1 The Hermit hears the Call
The story of Christmas begins in an unassuming way with a young girl sitting in her room quiet and attentive. In the stillness of that moment an angel visits her and tells how she will give birth to Jesus, who will be God-with-us. Mary has always been so esteemed in the church, and especially in the contemplative tradition because she is the epitome of one who abides in this great silence and humility and was therefore able to hear this call, and through her was born the one who would show us what is the fulfilment of human life.
It’s central to the Christian notion of the spiritual life that there is a vocation to which everybody is called. We take it for granted, but actually it’s a great insight into the nature of reality, that you don’t just live, have a few pleasures and a few pains, propagate a few children or some ideas, and then die and there is no more to it. But there is a vocation, and all people are called by God to give birth to God, to give birth to truth and love.
The last of the Fathers of the church, St. Bernard, spoke of there being three comings of Christ: the first is the historical incarnation in Palestine at the time of the Emperor Augustus. What we usually say is the second coming is when he comes in glory at the end of time – that is, when you pass out of this world of space and time and into eternity – and that is always happening, people are always passing into eternity. But the other coming is when Christ is born in one’s own life. And you know all the great truths that are embedded in the Christian stories perhaps we get too used to hearing them and we simply fail to see the relevance they have for our own lives. But I would like to say that all people, individually and without exception, are called to give birth to God, and a hermit is simply somebody who has seen the importance of that, that it is the most central thing in life, and he has put all other things aside so that that may become a reality in his life. You see the whole of creation is leading up to this which is why St. Paul would say: ‘...creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God’ (Rom 8:49). In the Christian understanding the Incarnation is the embodiment of truth, the embodiment of God, and because this is seen as such a central event, that truth can be made manifest in this way, then we date our era from that event. But it doesn’t end there, as St. Paul understood, Jesus came to show us the way back to the Father, and that must become a reality in our own lives also.
This call though is not just one time: if you’ve abandoned everything in order to answer this call maybe 10, 20, or 50 years ago, in itself it has only relative meaning, the question is, are you prepared to abandon everything and answer this call today? do you even hear this call today? God calls in eternity, and so that call is ever present in our lives, it’s not of the past but of the present.
To be called to the hermit life is to be called to a life of silence and simplicity, to give witness to a different way of living, a way that is responsive to God’s call because it is a life lived with a certain peace and harmony, and that can only happen when you have opened your heart, found that still inner centre, the point in you where you are open to the Spirit.