Europe have been described as a spiritual wasteland. The whole world is. . . in different degrees. The Catholic Church, herself, looks like a wasteland except for a few, select greeneries that God had chosen from the many. There is nothing in the wasteland that can nourish the soul.
The converts to Catholicism from England, around the year 1800, had noticed this and described England as a wasteland. T.S. Eliot described his times ” as a time of disillusionment and the disintegration of values… that caused despair…and developed a deep respect for tradition and the keen moral sense which underlay them.” He wrote this after a nervous breakdown and stay in a sanitarium. Neurosis and psychosis, the mental states of the world today (and their natural manifestations, like homosexuality, lesbianism and suicide) are the products of this wasteland.
These writers described it as the era of modern secular liberalism. Evelyn Waugh similarly described this in his novel “A Handful of Dust” wherein he attacked the vacuities of modern life. It was a conflict between flesh and faith. Just like St. Benedict’s times. It was in this scenario that converts, like Olivia Plunket Greene found the Catholic Church under the influence of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross; she, eventually, lived a solitary and celibate life, like St. Benedict.
Eliot continues: the key to understanding the “inferno” of Dante is to understand first the “Purgatorio” and the “Paradiso.” Pope Benedict XVI’s dictatorship is a foretaste of “inferno” on earth. Most of us do not believe in hell nor in the devil because we have no concept, whatsoever, of heaven or purgatory. Our present life is just the continuation of Eliot’s times. Is our present era of relativism a taste of “inferno” because we have forgotten “Purgatorio” or “Paradiso?” Has’nt Pope Benedict XVI reminded us to regain the knowledge of heaven and purgatory through the Sacrifice of the Mass wherewith the Church Triumphant, Suffering and militant are present?
St. Benedict of Nurcia left Rome to live in a cave because he wanted to run away from a wasteland. Siegfried Sassoon, another convert, would describe his journey to the Catholic Church as “a long and contemplative search for truth.” Sounds like a monk.
Understanding Catholic truths cannot be attained by study, as seminarians, religious and theologians do. It can only be attained by living a way of life. The book of Wisdom describes truth as a gift given to the humble, “Draw near to me, ye unlearned, and gather yourselves together into the house of discipline, (Ecclus. 51:31)(or Sir. 51;23.) It is a gift given to the unlearned if they live together in community in the house of discipline. Monasticism is for the unlearned to live together in a house of discipline. The disciplined life is living a humble life. This is how one learns the deep truths of Christ. And the monastic life of St. Benedict is meant to make us humble and as a consequence worthy to receive the gift of knowledge and wisdom.
St. Benedict has a chapter on the degrees of humility which was copied later by St. Ignatius. Well, humility is the basis of the Christian religion. It is for all. “Learn from Me for I am meek and humble of heart.” Wisdom and knowledge are gifts dependent on the degree of one’s humility, and not on the number of years spent studying theology.
Note how many of these converts have more knowledge and wisdom than the usual born Catholics. In humility they had confess their former errors and in humility had accepted the truth. Converts, often, do not reaize that their efforts to go deeper into the truths of the Church expressed in their efforts at Apologetics are, in fact, a desire for the monastic life or contemplative life. Did you notice how some converts, like Edith Stein, went all the way to become a Carmelite (contemplative)nun. Men, like John Newman, Robert Benson, Ronald Knox became priests. They cannot be mediocre Catholics.
In Scriptures, the wastelands had always been described as the abode of the devil. Christ went to the desert, after preparing Himself for battle during His hidden life (which he did not have to do being a God but which He did for our imitation) to do battle against the devil. The early monks believed that the devil abided in the desert wasteland. So they retreated within the protective shield of the monastery to train themselves for the battle, then ventured into the desert to do battle against the devil. St. Anthony the hermit was described as shining with the perfection of holiness after he emerged from the desert tombs where he prepared himself. Then he went forth to do battle against the devil.
Pope Benedict XVI has described the world as a spiritual wilderness. He went short of saying that this world had become the abode of the devil. Pope Paul VI had already mentioned it. The signs of both the presence and possessions by the devil are all around.
The devil entered into Judas Iscariot because of the manner of his life. There is a way of life that invites the devil to possess a soul; just as there is a way of life that invites the Holy Spirit to abide in a soul. And the way of life described as the tyranny of relativism, is an open invitation for the devil to come in. Shall we wonder why as head of the CDF Cardinal Ratzinger exerted efforts to improve the ritual for exorcism?
We need a spiritual mind to detect the wasteland amids the dazzling lights and entertainments of the world. We need extraordinary graces to see the emptiness in the fullness of a shopping mall. Don’t we see this miracle of grace among such people as Edith Stein, a philosopher, who saw nothing worthwhile around her.
In such a scenario how do we go about seeking God and the salvation of our souls. St. Benedict showed us the steps. We must first desire to truly seek God, flee the world (because it would be impossible to worship God in a pagan environment), undergo a rigid regimen of training in discipline within the protective walls of a monastery and then go forth to the wasteland to do battle against the spirits of evil. With such a prepration we are assured of victory; without it we could end up a casualty.