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 The
monastic life points the way to perfection. However, the whole Church
is called to perfection. All the faithful, both laymen and monks, are
called to become perfect following the divine example: "You, therefore,
must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect". But while the
monk affirms the radical nature of the Christian life, the layman is content
to regard it conventionally. The conventional morality of the layman on
the one hand and the radical morality of the monk on the other create
a dialectical differentiation that takes the form of a dialectical antithesis.
The monk's journey to perfection is gradual and is connected with successive
renunciations, which can be summarized in three. The first renunciation
involves completely abandoning the world. This is not limited to things,
but includes people and parents. The second is renunciation of the individual
will, and the third is freedom from pride, which is identified with liberation
from the sway of the world.
The life of monasticism is life of perpetual spiritual ascent. While the
world goes on its earthbound way, and the faithful with their obligations
and distractions of the world try to stay within the institutional limits
of the church tradition, monasticism goes to other direction and soars.
It rejects any kind of compromise and seeks the absolute. It launches
itself from this world and heads for the kingdom of God. This is in essence
the goal of the Church itself.
In Church tradition this path is pictured as a ladder leading to heaven.
Not everyone manages to reach the top of this spiritual ladder. Many are
to be found on the first rungs. Others rise higher. There are also those
who fall from a higher or a lower rung. The important thing is not the
height reached, but the unceasing struggle to rise ever higher. Most important
of all, this ascent is achieved through ever increasing humility that
is through ever increasing descent. "Keep thy mind in hell, and despair
not", was the word of God to Saint Silouan of Mount Athos. When man
descends into the hell of his inner struggle having God within him, then
he is lifted up and finds the fullness of being.
 At
the top of this spiritual ladder are the "fools for Christ's sake",
as the Apostle Paul calls himself and the other apostles, or "the
fools for Christ's sake", who "play the madman for the love
of Christ and mock the vanity of the world", Seeking after glory
among men, says Christ, obstructs belief in God. Only when man rejects
pride can he defeat the world and devote himself to God.
In the lives of monks the Christian sees examples of men who took their
Christian faith seriously and committed themselves to the path which everyone
is called by Christ to follow. Not all of them attained perfection, but
they all tried, and all rose to a certain height. Not all possessed the
same talent, but all strove as good and faithful servants. They are not
held up as examples to be imitated, especially by laymen. They are however
valuable signposts on the road to perfection, which is common for all
and has its climax in the perfectness of God.
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