The monastic community gathers in choirThis week we present our initial installment in the monthly column entitled, “Voices of the Monastery.” The intention of this monthly feature is to present a wide range of reflections representing members of the monastic community, both past and present. Originally given as a talk to parents on Parent’s Weekend, this article was reprinted in the March 1971 Portsmouth newsletter, “in answer to requests of parents and alumni.”

One of the most intriguing remarks, and perhaps one of the most influential made by any contemporary philosopher is that of Merleau-Ponty, who says, “man is condemned to meaning.” That is, to my mind, a very pregnant and important truth. It is especially important because of the way in which it is stated. In itself, it is a very pessimistic statement. That is, one does not speak of being condemned to what one enjoys or does naturally. We do not say that man is condemned to walking or condemned to talking or that he is condemned to seeing some things which he will consider beautiful. Yet this philosopher says that man is condemned to meaning. Another interesting aspect of this statement is that there have been times and cultures, moments in civilization, in which, I venture to guess, people would not have understood such a statement or have understood it only with difficulty. That is not true of our times for, as has been implied, the statement has been widely quoted, readily accepted, and has become something of a tag.

In the Old Testament, Job says to God, “Wherefore then hast thou brought me out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? Cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death.” Here, Job speaks against God‘s working with him, and he is weary of God and what God does. His weary is the expression of his ignorance of the meaning of life and its sufferings. “Wherefore hast thou brought me out of the womb”, that is, why, for what reason, with what in mind have you called me into existence? The question is plainly stated, and man is or has been desperately unsatisfied until he has found something like an answer.
Matthew Stark at his installation as community superior (1967)​Merleau-Ponty says, “Man is condemned to meaning”. “Man” here comprises both the race, mankind, and the individual. The race of man seeks a meaning for itself and the individual person, too, must have a meaning for himself. Philosophers, historians and thinkers of every cast of mind have sought for meaning in their own lives and in the life of the race and given us what they have in their searches discovered.
Abbot Matthew Stark, 1970’sYet now, in our times, for many the search for meaning and its discovery, if it is to be discovered, have become a burden. At any rate, this is my understanding of the use of the word “condemned” in our text. We do not say man is condemned to thinking, or if we do say it, we can be understood as meaning he is weary of thinking or has lost faith in the processes of thought. To use the word “condemned” in this text is to imply that a large proportion of men are weary and frustrated in the search for the meaning of life or are disappointed in whatever meaning they have been able to discover. I believe that our times are heavy with a lack of meaning and a discontent with the meanings traditionally given for man’s life on earth. Moreover, Christianity, at least in one of its aspects, does make bold to say what is the meaning of any man’s life. The Christian meaning of life, stated broadly, is that man should know God; and the means to that knowledge are, curiously enough, that a man should love God and his neighbor. The Gospel does not say know God, then love him; it does not say know your neighbor, then love him; the Gospel says love God, and neighbor and by this you will know God, and this put simply, perhaps too simply, is the meaning of man’s existence.

Now what bearing does all this have on a School which calls itself a Christian School? What is the point for Catholics and others who engage in teaching? First, our teaching is not done in a theological or philosophical vacuum. It is one of the facts of a revealed religion that certain answers are already given. Certain principles are essential because true. Second, our teaching, if not done in a vacuum, is neither done in the fashion of a sampler or array of ideas thought, or once thought to be true from which the student, if he can, is invited to fashion for himself a truth or truths that will, more or less, for better or worse, see him through this life. Third, our teaching does not supply the tools for finding truth without reference to the truth. That is, education is not seen primarily as a preparation for life, or as providing tools that will enable the student as an adult to get on with a modicum of intellectual discomfort, in new situations or ideas. I say, education is not primarily this, because as we know now better than we have ever known it before, the future is always uncertain, and students must be prepared as best they can be to live in the future which, as it were, by definition is the unknown. To say this, however, is not to say that there are not truths which are revealed, given and immutable, by which a man must live in any circumstances, and which he forgets at great peril to himself and to his kind.
Monastic community of 1969If we can acknowledge that truth exists, is known, and can be and should be taught, there is something further which must be said on the relationship or revealed truth and the person. Men are by nature individuals, different from one another. Although there are rhythms and patterns common to the spiritual life and the physical life and to the life of the mind which are universal to all these aspects of human life, those rhythms and patterns become infinite in their variety as they are expressed in the lives of individual men and women. The meaning of men given is not given simply to be memorized. The truth revealed is not revealed simply to be memorized. The truth revealed is not revealed simply to be learned. The meaning of truth is meant to become incorporated and part of the individual’s life, and to enrich that life and be manifested in that life. Martin Buber has said: “Even when the individual calls an absolute criterion handed down by religious tradition his own, it must be reforged in the fire of the truth of his personal essential relation to the absolute, if it is to win true validity.” In other words, under the truth of God, not only is the whole of our human race condemned to meaning, but every man and woman is condemned to a special meaning. The universal truth of God must be particularized and made flesh in every individual. But it would be better to say that man is called or summoned to meaning, and this by God. God invites man to share in his, in God’s meaning for this world. God challenges man to make the divine meaning the human meaning, and it is here that man is liable to grow weary or draw back. One of our revealed truths is that man is at variance with God over the meaning and use of creation and that to bring himself to mean what God means is a fierce and long struggle which can only be undertaken and fought by the individual in himself to become what God desires that he become. It seems to me that it is the part of education, to give the student the tools and weapons for this in struggle, to set before him the truth in the clearest light that human weakness can, and to show him the richness and joy of himself reaching that truth and becoming one with it. Then if and as he draws nearer to the true meaning, the human person no longer is condemned to meaning, but delights in it, and in his meaning finds his God, his good.

Yours sincerely,
Rt. Rev. Dom Matthew Stark, Abbot

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Abbot Matthew Stark joined the monastic community of Portsmouth in 1956, first serving as its superior in 1967, and becoming its first abbot in 1969 when the community was granted abbatial status.