Continuing our look at Lumen Gentium paragraphs 46 & 47
What do you suppose is the benefit of having hermits in the
Church? These are men who live all by
themselves as a religious discipline.
How does that benefit anyone? Well,
I heard a story once on NPR and they were talking about a type of bird that
only lives in places in which the wilderness is truly present. (After all these years I don’t remember the
bird.) If man starts encroaching at all,
they disappear. So if you want to know
if a wilderness is truly healthy, you look for these birds.
It turns out that hermits have much the same function. They usually only appear on the scene when
the faith is truly healthy in a place.
If it is not healthy, they are nowhere or rarely to be found. So we look to them to see how healthy we
are. We rely on them to pray for
us. They are the canary in the
mineshaft.
In a similar way, all religious orders play a vital roles in
the Church. Without them we are less in
some striking way. Each order tends to
live a part of the life Christ in a more dramatic way than most of us can. “Christ in contemplation on the mountain, or
proclaiming the kingdom of God to the multitudes, or healing the sick and the
maimed and converting sinners to a good life, or blessing children and doing
good to all men, always in obedience to the will of the Father who sent Him.” What an absolutely beautiful way to explain
religious orders. It almost takes your
breath away.
With their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, they
more closely follow the life of Christ, particularly in his poverty and
virginity. For this reason the Fathers
of Vatican II most strongly lend their support to these ways of life in the Church
whether it be in the monasteries, in schools, in hospitals, in the missions and
wherever they may be.
1 comment:
Ivory-billed woodpeckers I believe, Father.
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