The Cell and Love of Neighbor
The external environment of a society, family or religious community reflects the internal environment of the human beings who form it. Jesus said, “By their fruit you shall know them” (Matt 7:16, NRSV). In the cell the monk’s interior life is formed in such a way that he or she becomes what the cell makes possible. The physical enclosure of the cell houses the activities of God’s transforming Spirit. In the same way, the monk’s flesh and whole being become a cell, a place of transformation wherever he or she is living. The monk’s anachoresis makes an ascetic praxis possible, which in turn transforms the monk and his manner of life. The external life of the monk has the possibility to transform other people and society. This sacrifice, the offering of one’s self to God that restores a monk’s original nature, is what can establish a moral climate in society.
Amma Syncletica said:
Their attitude is characterized by brotherly love rather than self-love, for they regard those who sin as houses on fire; giving no thought to their own interests, they apply their efforts to save what belongs to others and is being destroyed…. This is the sign of genuine love; these people are custodians of pure love. [39]
The cell can become the womb that gives birth to morality. At the same time moral decadence can pollute any place, whether it is the cell, society or the natural world. Abba John the Eunuch said, “My sons, let us not make this place dirty, since our Fathers cleansed it from demons.” [40]
This brings to mind Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple. The “cell” of his faith community had been morally compromised by the money changers and the Temple authorities. The monks of the desert realized the wisdom of Jesus’ action. The moral integrity of a faith community (a corporate “cell”) is where authentic human living is formed. The sacrifice of time and commitment to the life of that community is necessary to “guard” the sacredness of all life.
In the cell a person’s soul is open. This vulnerability to the movement of God is necessary for the control of the ego’s self centeredness to be overcome, In the solitude of the cell we learn, also, how to live in community. The aim of our “inwardness” and ascetical practice is not to abolish the unrestrained ego, the false self, but to open the ego to grace. “When a person experiences a new birth, as Jesus explained to Nicodemus in John 3:1-10, that person’s new “first breath” is communion with God. This is the source of personal self-giving to the world and of a truly creative and authentic civilization. This self-giving requires an awareness which dispels divisions and produces ethical living.
The same amma [Theodora] said that a teacher ought to be a stranger to the desire for domination, vain-glory, and pride; one should not be able to fool him by flattery, nor blind him by gifts, nor conquer him by the stomach, nor dominate him by anger; but he should be patient, gentle and humble as far as possible; he must be tested and without partisanship, full of concern, and a lover of souls. [41]
~David G.R. Keller, Oasis of Wisdom: The Worlds of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
39. Pseudo-Athanasius, The Life, v, 71, 46.
40. Ward, Sayings, John the Eunuch, 5, 105.
41. Ward, Sayings, Theodora 5, 83-84.
