September 20, 1998
St.
John Cassian:
The Monastic Life to Be Avoided
In this reading, we are continuing the conversation of John
Cassian with Abba Piamun about the three kinds of monastic life. In the previous two
readings, we learned about the cenobitic life and the anchoretic life and how they
developed from Apostolic times; here, we will look at the third kind of monastic life, the
one that is to be avoided at all costs.
BEGIN: The Christian religion rejoiced in these two monastic professions. But a gradual
decline began to set into this scene. A very bad and unfaithful band of monks emerged
subsequently. Back to life and growing once again came that dangerous plant which, at the
beginning of the Church, had grown because of Ananias and Sapphira and which had been cut
down by the severity of Peter. For a long time it was looked upon by monks as something
detestable, something accursed, and the frightening memory of a sentence so terrible had
kept it from appearing among anyone. Those first guilty of it were given no chance at all
by the blessed apostle either to repent or make recompense. A speedy death had cut out the
very deadly germ.
Yet, little by little, prolonged carelessness and the passage of time ensured that many
forgot the example of severe punishment set by the apostle in regard to Ananias and
Sapphira. And it was then that there appeared that band of sarabites. The name
"sarabites" is Coptic and they are so called because they cut themselves off
from the monastic communities and take care of their own needs. They are descendants of
that crowd I mentioned who prefer to put on the show of evangelic perfection rather than
to take it up for what it really is. Their incentive to act in this way is envy, as well
as the praises heaped upon those who prefer the utter poverty of Christ to all the riches
of the world.
These men of puny spirit concern themselves with something requiring the highest virtue or
else there was some compulsion upon them to approach this profession. They hurried to bear
the name of being monks, though they lacked all urge to be really like them. They have no
interest in monastic discipline. They do not submit to the direction of elders and they do
not learn their instructions in how to overcome their own desires. They do not accept any
of the correct and formative rules deriving from sensible guidance. Their withdrawal from
the world is for the sake of public show and is something done before men’s eyes. Or
else they remain in their own houses, enjoy the name of being monks, and continue to do
what they always did. Or else they build cells for themselves, give them the title of
monasteries, and then freely live in them as they choose. They never fall in with the
gospel commands not to be concerned about one’s daily bread and not to be taken up
with worldly affairs. This is something done, without any of the doubtings of lack of
faith, by those who have liberated themselves from all the wealth of this world and who
have submitted themselves to monastic rules to the extent that they do not admit to having
any authority over themselves.
But these others, as I have said, run from monastic austerity. They live two or three to a
cell. The last thing they want is to be guided by the concern and the authority of a
father-superior. Their special concern is to be free of the yoke of elders, to be free to
do what they themselves wish, to travel out, to wander wherever they please, to do what
takes their fancy. In their activities they do more by day and by night than those who
live in monasteries, though not from the same kind of faith and for the same purpose. They
do this not with the intention of handing over the fruit of their work to be disposed of
as their mentor thinks fit but to collect and to save money.
Observe the great difference between both kinds of monk.
Cenobites think nothing of the morrow. They present the fruit of their sweated labor as an
offering that is most agreeable to God. But the others push the selfish concerns of their
faithless souls not only into the coming day but over the length of many years. They think
of God as being a liar or as one without resources, as someone unable and unwilling to
live up to His promise of adequate food and clothing.
The ceaseless plea of the cenobites is to be bereft of everything and always to be poor.
The others wish for an abundance of all goods. The cenobites strive in their daily work to
go beyond what is required of them so that whatever remains over and beyond the needs of
the monastery can, at the abbot’s discretion, be given to prisons or hostels, to
hospitals or to the poor. The others work so that anything left after the satisfaction of
daily greed can be available to their profligate wishes or saved to gratify avarice.
Finally I wish that the sarabites would make better use of the money which, with their bad
objectives, they had accumulated for themselves. They come nowhere near the virtue or the
perfection of the cenobites, who earn so much money for their monasteries, hand it over
each day, continue to persevere in their utterly humble submissiveness; who stand away
from deciding themselves what to do with what they have earned by the sweat of their brow
and who, in this daily renunciation of what they have earned, manage to renew ceaselessly
the zeal of their first act of renunciation. But these others are puffed up by the fact of
giving something to the poor, and every day they slide headlong to disaster.
The cenobites continue to show the patience and the discipline with which they persevere
in this profession which they once adopted. They never do what they themselves wish. Every
day they are crucified to this world and are living martyrs, whereas, in the case of the
others, their lukewarm spirit plunges them into damnation.
The numbers of both sorts of monk – cenobites and anchorites – are roughly equal
in this province. As for the other provinces through which I had to travel because of
matters connected with the Christian faith, I discovered that this third kind – the
sarabites – flourished and indeed was almost the only kind to exist. In the days of
Lucius, who was bishop of the Arian perfidy – this was in the reign of Valens –
I brought help to our brothers, from Egypt and the Thebaid, who had been condemned to the
mines of Pontus and of Armenia because of their loyalty to the Christian faith. In a few
towns I saw very little monastic discipline and I could not find out if the name of
anchorite had ever been heard among them. END
John Cassian, "Conferences," trans. by Colm Luibheid, from the "Classics
of Western Spirituality Series," (New York: Paulist Press, 1985), pp. 188 - 190
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