My
mind is like a skipping stone
Skimming
across the surface of a pond.
Deliver
me from the deep waters, O Lord.
Not everybody has that experience at
Prayer. I am a Hunter, that is my orientation. Farmers have another problem;
for them slow and steady wins the race. They see the end of the furrow and
enjoy the prospect of dinner, but can miss the rabbit that runs by, and have
trouble seeing the lofty mountains beyond.
Some studies on people with a so-called Attention Deficit Disorder
are pointing away from a negative diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder to a deeper underlying reality. I object to the ADD diagnosis and suspect
that is must be a Farmer’s way of understanding Hunters. Farmers are prone to
Vision Deficit Fixation, VDF.
Put the Farmer and the Hunter plowing in the field, or at
Prayer, and you have two different styles and results. The Farmer ploughs a straight furrow with his
eye on the goal. His course is steadfast as he plods along. The Hunter ploughs
a crooked furrow because he is highly distractable, but he also capable of great
concentration when the hunt is on.
At the simplest level the Hunter constantly monitors the
environment and is ever ready for a new chase to begin. When the rabbit crosses
his trail he drops the plow, chases the rabbit, catches it, kills it, skins is,
cooks it, eats it, and sits under a tree with his new rabbit skin mocassins and
has a nap. The Farmer is not easily distracted from the immediate task at hand.
He doesn’t see the rabbit and sits barefoot having vegetables for dinner; that
is, unless the Hunter brings him some rabbit stew and a new pair of rabbit fur
slippers.
That brings us to the very first pair of
brothers in the Scripture. Cain is a
Farmer, slow and steady wins the race.
Abel is a Nomad/ Shepherd, a Hunter who follows the flocks and
constantly monitors the environment for dangers. The danger that he fails to recognize is the
jealousy and resentment of his brother, Cain.
These dynamics occur many times in Scripture and come to light in the
followers of Jesus.
Mary and Martha are a clear example. Martha has her mind fixed on the mundane task
at hand and plods through her preparation as a hostess, while her Hunter-type
sister has dropped the dishes and is mesmerized by Jesus and his teaching in
much the same fashion as the Hunter would drop the plow and go and chase a
rabbit. Both the Cain and Abel story,
and the Mary and Martha story are written with an appreciation of the Hunter
type and a caution given to the Farmer type.
On the other hand we need to recognize that when the crisis of death of
Lazarus hits the family of Mary and Martha, it is Martha who rushes to meet
Jesus on the road with a clear statement of her faith. Mary is so overwhelmed by her grief that she
remains in the house waiting for the call from Jesus.
A simple overview of the Apostolic band
uncovers obvious Hunters like Peter, and Farmers like his brother Andrew who is
marked by a quieter and steadier approach to life. What binds them all together is the person of
Jesus. He is the only thing that some of
them have in common.
Jesus himself is an interesting
study. For the first thirty years of his
life he lives as a farmer type methodically following the family business of
carpentry. It takes much more patience
to finish a piece of carpentry than most Hunters possess. On the other hand, at
the age of thirty, like a true Hunter he drops everything and becomes an
itinerant preacher wandering from village to village preaching the good news of
the Kingdom and healing the sick.
Jesus combines in himself the perfect
balance of Hunter and Farmer. He is the
complete man who attracts them both drawing the impetuous Hunter Peter into a
deeper steadiness in following him, and challenging the less adventuresome
Andrew to go out and preach and perform miracles. For the love of Jesus they both rise to the
challenge. For the love of Jesus those
who are Hunters within the Church and those who are Farmers are called to honor
and respect each other, to complement each other, and to grow in grace in his
image.
No one is 100% Hunter or 100% Farmer, but all of us are bent
one way or the other. God made Hunters and Farmers for mutual support; that way
the Hunter gets to have a balanced meal and sleep in the farm house that the
Farmer built. The challenge for both the Hunter and the Farmer at Prayer is for
each to learn from the other.
I suspect that St. Diadochus of Photiki is addressing the
Hunter when he says,
If we fervently desire holiness, the Holy Spirit at
the outset gives the soul a full conscious taste of God’s sweetness, so that
the intellect will know exactly of what the final reward of spiritual life
consists. But later he often conceals
this precious and life-creating gift.
He does this so that, even if we acquire other
virtues, we should still regard ourselves as nothing because we have not
acquired divine love in a lasting form . . .
It is therefore necessary to work upon the soul
forcefully for a while, so that we may
come to taste divine love fully and consciously . . .
Those who have advanced to perfection are able to
taste this love continually, but no one can experience it completely until
‘what is mortal in us is swallowed up by life.” (2 Cor. 2:4) [i]
The strength of the Hunter is that he is easily brought into
the hunt for the Presence of God, but in order to turn the chase into an
abiding experience he must learn the attributes of the Farmer and “work upon
the soul forcefully for a while,” instead of falling asleep under the tree. The
challenge for the Farmer is that he must stretch beyond the methods which
dominate his approach and raise his eyes to the distant mountains. Very often
it is the Hunter who shares the vision that enflames the heart of the Farmer,
and it is the Farmer who shows the way of making that vision an abiding
experience. Both sides are needed.
That
is why St. Benedict gives the following instruction for the Farmer and the
Hunter alike, “We believe that the divine presence is everywhere and that
"the eyes of the Lord are looking on the good and the evil in every
place" (Prov. 15:3).[ii]
The Divine Presence is everywhere, in the fields and in the mountains beyond.
The Presence of God is with the Farmer ploughing in the field and with the
Hunter in the chase.
We have to remember Whom we seek. “When
we wish to suggest our wants to persons of high station, we do not presume to
do so except with humility and reverence. How much the more, then, are complete
humility and pure devotion necessary in supplication of the Lord who is God of
the universe!”[iii] However remember that the chief end of Prayer
is not the Prayers, nor the Intercessions, nor the Liturgies, but God Himself.
St. Benedict goes on to say, “Let us therefore consider how we ought to conduct
ourselves in sight of the Godhead and of His Angels, and let us take part in
the psalmody in such a way that our mind may be in harmony with our voice.[iv] “Look
to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed.”[v]
To both Hunter and Farmer he says, “Our
prayer, therefore, ought to be short and pure, unless it happens to be
prolonged by an inspiration of divine grace. In community, however, let prayer
be very short, and when the Superior gives the signal let all rise together.”[vi]
In this there is an affirmation of the chase that is so dear to the heart of
the Hunter, but there is also a caution not to extend that chase artificially.
There is also an affirmation of the methodical nature of the Farmer, but the
Farmer must bear in mind that the Vision of God is the goal. We are
nevertheless to pray in community, in concert with one another, and to do so in
a disciplined way. The end goal for both the Farmer and the Hunter is that they
learn from each other and grow towards a place of balance in their experience
of Prayer.
[i] Philokalia,
Vol. 1, pg. 289
[ii] The
Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 19 ‘On the
Manner of Saying the Divine Office’
[iii] The
Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 20 On
Reverence in Prayer
