Note: Again, originally I wrote this for pastoral caregivers but it is appropriate for all of us as we respond to Wendell Berry’s invitation (and Jesus’ charge) to practice resurrection (The theme for H&H 2009-2010). As I mentioned in October the resurrection was and is a validation of the vision, message, and life of Jesus and is for us an imperative to live a gospel ethic that is in contradiction to the dominant message of the culture.◊

If solitude is the furnace of transformation or the cocoon of creative incubation, then it is also the classroom for learning compassion. Since what the contemplative caregiver has to give to others is not an object, not a skill, not even help primarily, but the overflow of “their being-fulnesss,” solitude is a necessity. Although an extreme example, Nouwen’s words about St. Anthony, considered the “father of monks,” hold an important truth for caregivers:

St. Anthony spent twenty years in isolation. When he left it he took his solitude with him and shared it with all who came to him. Those who saw him described him as balanced, gentle, and caring. (from Nouwen, The Way of the Heart, 32)

The same can be said of St. Paul of Tarsus, St. John of the Cross, Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Philip Berrigan and others who throughout history turned their imprisonments into a solitude that generated spiritual growth and transformation. From the enforced quietude of his prison cell, Lutheran pastor and Nazi resister, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “It’s as if in solitude, the soul develops organs of which we’re hardly aware in everyday life.” In the contemplative approach to pastoral care the “resources” the caregiver makes use of are less tools or skills external to oneself than they are qualities of the heart acquired or received in, for example, the classroom of solitude, silence, and stillness, and then made available to others. The experience of solitude moves from mere physical isolation to a quality of the heart so that for caregivers solitude becomes a sacred space into which persons can be invited.

[Rabbi Abraham] Heschel is adamant about the intimate and dynamic connection between the apparent opposites, solitude and solidarity. He knows that in order to be with, contemplative caregivers and others must first learn to be. In order to be ready and able to give of oneself, caregivers must do the inner work of the self which requires solitude as a spiritual workshop. Understood spiritually, solitude is not escapism into asocial self-absorption but rather the deliberate choice to be alone in order to listen for the meaning of one’s being, to distill the meaning of one’s life which ideally is life in conscious relationship to creation, others, God, and one’s truest self. Indeed, one of the common revelations of solitude is that existence is coexistence (Heschel, Who Is Man?, 45).♦

Reflection:

Have you ever experienced the connection between solitude and solidarity?

“…solitude is not escapism into asocial self-absorption but rather the deliberate choice to be alone in order to listen for the meaning of one’s being”?

Practice:

Today or this weekend or this month, take some time away to listen deeply for the utterly unique, singular meaning of your life.