Contemplative Life

CONTEMPLATIVE, LIFE. - A manner of life ordered to contemplation (v.), through the exclusion of external activities and concerns, not only sinful or dissipating ("worldly") ones but even merely those distracting from meditation or prayer. Comparing the contemplative life, the active life and the mixed life, Alvarez de Paz (De Perfectione vitae spirit., l. 2, ch. 13) writes: "In activa incipimus, in contemplativa proficimus, in mixta perficimur et consummamur."

The concept of the contemplative life as opposed to that of the active life develops in Greek philosophy. Plato distinguishes two sciences, the γνωστική and the πρακτική (Polit., 2-3, 258 and 259) and in Phileb. 61c, he alludes to the mixed life of sapiential study and of activity (A. Festugière, Contemplation et vie contemplative selon Platon, Paris 1936); Aristotle (Ethic. ad Nicom., I, 3, 1095; X, 7-8, 1177) distinguishes three forms of moral life: that of the ἀπολαυστικός, that is, of the voluptuary, that of the πολιτικός or πρακτικός devoted to social affairs, that of the contemplative θεωρητικός.

This distinction is found again in St. Thomas both In III Sent., dist. 35, q. 1, a. 1, and in the Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 179, a. 1, and in the Commentary on the Ethics of Nicomachus (I, lect. 5, n. 58-59).

In Sacred Scripture, Gen. 29, 16 ff. and Lk. 10, 38 ff. are given by the Fathers as basic texts (C. Buttler, op. cit., p. 135 ff.; P. Zanfrognini, Azione e contemplazione. Vie orientali e vie occidentali, Bari 1931; G. Bardy, La vie spirituelle d'après les Pères des trois premiers siècles, Paris 1935). Origen is perhaps the first who, with regard to Lk. 10, 31 ff., identifies Mary as the symbol of the contemplative life and Martha of the active (In Ioan., 11, 18 Irgm. 80; Klostermann, IV, p. 547): "Εἴπερ δὲ σύμβολόν ἐστι Μαρία μὲν τοῦ θεωρητικοῦ βίου, Μάρθα δὲ τοῦ πρακτικοῦ." St. Thomas uses various scriptural texts: Mt. 5, 8; 6, 21; Rom. 1, 20; II Cor. 3, 18, etc. (G. Turbessi, pp. 102-17).

Among the Fathers, Clement of Alexandria (Strom., IV, 6: PG 8, 1249) recognizes a twofold way that leads to perfection; of action and of contemplation, ἔργα καὶ γνώσις (M. Viller, Spiritualité des premiers siècles chrétiens, Paris 1930, p. 47). Evagrius and Maximus the Confessor treat of the contemplative and active life (I. Hausherr, Les grands courants de la spiritualité orientale, in Orientalia christiana periodica, 1 [1935], p. 121 ff.). St. Augustine formulates the doctrine of the threefold kind of life: contemplative, active, mixed: "Ex tribus illis vitae generibus, otioso, actuoso, et ex utroque composita" (De Civ. Dei, XIX, 19: PL 41, 647), which will be accepted by later theological thought.

Taking his cue from the biblical figures of Leah and Rachel and from the evangelical figures of Mary and Martha, St. Augustine sets out his doctrine on the contemplative and active life in Contra Faustum Manich., XXII, 57 ff.: PL 42, 436, and in Serm. 103, n. 5, and 104, n. 4: PL 38, 615, 618 (H. Pope, The teaching of st. Augustine on prayer and the contemplative life, London 1935). St. Gregory the Great (Moralia, l. 6, ch. 37: PL 73, 764, and Hom. in Ezech., II, 2: PL 76, 54, 953-56), is the principal source and the undisputed master to whom medieval theologians turn for the development of the doctrine concerning the contemplative and active life. His influence on St. Thomas is very notable: "no author is cited as frequently in qq. 179-182 as St. Gregory the Great" (G. Turbessi, p. 124).

Among medieval theologians, Richard of St. Victor gave a notable contribution to the doctrine of the contemplative life in his Beniamin maior. In the Explicatio in Cantica Canticorum, at ch. 8 (PL 196, 427) he writes: "Duae quippe sunt vitae, activa scilicet et contemplativa, quae designantur per Martham et Mariam" and there he maintains the precedence of the contemplative life over the active: "Interior sollicitudo et oratio sublimius atque dignius officium est" since the active life "servit, dum ministerium exhibet," the contemplative "apud Deum meritis et familiaritate obtinet." Peter Lombard (In III Sent., d. 35) distinguishes the active life, to whose development the gift of knowledge is directed, from the life to which the gift of wisdom is directed; similarly St. Bonaventure (In III Sent., dist. 35). St. Thomas treats of the contemplative life and its relations with the active, in the Comment. Sent. III, dist. 35 q. 1, and much more perfectly in Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, qq. 179, 180, 181, 182. Q. 179 is introductory; q. 180 in 8 articles examines the contemplative life in the intellect or in the affectivity, in relation to the moral virtues, to the contemplation of God and of other truths, in order to the vision of the divine essence, in its three movements, "circular, straight and oblique," in its delight and duration. Q. 181 treats the relations of the moral virtues with the active life. Q. 182 studies the relations between the contemplative and active life in 4 articles: the contemplative life is more elevated and more meritorious than the active life, which however does not necessarily impede the contemplative.

