“To live in great
simplicity and wise ignorance is exceeding wise.”
St. Pachomius
This is
something that does not resonate with modern American culture. We use the words “simple” and “ignorant” as
insulting words that are synonymous to “stupid.”
And yet,
this proverb by an incredible Saint encapsulates what we are trying to do here
with the apostolate. Holy Simplicity is
something very dear to us in the midst of an increasingly complex and anxiety
ridden world. We live holy simplicity
in many ways. There are no televisions
here. Internet access is greatly
restricted. We don’t leave home much
except for Mass. We dream of horses and
buggies and life without electricity.
We are content with the infinite variability of life on a peasant
farm. Our children get excited to find
Sassafras stems to chew on or wood violets to eat. They get excited about finding new eggs in the chicken coop or
seeing new kids born in the goat barn.
They get excited about the creamy milk we get from the goats. They get excited about the sprouts coming up
in the garden and the fruit trees we are planting and the simple wooden toys we
make for them.
Honestly,
we get excited about those things, too!
I am saddened to see so many loved ones and so many of my fellow men who
are ensnared by the spectacle of gadgets and who are unaware of the pure joy
that comes with simplicity.
“Wise
ignorance” caught my attention. A young
woman who has lived a “sheltered” life is seeking entrance to the Children of
Mary currently, and a psychologist suggested that she wait a while, spend some
time in the “real” world and see it’s messiness.
Mother
Margaret Mary wisely posited that in days gone by, women went right from their
parents’ homes to either the convent or to start a family of their own. There was no opinion that a person ought to
go into the “real” world before they settled down.
We have
heard this kind of opinion expressed about the way we are raising our
children. The word, “sheltered” has
been used. They need more “socialization”
and more exposure to the “real” world.
At the same time, people remark about the exemplary behavior of our
children (certainly not without their flaws), how well they behave at Mass
(most of the time), how personable and talkative they are and how quickly they
make friends with other children… poor sheltered little waifs.
This may be
the idealist in me, but I must say that I reject the use of the phrase “real
world” as if the convent or the simple, farm family is somehow not the
“real world.” That young woman is going
to be exposed to the “messiness” of the world as she goes with the Sisters to
work in the soup kitchen in a rough neighborhood in Columbus. But she will have a vantage point that many
do not have. Those who “expose”
themselves to the “real” world often get sucked into it and live the rest of
their lives in the midst of its messiness.
This kind of person has a hard time imagining how things could be any
different than they are in the messy, “real” world. But this young woman, and the Sisters in general can see the
disorder of the world from a vantage point of an ordered life and not only can
they imagine how much better things could be, they have concrete ideas of how
to make things better.
Furthermore,
to say that the life of prayer is not the “real” world is to align yourself
with the heresy of materialism. Often
the spiritual world is treated as if it were a figment of the imagination. But this is not so. The spiritual is as “real” as it gets. The life of prayer is very much the real
world. The Sisters have simply chosen
to deal primarily with those parts of real life that are eternal instead of
those things that are passing.
My
children, on our simple farm deal with “real” things all the time. They work in the dirt to raise real food for
our family. They work with real
chickens that lay real eggs that we can eat and sell. They work with real goats that give real, delicious milk that
feeds our family and our chickens. They
play on real grass, in real fresh air, in real sunshine, climb real trees, get
real grass stains and scrapes. And most
of all, they have real joy in their life.
Most
children in the “real” world will never do most of these things. They will learn about them in books or
worse, on computers – if they learn about them at all. There is less and less reality for the
modern child in the “real” world to come in contact with. They don’t hold books anymore, they don’t
produce their own food, they don’t have real work to do. It seems to me that the “real” world is
becoming more and more “virtual.”
Furthermore, we have come to associate the “real” world with disorder
and sin.
If living
in a convent where peace and order reign in a difficult life of silence,
penance, prayer and love of God is not the real world, if a simple farm where
children (and adults) learn virtue and are faced daily with the beauty and awe
of God and His creation is not the real world, then, frankly, I don’t want
anything to do with the real world.
We are not
ignorant of the evils present in the world today. We may be ignorant of specific current events, be we are very
much aware of the disorder, darkness, and sin in the world and we are working
awfully hard to do something about it.
So, you can
call us simple and ignorant if you like, and we, in our twisted little world,
will take it as a compliment.
