We conclude by presenting some assurance that what we are seeking to do as lay people—namely, to pursue purity of heart—really can be done through life in the world. We require such an assurance simply because life in the world can often seem terribly ill-suited to the pursuit of our goal and telos. For instance, we may ask, how is one to develop discretion and discernment in a world full of false teachers pulling us in every direction—even sometimes within the Church? Or how are we to cultivate humility in a world that does not merely encourage, but that utterly relies on pride as a means for driving all human activity? Or how are we to seek detachment in a world of such rampant materialism?
Indeed, these questions grow out of some of the greatest problems of life in the world-precisely the kinds of obstacles to virtue that have caused so many faithful Christians to become monks and nuns over the centuries. Seeking a path to God more free from some of these challenges, these men and women have chosen to pursue separation from the world, rather than drive forward into the complex and frightful questions we are raising here. Indeed, there is nothing wrong with us pining a little for a vision of a life that, like theirs, is rather more free from these things; to feel some longing for the monastic choice demonstrates that we recognize the challenges of the world for the serious problems that they are. Yet, even if we do so pine for a monastery or hermitage now and then, we remain people in the world.
In light of this, it is important to keep in mind that the Conferences teach that, if we take the correct approach, any challenge or blessing can and must become a tool for our salvation. In other words, absolutely anything we encounter or experience in our lives as Christians can become an opportunity to seek greater purity of heart if we know how to approach it rightly. The following quotation is from Abba Theodore in the sixth conference.
All chose things, then, which are considered fortunate, and are described as those “on the right hand,” which the holy apostle designates [in 2 Cor 6.7-10] by the terms honor and good report; and those, too, which are counted misfortunes, which [Paul] clearly means by dishonor and evil report, and which he describes as “on the left hand,” become to the perfect man “the armor of righteousness,” if, when they are brought upon him, he bears them bravely: because, as he fights with these, and uses those very weapons with which he seems to be attacked, and is protected by them as by bow and sword and stout shield against those who bring these things upon him, he secures the advantage of his patience and goodness, and obtains a grand triumph of steadfastness by means of those very weapons of his enemies which are hurled against him to kill him—if only he is not elated by success or cast down by failure, but ever marches straightforward on the royal road, and does not swerve from that state of tranquility as it were to the right hand, when joy overcomes him, nor let himself be driven so to speak to the left hand, when misfortune overwhelms him, and sorrow holds sway.52
For Abba Theodore, the fortunes of life, whatever they may be, all become tools of salvation in the hands of those who are pursuing purity of heart, if they walk the royal road of balance with virtue. In the chapters to come, we will discuss the layperson’s relationship to society, family, property, work, and religious life. As we explore these topics, we will continually ask how our experiences in these spheres can become the tools for the pursuit of purity of heart that Abba Theodore implies that they can be.
Finally, a few words of simple comfort. The same Abba Theodore whom we have just quoted reminds us of God’s promise that “there is much peace for those who love [God’s] name, and for them there is no stumbling block.”53 What should we make of this? Quite simply, it teaches us that our task as Christians is daunting, but that we take it on with the full assurance that it is possible to walk the hard road of life-wherever we live it-in peace, if we seek purity of heart and the kingdom. There can be no such thing as an impossible impediment to our goal and telos if we truly seek God. This we must constantly remember in the face of the profound struggle that life in the world is for us as Christians.
~Daniel G. Opperwall, A Layman in the Desert
52 Conf. 6.IX.3. Translation adapted from Gibson.
53 Quoted in Conf. 6.IX.3.
