"SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM": Orthodox Monasticism and Its Service to the World

Theology Today, Apr 2004 by Ware, Bishop Kallistos

LIFE ACCORDING TO THE GOSPEL

The simplest and perhaps the best definition of the monastic vocation is provided by St Basil the Great when he calls it "[l]ife according to the Gospel."13 The monk or nun, in other words, is nothing else than a Christian who takes the gospel seriously. It is true that monastics express this evangelical life under particular outward conditions that mark them out from other Christians; but, on a more basic level, monastics and married Christians are both following the same path and share a single commitment and an identical spirituality.

A striking illustration of this truth is provided in the collection of Orthodox ascetical and mystical texts known as The Philokalia, edited by St Makarios of Corinth (1731-1805) and St Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain (1749-1809) and first published at Venice in 1782. Although the works that it contains were all written by monks, with a monastic audience in mind, St Nikodimos insists in his preface that the book is addressed "to all of you who share the Orthodox calling, laity and monks alike." he goes on to maintain that the Pauline injunction to "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:17) is directed not only to hermits in caves and on mountaintops but to married Christians with responsibility for a family, to farmers, merchants, and lawyers, even to "Kings and Courtiers living in royal palaces." It is a universal command. The best is offered to everyone; there is no Christian elite. In the words of Fr Theoklitos, "Ascetic books are intended for the whole Church. . . . Our Church is by nature ascetic."14

In the works of St Basil, it is in fact often unclear whether he is writing specifically for nuns and monks or more generally for every baptized Christian. When, for example, he speaks of "flight from the world," this signifies flight from sin rather than withdrawal into the desert; and when he refers to those "in the world," this does not mean the married laity but persons of a secular, materialistic outlook foreign to the gospel. By the same token, when he mentions obedience, this usually denotes obedience to Scripture rather than to a monastic rule or to an abbot or abbess. he has in view a flight and an obedience that are required of every Christian, although the monk and nun express this in an especially radical manner. Thus, monastics are not so much an exception or aberration but rather an example to the whole Church.

It is, therefore, no coincidence that the eastern rites of monastic profession closely parallel the service of baptism.15 Monastic vows are described as a "second baptism." They are a renewal of the baptismal promises; the monk is quite simply one who lives out to the full the death and resurrection that he, in common with every other Christian, has undergone at baptismal initiation.

Since monasticism is in this way "life according to the Gospel," then, if properly understood, it cannot be other than a "sacrament of love." For the evangelical life is expressed in the two great commandments: to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 22:37-9). Monasticism, then, means simply performing these two commandments in the highest possible way without any evasion or compromise.