MATHETΩN

There is an idea in much religion of a metaphysical foundation upon which practical action can be taken. For example, Islam erects the “Five Pillars”

Profession (of the creed),
Prayers,
Charity,
Fasting,
Pilgrimage (to the holy cities).

And ancient Jewish rabbis proposed seven precepts upon which all the world should base behavior; they are the Noachide Laws:

Monotheism,
No murder,
No robbery,
Sexual purity,
No blasphemy,
Kindness to animals,
Just courts.

Another example are the various Catholic religiouses, who generally profess four vows:

Poverty,
Celibacy,
Obedience,
and the fourth varies (e.g., stability, silence, loyalty to the pope).

The Religious Society of Friends has its “testimonies”, which by now have been narrowed to

Honesty,
Simplicity,
Non-violence,
Abstinence from nicotine, alcohol, or recreational drugs.

The Amish – Mennonites among whom I grew up base their copious lifestyle-laws on a three-cornered platform, viz.:

Nonconformity (to American life),
Uniformity,
Obedience.

Perhaps it is my knowledge of these religions that has gotten me thinking: What “pillars” could I discern in Jesus’s and his Envoys’ teaching upon which to base my life’s acts? To list them accurately, I would need to put out of my head all Christian dogma, to read thoroughly but sweepingly, to think systematically. Here, tentatively, is what I propose (roughly in the order the reader can find them):

Slavery,
Poverty,
Love and non-resistance,
Honesty,
Liberty,
Chastity (with a special meaning for the married).

The most-familiar sighting of a Mathetes is one of the lonely pair on foot or bike forging through the darkest thickets of cities or through rural barrens administering polemic or medicine. Or perhaps one has seen the strange-looking little tan trucks of the Slaves, having driven all night in haste, installing caches of supplies or literature.

But fewer have seen the Mathetai’s permanent communities. These are communist, agrarian, and usually isolated (I am ignoring the large exception in Harlem). They are — one might say — the hive to the Mathetes’ bee, or the mortar to his shell.

These comprise families with children, novices, and Mathetai recuperating from the road. Besides being farms, the communities are small manufacturies, are laboratories and academies.

I mean soon to report from my years visiting them. …

This would be my dream job for the next few years:

Looking Glass Youth and Family Services:
STREET OUTREACH WORKER

Program: New Roads

Reports to: Clinical Supervisor

Comp: $9.50 / hr

Responsibilities:
Is responsible for the provision of education and prevention services regarding issues of sexual abuse, domestic violence, prostitution, and other issues relevant to homeless and runaway youth. In addition, assists with classroom presentations and outreach to community groups.

Availability: Day, evening, overnight

Specific duties:
Provides advocacy services to street youth in the drop-in center and on the street; debriefs with other staff; co-leads weekly support groups; works with related agencies to provide resources for street youth; provides referrals to New Roads case-management and educational services, other Looking Glass programs, &c.; conducts classroom presentations in area middle and high schools; provides coverage at New Roads drop-in center; provides some coverage at a group living facility with up to four residents.

Paul certainly offered correctives to Hellenic culture. He reserved the thunder of the prophet for sins in men of every culture, but he offered some correctives such as this:

A Greek dramatist shows a beggar so poor he must hold his own begging-cup — “I must even dress myself,” he implores passersby, “so great is my misery that I have had to sell my slave.”

But Paul writes Followers in Thessaloniki: “Learn to work with your own hands.”

“The exercise of vital powers along lines of excellence in a life affording them scope”

– a Hellenic definition of happiness

Some people are doing some very good things!

Things like, for example, turning, in only a few months, just a fraction-of-an-acre of abandoned volcanic-ash-poisoned land into a lush orchard capable of providing good income to a family of five:

Permaculture

Or designing how food-stamp-dependent people can eat a generous, nutritious diet, full of delicious foods like homemade peach ice cream, and very high in vegetables and whole grains, for as little as three dollars a day:

Cook for Good

I’m so happy to know such people exist!

I just finished studying Francis of Assisi’s first Rule (he rewrote the Rule years later for confirmation by papal bull) and taking notes, and I think I will sum my interpretation of it:

I. Live the whole gospel of Jesus Christ in its most obvious and simple way, all His teaching, all His footsteps. First, sell your property and give all you possess to the poor. Seek out the conversation of the poor, despised, sick, and beggars and show joy in it. Judge none, but judge your own self severely. Observe the Golden Rule toward everyone; love one another, in works and then words, which is Christ’s Commandment; resist no evil fate but accept violence, even from nature, and expect martyrdom. Never become depressed, never complain, but show forth joy, contentment in the Lord, and merriment. Show chivalry and courtesy.

