Here is how things stand so far. We have observed the five most important virtues through which the fathers in the Conferences teach us to establish the purity of heart that is the go al of Christian life. These are detachment, discernment, discretion, balance, and humility. We have observed that the fathers taught Christians to practice these virtues in order to guide them to their proper telos, which is the kingdom of God. We have noted that this telos can be tasted to some extent in this life, and is most fully so tasted in the experience of theoria according to the fathers. We have finally alluded to further experiences of this kind of foretaste of the kingdom. All this vocabulary of the Christian goal and telos, along with our identification of the virtues, will serve us well in the discussions to come, as it will allow us to be specific about how life in the world can facilitate the accomplishment of the purpose of Christian life. The teachings we have discussed so far apply to all Christians whether in the world or monastic, whether laity or clergy. We will now speak briefly about the fundamental nature of what differentiates a monk and a Christian living in the world.
In working toward their goal and telos, the monks of the desert employed a wide range of religious practices with which most Orthodox Christians are already familiar. In a passage quoted above, Abba Moses presents an excellent summary list of the particular activities that define the life of the monk over and against other forms of Christian life. These are solitude, fasts, vigils, labors, asceticism, readings, and other virtuous things.45 He notes that every one of these definitive practices is done for the pursuit of purity of heart. The Conferences go into plenty of detail regarding the nature of these practices, how monks should carry them out, and their various risks and rewards, though we will not discuss these details here. Suffice it to say that pursuits that fall into these seven basic categories of activity are what, according to the Conferences, give the life of the monk its outward form.
It is important to see, however, that for Abba Moses and the other fathers of the Conferences, these activities, which mark off the life of the monk, are always negotiable means to an end, never to be pursued for themselves.
If some earnest and necessary undertaking prevents us from carrying out our regular disciplines, we must stay clear of any sadness, anger or indignation [in response]. The whole purpose of the practices we neglected was to set such things aside! No—the gain of fasting does not measure up to the loss of anger, nor is the fruit born of reading on par with the harm of contempt for a brother. Those things which are of secondary importance, such as fasting, vigils, withdrawal from the world, and meditation on scripture, we ought to practice with a view to our main object, namely purity of heart, which is love. 46
For Abba Moses, a man certainly cannot be a monk without the solitude, vigils, fasts and the like-but the pursuit of these practices is never his purpose as a Christian.
This being the case, we may now make an important observation. According to the fathers of the Conferences, what makes a monk a monk is ultimately not what is most fundamental about
Christian life. What defines a monk is, instead, the particulars of the secondary practices in which he engages in pursuit of the fundamental (and universal) goal and telos of all Christians. A monk is what he is because of the tools that he uses in his quest for purity of heart, not because only he pursues this in the first place. In fact, Abba Serenus goes so far as to say that life in the desert not only does not inherently lead to holiness, but in fact only shows to the monk what he has failed to become.
The progress of time (and the life of solitude) that you might expect would bring about the perfection of our inner man, has only done this for us: we have realized what we cannot be. It has not made us into what we are trying to become.47
Here Abba Serenus makes his point in stark terms. There is nothing about the life of a monk in the desert that leads automatically to holiness. The incidentals of this life ever remain only that—incidental.
Moreover, for the fathers of the Conferences, not even every monk can pursue the same kind of lifestyle. There are various forms of monasticism, each appropriate to different individuals, as Abba Abraham notes in the twenty-fourth conference. While being a hermit is a good thing, we do not recommend it as suitable for everyone; for a lot of people it is ineffective, or even downright destructive. In the same vein, while we agree that the way of life of monks in a monastery-and caring for one’s brothers-is holy and honorable, still we do not think that it ought to be pursued by everyone. And, again, there is tremendous benefit in giving hospitality, but it is not possible for everyone to do it without doing damage to his patience.48
Abba Abraham, like the other fathers of the Conferences, is attentive to the differences between individuals pursuing the Christian life, including those who are monks and nuns. People have different needs in their pursuit of purity of heart.
~Daniel G. Opperwall, A Layman in the Desert
45 Conf. I.VII.I.
46 Conf. I.VII.I-3.
47 Conf. 7.III.I.
48 Conf. 24.YII.3.
