Letter 42

From: Braulio of Zaragoza, bishop To: [Recipient unknown] Date: ~643 AD Context: Letter 42 of Braulio of Zaragoza; on the question of the proper relationship between monks and the secular clergy. To my dear colleague, The tension between the monastic clergy and the secular clergy — between the monks and the priests who serve parishes — is one that I encounter regularly and that I think is poorly handled on both sides. From the monastic side, there is sometimes an implicit (and occasionally explicit) claim that the life of the monk is simply a higher form of Christianity, and that the secular priest who serves a parish is doing something inferior — important perhaps, but spiritually less demanding and therefore less meritorious. This is wrong, and it is pastorally damaging. The secular priest who buries the poor, who sits with the dying, who attempts to maintain the faith of an ordinary community over decades — this work is not less demanding than the monk's; it is differently demanding. From the secular clergy side, there is sometimes resentment of the monasteries' wealth, independence, and the prestige that attaches to the monastic life in the minds of many laity. Some of this resentment is understandable; some of it is simply jealousy, which is neither understandable nor edifying. What I would argue is that these are two forms of the Christian life, each with its proper demands and its proper gifts, and that the church needs both. A bishop who favors one at the expense of the other is impoverishing the whole. The monastery and the parish church are not competitors; they are partners in a single mission. Your brother, Braulio