Gregory the Great on Action and Contemplation Introduction

The first monk to become a pope was St. Gregory (+604) and all through his reign, he longed after the monastic lifestyle. Majorly due to his power and inspiration, Benedictine monasticism was transformed into "the conquering army of the Roman Church"[footnoteRef:1] according to Cayre. When it was needed, Gregory ordained monks as priests and even apostolic duties. In terms of spirituality, his lectures on the contemplative and active lifestyle, the levels of spiritual advancement and on contemplation are very significant. Much more than other Fathers of the Church, St. Gregory focused a large part of his writing on pastoral issues and particularly guidelines for pastors, the basic obligations for candidates aiming to become priests and the basic functions of an apostle as regards preaching. This paper specifically tackles the themes of action and contemplation and the ways these two works together and how they affect the job of monks and nuns based on the account of Gregory the great. [1: Fulbert Cayré, Manual of patrology and history of theology. (Vol. 2. Society of St. John the Evangelist, Desclée & Co., 1940).]

Contemplation and action

Within the initial five months Gregory reigned, he carried out two tasks which caused him to choose a position on this issue. The first was an assessment of his personal life while the second was the authoring of a book which turned out to be "the most widely read single text in the history of pastoral care" for thousands of succeeding years: the Rule of Pastoral Care. These two actions helped Gregory create a significant blend of the contemplative and active lives. The biblical reading which he referenced was the story of Leah and Rachel. The attractive Rachel represented the contemplative life (Gregory’s real first love) however she was bringing forth. However Leah, rather than Rachel, turned out to be the mother of a large number of the children. Another way to look at it is; Rachel represented “spirit” while Leah represented “flesh”. Christians often wrongly believe Paul’s writings say that the spirit was better and higher than the body/flesh, which is explained in spiritual terms as material or worldly things, however, Gregory quickly moved past this. He understood, instead, that "one moves not only through the flesh to reach the spirit; one must return back again to the carnal to become truly spiritual." Following the progression of the Bible story, “Jacob starts from Leah, achieves Rachel and then goes back to Leah – activity comes before contemplation, however contemplation has to be shown as a form of service to a person’s neighbors."[footnoteRef:2] [2: CHRIS ARMSTRONG, Spirituality for Busy People....

Christian history, 2008. http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2008/november/spirituality-for-busy-people.html]
Gregory then came to a conclusion that two life modes are not really mutually exclusive which was the idea being taught by the church. Each one form helps the other form continuously forever: the active life is equipped by the contemplative life and it keeps us grounded and continuously showing love to neighbors. It equally prevents us from becoming spiritually proud and irrelevant. Even though all of us, living on Earth, have to experience the active life (reoriented by Leah), we might look forward to the contemplative life (represented by Rachel)[footnoteRef:3]. If anyone has any form of doubts about this, he/she only needs to examine the life of the great example of the agreement between contemplation and service: Christ, in the flesh. [3: Ibid]

Out of these two lives, the active form is important for salvation according to St. Gregory, as it is impossible to save any man who doesn’t have good works; however, the theological qualities are essential for accomplishment. Thus, Gregory’s differentiation of the active life as that of the moral qualities and the contemplative life as that of the theological qualities needs to be accepted based on the fact that for the latter form, the theological qualities are much more obviously seen. Out of both lives, according to St. Gregory, "the contemplative life is greater in merit than the active . . . . Although the active life is good, the contemplative is better."[footnoteRef:4] [4: Jordan Aumann, “Chapter 4: MONASTICISM IN THE WEST” in Christian spirituality in the Catholic tradition. (Ignatius Press, 1985) 64.]

Implications to nuns and monks

Despite the vagueness of the terms applied in designating the different categories of Christians – monks, laity, nuns and priests – the differences stated by St. Isidore of Seville and St. Gregory the Great were still followed. Both life states remained in line with its personal identity and gradually, each one developed a proper and relevant spirituality. Therefore, two categories of the laity existed: the more devoted Christians and the ordinary faithful. The ordinary faithful, whose kind of Christian life was categorized by Bede[footnoteRef:5] as vita popularis, got a basic command as regards the roles of Christians before their baptism; they received a special marriage preparation procedure, which emphasized the purpose and non-breakability of marriage and the function of fidelity; all other forms of religious developments were received from the normal clergy preaching. However, their understanding of faith was generally basic and several of them happened to be very attracted to the phenomena of magic, preternatural or occult and superstition. [5: Ibid, at…