Hermitage Note: Total Abandonment To God

I came across this short story of two monks and their olive trees. It did not have any reference or documentation as to who may have said it. It does, nonetheless, do a good job illustrating one of the great problems we have as humans who think we know what is best for us.

"One monk planted an olive tree and began to pray: "Lord, send down some rain for my tree." And the Lord sent down rain.

The tree was saturated and needed to dry. The monk prayed:" And now Lord, I ask to send a lot of sun for my tree." And the Lord sent the sun.

The tree grew. The monk continued to pray: "Lord, send a small frost to strengthen the roots and branches." The Lord sent the frost and the tree died.

The monk was very upset. He went to another monk to tell the story and to share his grief.

"I also have an olive tree, see." said the other monk. His tree grew well. "But I prayed in a different way. I have told God that He is the Creator of this tree and knows best what is necessary for it. I just asked God to take care of it and He does.”

Our reading in the Rule for today is quite pertinent where this idea of total abandonment to God is concerned. Saint Benedict communicates:

“The vice of private ownership is above all to be cut off from the Monastery by the roots. Let none presume to give or receive anything as their own, either book or writing-tablet, or pen, or anything whatsoever; since they are permitted to have neither body nor will in their own power. But all that is necessary they may hope to receive from the father of the Monastery: nor are they allowed to keep anything which the Abbot has not given, or at least permitted them to have. Let all things be common to all, as it is written: “Neither did anyone say that aught which he possessed was his own.” But if any one shall be found to indulge in this most baneful vice, and after one or two admonitions do not amend, let him be subjected to correction.”[1]

There are several grand principles in this short chapter of the Holy Rule. I will take the time to reflect briefly on one of them.

One of the grand principles in monasticism, and herein reflected in cenobitic monasticism, is that those entering therein give up, before anything else is given up, their own right to self-governance. This giving up has always gone against worldliness and worldly thinking. This giving up especially goes against the grain of modern humanity steeped in the idolatry of self-centeredness and self-worship that is part of the popular enculturation of these modern times. This giving up is, however, the gateway that opens to the path of enlightenment and renewal where we are able to truly realize and experience who we are in God’s divine plan. It is here, on this path, where we are challenged to experience our own personal conversatio morum [conversion of life] that gradually transforms us into replicas of God’s own Son.

It is here, as we slowly meander the pathway of giving up of our self, that we begin to truly realize and experience the benevolent care of the fatherhood of God – that God truly does watch over and provide for us in ways that defies the status quo of the world’s standards and ambitions.

What was it that our Lord taught his first followers in regard to the benevolent care of the Father?

“24. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 25. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment? 26. Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? 27. And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? 28. And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. 29. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. 30. And if the grass of the field, which is to day, and to morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith? 31. Do not be solicitous therefore, saying, What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? 32. For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of these things. 33. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. 34. Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.” [Matthew 6:24-34]

I remind myself of how fully those early followers of Christ trusted in his word. I remind myself of how Christ’s followers in those early centuries full of dire persecutions, martyrdoms, and multiplied personal hardships lived lives of total abandonment to him. I remind myself of the examples of the tens of thousands who fled the ease and comforts of the cities after the cessation of the persecutions in order to follow Christ completely abandoned to his care and keeping in the inhospitable desert regions where God once proved the faith of fledgling Israel. And what of the hundreds of thousands of monks and religious sisters living cloistered monastic lives over the centuries?

I think, too, of multiple times where God has worked in significant ways to protect and to sustain me during the course of these near seven decades since my birth – the most recent being a miraculous turn of events for Shirli and me that affords us great measures of peace and security. He is continually teaching me to let go and trust him with everything that concerns life in this world.

The writer to the Hebrews insists that Christ is able also to save for ever them that come to God by him; always living to make intercession for us. [Hebrews 7:25] Not only is he able to save our souls for eternity, he is also able to take care of us in this life while we are awaiting our time to pass through the transparent veil that keeps us from seeing the fullness of the Perfection that is God. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Philippians, reminds them of the benevolent care of the Father saying to them and to us: My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. [Philippians 4:19]

Total abandonment of ourselves to God is a way of life almost forgotten in the realm of Western Christianity. Yet, despite the enculturating efforts of Western society, this total abandoning of ourselves to the will of God is the way of life that Christ calls his followers to.

God is more than able.

Deo Gratias. Thanks be to God.

[1] Holy Rule, Chapter 33, Monks and Private Ownership