneself. Discouraged by the spiritual life seeming to be so negative, some are tempted to abandon it. But if one perseveres, then as time goes on the mind and Desire are integrated. There will still be moments of tension, but in general the two will work in greater unity. Then the soul will have a taste of God’s peace
Chapter 3: Emotions
The emotions of Desire
Educating Desire is complex because Desire itself is complex. It does not simply desire; it also rejoices, fears, mourns, and undergoes other emotions. In fact, all the different emotions or passions (I use the two terms interchangeably here) belong to it.
Desire includes all the emotions, but it takes its name from the particular emotion of desire because all the other emotions stem from this one. The emotion of desire branches into other emotions depending on the situation. When what is desired is obtained, then the emotion of desire branches into the emotion of joy. When something threatens the attainment of the desired thing, then there is the emotion of fear. There have been different enumerations of the emotions. In the ancient Greco-Roman philosophical tradition there is a list of four: desire (also called love), fear, joy, and sorrow. Although more could be listed (for example, St. Thomas Aquinas has eleven), describing these four will suffice to give us a better sense of what the emotions are.