On March 19, Zena Hitz, Ph.D., a tutor at St. John’s College and author of “Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life,” and “A Philosopher Looks at the Religious Life,” was the guest speaker at VCU’s annual Blake Lecture on the History of Christianity. Hitz discussed how monks and nuns are called and driven by a desire of fulfillment and happiness to a life of religious service. 

Hitz began her lecture by asking, “What does it mean to say that life is ‘futile?’” The question of transience often comes up. Does the fact that things come to an end make a difference for how we conceive the meaning of life, or the possibilities for how we have a happy and fulfilling life? 

The religious life in this context refers to radical Christians, men and women who have abandoned ordinary ways of life, marriage, family, commerce and power for lives of solitude, prayer and service. Such are the lives of contemporary nuns, monks, friars or hermits. These lives often feature a call or perception of vocation. The roots of this call are sometimes a “perception of futility.” The men and women that are called to a life of religion often parallel the calls of the apostles. Hitz offers examples such as the call of Peter and Andrew from the New Testament, St. Matthew and St. Martin of Tours. 

According to the gospel that had inspired St. Anthony the Abbot, eternal life is the goal of a Christian life. However mysterious Anthony’s life may seem, to walk away from your fruitful acres, a future of prosperity and richness, as he did, does not completely respond to the question of transience.

To bring in transience, Hitz tells the story of Mother Walatta Petros, an Ethiopian noblewoman who became a nun and vowed to stay there for the rest of her days after the death of her four infant children. The importance of this story was the vocation and call to a life of religion, as she was called to renounce her wealth, marriage and political powers. Her call to do so was rooted in her perception of transience. She was moved to sacrifice everything, to live a radical Christian life. Her grief was connected to it- but how?

To explain further, Hitz relates the story of Mother Walatta Petros to the story of Mother Maria Skobtsova of Russia, who became a nun after the death of her infant daughter. Mother Maria described her manner of mourning as follows: “For some it is not even a question of grief, but the sudden opening of gates into eternity. While the whole of natural existence has lost its stability and coherence, yesterday’s laws have been abolished. Desires have faded. Meaninglessness has displaced meaning, and a different, albeit incomprehensible meaning, has caused wings to sprout at one’s back. Into the grave’s dark maw, plunged all hopes, habits, calculations, and above all, meaning, a whole meaning of life. In the face of this, everything needs to be reexamined or rejected against falsehood or corruption.”

"For Mother Maria Skobtsova," Hitz says, "grief reveals the truth about the world."

The particular men and women that Hitz discussed sacrificed all of the benefits of wealth, nobility, comfort, prestige and power- all the things we typically strive for as human beings. What drives them, she asks, stating "Some are motivated by fear or despair, a desire to hide from the pains of life. The prospect of loss or grief makes them shun the source of those feelings." Hitz states that those like St. Anthony, Mother Walatta Petros and Mother Maria Skobtsova are acting like lovers with determined efforts to be with their beloved. 

In love with what, or with whom? Hitz believes answering with “God” is too simple. She offers poverty, as it enchants them so much that they renounce their wealth and riches. Others such as St. Martin or St. Francis of Assisi, and including St. Anthony, are in love with the gospels of Jesus. Hitz compares them to Socrates the philosopher, though Pagan, would give everything up for the love of wisdom. She offers a partial answer for the women, who are in love with God. They understood it as something transcendent and eternal, something which can fulfill their desires that grief disappoints. It is an object of love that will not fail. It is a love that sparks an insight to reject things of ordinary love, wealth and power or even distinctive individuals such as husbands and family. 

“Their love for the eternal and transcendent demands a total renunciation and dedication.” What kind of response would motivate a commitment like this, she asks. The question of transience has a relation to the purpose of things. What is the meaning of life, what is the meaning of happiness and what happens after everything? What is the purpose of what is happening now and what happens next? 

To Hitz, loving something already entails wanting it to last. She states, "The love of the divine reaches towards the ever-lasting and the eternal. When things are extinguished, our response is grief. Our experiences might be episodic with beginnings and ends, but during that time, we cultivate, support and take care of them. We preserve and develop them, and those are the activities that seem to matter most to us. We could not do any of that unless we imagined that what we’re building or nurturing would last." 

Hitz reckons that to hold something and to give it attention, while reconciled to its permanent annihilation, is not humanly possible. The fear of death and loss makes it difficult for us to devote ourselves to something completely. Due to these fears, we are naturally halfhearted. Lukewarmness, she describes in the sense of the Book of Revelation, is the natural condition of self-protection against loss. By contrast, wholeheartedness is demonstrated in the monks and nuns. 

Why would a love for the eternal inspire the renunciation of everything? The point is not that everything else is meaningless. Even though they flee everything, all they left behind still had meaning. In some cases, that which is left behind was not compatible with what they were devoted to and put first. The call to a religious life is a wholehearted commitment to God, the object of their desires. Going back to the question, what drove those like Mother Walatta Petros and St. Anthony to renounce wealth, rank, power, romantic love and familial duty to serve God alone? “The perception of the futility or transience of things did not provoke despair or resignation. It was the occasion for falling in love. The object of love has only been partially sketched, it takes shape in the eternal and God himself. It has been put into their hearts.” 

Hitz quotes St. Augustine, who said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”