Pilgrims of Hope is the message of Pope Francis for this Holy Year. It is a theme which is highly appropriate as we follow the Carmelite way, the way inspired by the Rule of St Albert.
Hope is essential for all who live in faith. Our faith, trust in God, is based on the present moment. Hope looks to a better future, to the fulfilment of our faith with the coming in glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hope is founded on faith and born of love. Above all, hope is a life lived in allegiance to Jesus Christ. He calls us to have faith in him and to know his love as our Saviour. On our part, this calls us to a life of conversion, seeking always to turn to God and to hear his call. That is followed as the path of pilgrimage, the journey to a sacred place which traditionally is followed on foot.
Every pilgrimage is a journey of hope, the expectation that we will indeed reach our destination. Pilgrimage is perhaps an underestimated part of our Carmelite tradition. We speak of our founding community as the hermits of Mount Carmel, but to arrive there they would first have been pilgrims. They would have taken a vow committing themselves to a journey of conversion as they set out from Western Europe for the Holy Land. They were pilgrims on a one way journey, that they would settle to the eremitical life in the Lord’s own land. Perhaps only a few of them ever made their way to the earthly Jerusalem before it was recaptured by the Saracens. Yet they would have been those looking forward to the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from heaven. While no longer a journey, the pilgrimage of life continues as they awaited that time.
Their request for a Way of Life from Albert, the Patriarch of Jerusalem living in Acre followed from this. As a settled community they needed recognition by the Church. We know little about the growth of the community though it was soon joined by clerics. We also know that it was successful. Against the background of troubled times in the Holy Land, the Mount Carmel community flourished. As the community grew so too did the need to develop their Way of Life.
The influence of the Benedictine Patriarch around 1240 may be noticeable with the additions of a communal lifestyle. Papal interest is evident with several bulls about Carmelite concerns. The final result of this development was the bull promulgated by Pope Innocent IV in 1247 by which the simple Way of Life was recognised as a Rule of religious life in the Church.
Whilst explorations of the background are important, it is this final version which is the foundation document and the source of hope for Carmelites. Looking at this in a different way, we can see the Rule becoming both the anchor and the roots for Carmelites, the centrifugal and centripetal tensions in life. We need an anchor because there is the temptation to fly away like a dove to easier paths (Ps 55,7) and there is the need to put down deep roots like the olive tree (Ps 52,10).
The anchor is St Albert himself. The hermits were indeed fortunate to find the right man at the right time, well qualified and well experienced in all the issues surrounding their needs. It is remarkable and important that throughout its development up to the Rule of 1247, the Carmelites kept the authority of Albert as their lawgiver. The Rule has his formal introduction which makes that authority perfectly clear. He was never the founder; he was not one of hermit community. Yet Carmelites today live under his authority as the Patriarch of Jerusalem who (to use a modern term) sponsored them. His name is important as with the other Rules: Basil, Benedict, Augustine and Francis. “Carmelite Rule” therefore is not really a satisfactory alternative.
Albert passes his authority straight on to the Prior,”one of yourselves”. The Prior has his authority in the midst of the brothers lived within the bonds of obedience.
Roots then depend upon the words of the Rule itself. Above all the Rule is a rich tapestry of Scriptural quotations and allusions, recycled for new circumstances. Carmelite spirituality is profoundly Biblical in its inspiration, which makes it an important witness in the Church today.
Then there is the influence of the Desert Fathers and Eastern spirituality behind the Rule. In settling in their wadi, the hermits would have been aware that it had previously been a Byzantine monastery. That leads to the place of the Prophet Elijah, who in Christian tradition is the prototype monk, as their patron. Their chapel was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary as their other patron. She was Lady of the Land with her Son Jesus being the Lord.
Following our pilgrim way therefore, we can take the Rule of St Albert, our foundational document, as our anchor, relying on Albert’s authority to be a sure guide. As a guidebook, it gives us the roots of our allegiance to Jesus as proposed by our hermit ancestors. In this way we progress in pilgrimage towards the heavenly Jerusalem, our faith lived in love and fulfilled in hope.
Fr Patrick Lombard O.Carm
