The cell is a battleground where the monk is confronted with the desires and passions that deface his or her inmost self. It can be a terrifyingly vulnerable venue for naming the ego as the self-imposed ruler of the mind. The ego sets itself apart from God and the world in order to maintain its control over its self-created identity, desires, and needs. The ego knows it is limited by time and space, and this is the source of its anxiety and tyrannical need for control. Without its self-generated boundaries) it has no power. The ego is not, itself, evil, nor does it exist in isolation from the other aspects of a person’s life. Yet, when unrestrained, the ego may create a false and self-serving self that is contrary to a person’s natural state created to reflect the image of God. The ego can imprison the inner or true self, which then longs for transformation. Therefore, the cell is the place where the monk can be purged of the ego’s unrestrained domination of his or her life and experience new birth. It is the place where the ego becomes open to God’s grace. [13]
Abba John the Dwarf said:
I am like a man sitting under a great tree, who sees wild beasts and snakes coming against him in great numbers. When he cannot withstand them any longer, he runs to climb the tree and is saved. It is just the same with me; I sit in my cell and I am aware of evil thoughts coming against me, and when I have no more strength against them, I take refuge in God by prayer and I am saved from the enemy. [14]
Stelios Ramfos points out that the cell exists in tension with the city. [15] The monastic understanding of cell is) according to the Greek word topos, a specific place or location. It is an environment where the monk can seek God without distraction. [l6] The place and the soul of the monk work together. This is in contrast with the Greek word polis, the city or plane. The environment of the city causes distractions, busyness and scatteredness and can deflect the monk from the soul’s desire for God. [17] The cell, then, is a relationship between the soul and a specific location. It is a psychosomatic harmony that nourishes the path to God and authentic human life. The cell, also, is a state-of-being that can enrich and rebuild a person. It becomes a battleground because the ego is not comfortable where it has no boundaries and the cell is a place where otherness leads to transformation. [18] The cell, in whatever form, is essential for any person because it is a place where the ego can experience otherness and be led to the most real form of communion, the presence of God and peace that passes human understanding.
A brother asked Abba Rufus, “What is interior peace, and what use is it?” The old man said, “Interior peace means to remain sitting in one’s cell with fear and knowledge of God, holding far off the remembrance of wrongs suffered and pride of spirit. Such interior peace brings forth all the virtues, preserves the monk from the burning darts of the enemy, and does not allow him to be wounded by them. Yes, brother, acquire it. Keep in mind your future death, remembering that you do not know at what hour the thief will come. Likewise be watchful over your soul.” [19]
In the busyness, scatteredness, and expectations of modern Western society there is a need for all of us to find a cell. It does not have to be in a remote desert. Where is your cell? What happens there?
David G.R. Keller, Oasis of Wisdom: the Worlds of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
Notes:
- Stelios Ramfos, Like a Pelican in the Wilderness, trans. Norman Russell (Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2000) 36ff.
- The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection., trans. Benedicta Ward, S.L.G, (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1984) John the Dwarf 12, 87.
- Ibid., see 32-33.
- Ibid., see 31-34.
- Ibid.
- Ibid., see 33.
- Ward, Sayings, Rufus 1, 210.
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