Journey Back to Eden.pdf - St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church Chicago

A TIME TO VISIT ABRAHAM 45The monasteries in the States, by contrast, might seem lax, and Idid not wish to be the bearer of that kind of disappointing news.He saw that I was hesitant to answer, so he asked me specificquestions. “Does each of the monks in your monastery own a car?”he asked me.“No,” I answered, “certainly not. It would be impossible forevery monk to own a car. It would be unacceptable.”“Really?” he said. “I would have expected that every Americanhas a car whether he is a monk or not, and that no American wouldsettle for any kind of life in which he did not possess at least one car.”I thought about his remark, and I replied that it would still beinconsistent with the monastic life. Then he said, “You are greatmonks in the United States if you can resist the pull of your cultureto that extent.”He asked me other questions. “Does every monk have his ownpersonal bank account and his own personal income?”“No,” I said. “Our incomes are absorbed by the monastery; wehave no personal wages.” He found this remarkable as well, inasmuchas Americans are bound to be interested in their annual income,in their wage and tax bracket. So he was surprised that wecould also transcend our culture to that degree.I know that in the Western Church monks often compare onemonastery unfavorably to another, especially to their own, on somelevel of analysis. But here, Abuna Tadros seemed to be so secure inwho he is and what his monastery is that he did not need to makedisadvantageous comparisons.I went on to describe to Abuna Tadros the most significant differencewhich I noticed between our monasteries. “Our Westernmonastery is a collective reality under an abbot. Its greatest emphasisis on communal life and on fraternal love, a communal wayof worshiping God through liturgical rites. Whereas,” I said, “it ismy opinion that this Coptic monastery emphasizes individual perfectionand holiness, the virtue of monastic life which is cultivatedinteriorly. It seems that the primary relationship here is that betweeneach monk and his spiritual father.” While Abuna Tadrosagreed with me that this is a significant difference, as our conversationprogressed, he noted that we American monks are not nearlyso communal as I had indicated, and that we allow a great deal ofindividual variation. That which I had been concerned about as akind of laxity, he interpreted as “idiorhythmia”: the conformity of