Suffering, Sacrifice and Stability: The Life of Aleydis of Schaerbeek in a Contemporary Context
2002; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2615-2282
Autores Tópico(s)Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
ResumoThe following paper was first presented at the 2002 Cistercian Studies Conference, as part of the 37(th) Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich., May 2-5, 2002.This is a venue in which I have presented previously, and many in the audience, both religious and lay, were familiar to me. The context therefore literally represented opportunity for the kind of dialogue between lay scholar and committed religious that is enjoined in this paper. Because I believe the conversation that took place in that context is an important one, I would like to submit these reflections to a broader audience, hoping that they will be received in the spirit of conversation in which they were written.IntroductionThis paper will be unlike any I have previously given, because instead of focusing upon what meant in its own time and place, I will, instead, be focusing upon the sometimes more difficult question of what means for today. That something will be the Life of Aleydis (or Alice) of Schaerbeek.(1) In what ways might the Life of Alice be, as her biographer suggests, an odor of life (II Corinthians 2:14) for today?(2)Because the contemporary us includes those of who have taken religious vows and joined monastic communities, and those of who have chosen marriage and service in the world, it seemed especially appropriate to engage these reflections with those attending these Cistercian sessions, where dialogue can be enjoined, and mutual teaching and learning can take place.This dialogue is especially important to me because I was first drawn to Alice by treatments of her Life written by Cistercians I have met or with whom I have been put in contact through the Kalamazoo Medieval Congress: Edith Scholl, Chrysogonus Waddell, Martinus Cawley.(3) These persons described Alice in ways that made her sound absolutely amazing. Yet when I approached Alice through the lens of my own learning and experience, I was absolutely horrified. This was not because the text lacks the poetic beauty of some of the other Cistercian texts with which I am familiar, but because the lens of my own experience enabled me to see things in the text that I had not seen before, and which frightened me. I began to realize how important life context was to theological understanding. What follows is also therefore an exercise in discernment, an effort to interpret the text within several different contexts.The WrestlingThe questions of dialogue and discernment have become particularly important to me of late, because I have spent the last three years painfully extricating myself from an emotionally abusive marriage. I am one of the lucky ones. When I finally realized that I needed to get out, I had both the financial and personal resources to do it, and lots of support from colleagues, family and friends.Still, I was surprised to discover that one of the hardest aspects of these past years, one of the biggest hurdles I have had to overcome, was my Christian heritage and, more specifically, my study of ascetic, monastic theologies like those of the desert people, of Marie of Oignes, Catherine of Siena, or, the subject of this reflection, the Life of Alice of Schaerbeek. It seemed that nearly everything I had come to understand about being a Christian mitigated against my leaving the abusive relationship.I had learned that anger was one of the seven deadly sins, and so I repressed a fury that railed against the restraints within which I lived. When I did express anger, it was returned in kind. This only reinforced my understanding that my own anger was sinful. So I developed a theology of sacrificial, suffering love, with its expectation that I should absorb the pain that came my way but not return it. I think of Peter Abelard here. I had learned about love that insisted upon loving despite torment. Think of Christ forgiving his oppressors from the cross. …
Referência(s)