With St. Augustine, the Angelic Doctor admits a "mediam inter activam vitam et contemplativam" (q. 181, a. 2 ad 3), a kind of life that must be characteristic of prelates and preachers. The usefulness of such a distinction is "non quantum ad diversitatem life, but rather as regards the diversity of those living" (In III Sent., dist. 35, q. 1, ad 1 ad 5); whence, theoretically speaking, "life is sufficiently divided into active and contemplative" (Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃᵉ, q. 179, a. 2).

The doctrine concerning the mixed life, that is, a third kind of life that unites together the demands of the active and the contemplative life, finds its natural development in later theologians, especially with the spread of the mendicant orders (12th and 14th centuries). According to this teaching, those orders are called Orders of mixed life which join to contemplation the apostolic ministry for the spiritual good of souls ("apostolic life").

Concerning the superiority of the contemplative life over the active, the thought of St. Thomas, universally accepted, is that the active life, if it is directed to the spiritual good of one's neighbor, is more useful than the contemplative life, but the latter is more noble and worthy in itself. "The contemplative life is simply better than the active, inasmuch as it is more like that life which through the active and the contemplative life one strives to attain." But "the active life, as regards that part which is devoted to the salvation of one's neighbors, is more useful than the contemplative" (Sum. Theol., 3ᵃ, 35, q. 1, a. 4). The superiority of the contemplative life over the active is proved by nine arguments drawn from Aristotle, patristic thought, and Sacred Scripture. The active life, moreover, disposes one to contemplation inasmuch as it orders the various passions of the soul (op. cit., 2ᵃ-2ᵃᵉ, q. 182, a. 3).

Suarez specifies that "contemplatio theologica est finis humanae vitae," which must be understood of the contemplation enjoyed in the future life (lumen gloriae); in the present life, contemplation, although it has the character of a means for increasing charity and grace, is much more perfect than the active life, which has only the value of a means (De Religione, IV, t. 2, cap. 9, n. 6).

Since man as a wayfarer can never entirely dispense with the active life, because the necessities of life weigh even upon the anchorites, nevertheless the more the contemplative life approaches perfection, the more faithfully will the active life be its handmaid. The factor capable of maintaining the balance in the manifold interferences between action and contemplation is love (v.) or supernatural charity.

Umile Bonzi da Genova

IN THE MISSIONS

The encyclical of Pius XI Rerum Ecclesiae (1926) recommended that monasteries of contemplative life be erected in mission countries. The establishment, however, of the contemplative life in the missions presents itself, according to the environments, under different aspects. In places where paganism is still predominant, monasticism at the outset must of necessity limit itself to works of immediate utility; among peoples already Christianized, on the other hand, it can firmly take root because it responds to a need already awakened. There are regions, moreover, such as India, in which the contemplative life is the most effective means for a profound Christian penetration. The situation of monastic foundations after the war is, limited to the most important missions, the following.

In Japan the Trappist monastery of Hokkaidō and the monasteries of Poor Clares in the apostolic vicariate of Sapporo and in Tokyo flourish, where a Carmel also exists. At Morioka in 1936 the Dominicans of Bethlehem opened another monastery. In China the Trappists of the abbey of Yang kia-p'ing have been dispersed by the communists and those of the abbey of N. S. of Liesse have sent many religious to safer places. The monastery of Si-chan has been transferred to Tchengtou. Female Carmels flourish at Stanley (Hong-Kong) and at Yunnanfu. In 1947 ten Carmelites departed from Italy. Carmels also exist at Hanoi,

Phat-Diem, Phom-Penh, Hué, Saigon, Bangkok. At Vinh there are the Poor Clares. In Indonesia and Borneo too there are various Dutch Carmelite houses, as also in Papua and Burma. India has the Carmelite houses of Calcutta, Bangalore, Mangalore, Colombo, in full development. In Tibet the mission of Grand St. Bernard occupies the stations of Wei-si and Siao, and other stations in India are occupied by the mission of the abbey of St-Maurice. In French Africa the Poor Clares are found at Algiers and in the Sahara the recently founded Little Brothers of Jesus.

Saverio Paventi