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| Non sanctos patefacere sed multos sanctos facere. |
Looking at the Carthusians from the outside, you might be tempted to imagine them proud. But when you know a little more about them and their life, you understand that only a very humble man could stand Carthusian solitude without going crazy. For the solitude of the Charterhouse will always have a devastating effect on pride that seeks to be alone with itself. Such pride will crumble into schizophrenia in the uninterrupted silence of the Carthusian cell. It is in any case true that the great temptation of all solitaries is something much worse than pride - it is the madness that lies beyond pride, and the solitary must know how to keep his balance and his sense of humor.
Only humility can give him that peace. Strong with the strength of Christ’s humility, which is at the same time Christ’s truth, the Carthusian monk can face his solitude without supporting himself by unconsciously magical or illuministic habits of mind. He can bear the purification of solitude which slowly and inexorably separates faith from illusion. He can sustain the dreadful searching of soul that strips him of his vanities and self-deceptions. And he can peacefully accept the fact that when his false ideas of himself are gone he has nothing else left. Only then is he ready to encounter the Truth and the Holiness of God, which he must learn to confront in the depths of his own nothingness.
Sources
Thomas Merton. The Silent Life. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1999.
