This essay follows off the conversation with Ian Mobsby I shared last week. You can watch it on YouTube by clicking HERE.
“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19)
In the hearts of many Christians, God has been doing a new thing. Springs of fresh water are emerging in the desert. A new kind of monasticism is bursting forth from the dry earth. Ancient seeds which have been lying in wait are beginning to bloom.
When God does a new thing, valleys are lifted up and mountains are made low. The landscape itself begins to shift and all the creatures who call the desert home adapt in response. The voice of the One is calling out from the wilderness, beckoning people to prepare a way for the Lord.
The desert has long been the literal and symbolic home of the monastic tradition. In imitation of Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, and Jesus, Christian monks have set out into the wilderness to confront themselves and encounter God. There in the wilds of deserted places, on the edges of society, they sought to calm the chaos in their minds and live a life in imitation of Christ.
The first monks were trailblazers, forging paths in the desert generations of monks have been walking on ever since. We should always walk on the well trodden paths of our spiritual ancestors, building upon the work of those who have gone before us. The new does not replace the old – it continues it. It responds to the movements of the Spirit within the living body of the people of Christ.
With the assistance of people like Basil, Benedict, and Francis fresh new expressions of the monastic vision poured forth into the world. These heroes of the contemplative life honoured the ancient lineage they inherited, while also being true to the needs of their time and place.
From its beginnings with Anthony in the Egyptian desert, Christian monasticism has undergone many reforms, innovations, and schisms. In a certain way it has a life of its own and, if we are really creatures of faith, we trust that somehow God is living and working within the ebbs and flows of this ancient unfolding.
Let us remember the words of the Apostle, “We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” Paul’s words carry a timeless truth relevant to Christians today. Christianity has an outer form that is wasting away and an inner form which is being renewed day by day.
The outer forms are nothing more than clay jars within which we carry the true treasure – the light of Christ which belongs to God and does not come from us. While the clay is both beautiful and necessary, it is always changing. The outer forms of monasticism are not unlike a body which is never the same, inevitably coming to an end. But the inner spirit does not change, it is the source from which the contingent outer forms arise and towards which they are oriented.
May we give all that we are to this inner spirit. From it flows an endless fountain of hope, which is something we all need right now.
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