II. Revere all churches, ordinances, and clerics. Study the gospel and pray in a regular pattern daily; seek repentance in a regular pattern daily; fast regularly and during holy seasons. Yet if it become necessary, to further the work of the Kingdom, fasts or any other constraints may be abandoned. Expel a brother or sister who is proved a heretic. Among unbelievers, or in the countries of unbelievers, do not contend but only freely confess you are a Christian. Then, when there is opportunity, explain the gospel of Christ to who will listen. When God is blasphemed, respond with a word of praise of God. Any may preach, but none may call himself a preacher, make of it a career, or preach in an aggrandizing way. Confess sins and faults to one another. Confess all sins before taking the bread and wine.

III. Wear poor clothes and have very few. Neither own nor use private transportation. Own nothing but food and clothing and perhaps the tools of your trade. Work at an honest, preferably manual, trade you knew before you were converted to support your own needs. Do not become a businessman or a manager; do not take a morally-ambiguous job; do not take a job for the money. Do not borrow, save, or invest money. If you discover money or a money-making opportunity, let it lie as though it were nothing but a stone. Ask boldly for donations for the poor, or for your work or yourself if necessary; remember that insults are a shame only for the insulter; remember that every person’s wealth will perish except the wealth of charity. Never claim a space as home, and always welcome any who comes, even if he is a thief. Never be idle, but always be doing a job, your good work, or your devotions. Travel everywhere doing good work; lodge in pious households as you come to them; accept attacks on the way and give to any who asks. Yet, if you become ill, you may instead seek care from your brothers and sisters, and these constraints may be abandoned. Do not let illness make you morose or angry, but learn from it as from the chastisement of a Father.

IV. Do not ogle the opposite sex and do not dally with them alone. Offer them spiritual counsel and encouragement. Expel immediately a brother or sister who is proved a fornicator; afterward, urge him or her to repent.

V. Establish servants who will arrange the brothers and sisters throughout the country to best effect and others who will visit them often with admonishment and comforting. Remember that such servants are not masters but slaves, for the first shall be last. Never shall any among you be called Prior. Let all watch the servants carefully for any wrongdoing, and, after three private admonishments, let nothing prevent you from reporting them. Also, let all watch each other, and admonish wrongdoing three times, and then report it openly. Yet let no such discovery make you angry or sad but at peace with God and apter to judge yourself. All shall obey all. No one who does any conscious sin is being obedient; no one who follows the gospel is being disobedient; and no one shall obey against his soul. All shall hold all in reverence. No one shall argue, be angry, or accuse others, but shall be silent or offer a humble, ready answer. Everyone in the country shall meet yearly, and everyone in the world shall meet tri-yearly. Wash one another’s feet.

VI. [Francis offers a very short benediction and sermon that a brother or sister may use anytime in any company.]

VII. [Francis concludes with a long and beautiful summation of the gospel of Christ, admonishment for the brothers and sisters' souls, and praise of God.]

Today as I ate at Taco Bell I observed, passing in front of the window to my right, various persons with crippled limbs making their way slowly to the public housing beyond and, at the table to my left, a father boasting pompously of his son’s sexual exploits at college. These things saddened and angered me, and they put me in mind of the Tripart Survey of the Mathetai.

At regular intervals the Mathetai issue this report for themselves in their work, whether for the world, for a country, or for a small region. Just as their Teacher sent his first followers throughout the Levant to teach, to preach, and to heal, so the work of the Mathetai takes those three general courses; and just as the Works tells us that the work of his first followers turned the world upside-down, so the end of the Mathetai’s courses is to fix the world — to rid it of the sufferings I observed as I ate lunch. And before a thing can be fixed, its breakages must be surveyed.

Thus the Tripart Survey seeks to answer: ( 1 ) Against what lies ought we most teach? ( 2 ) Against what abuses of power ought we most preach? ( 3 ) Against what illnesses ought we most turn our skills of healing?

Some would remark — especially after reading a Survey — that this seems a very scientific approach for men of God. And indeed the Mathetai are practical as flint in their war to fix the world: they feel themselves badly outnumbered and out of time; they are not a bit daunted; they will use any How, Who, or What most effectually to approach the goal.

The Mathetai, as I have implied before, mostly wear traditional work-clothes. Yet modesty is not their rule so much as expediency. If the Duke of Windsor had bequeathed a Mathetes a wardrobe, he likely would wear most of it.

Clothing is one of two material things the Mathetai allow concern them; as the Envoy has written: “Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.” Yet that the Envoy has recognized clothing does not mean the Mathetai think much of them. They would wear free rags if these covered and warmed them. But this is not acseticism: again, it is expediency.

The hermits, from the anchorites to the Mennonites, have got small things right with a very great thing wrong. It is because the Mathetai war a great war and work a great work that they have not a second nor a cent for finery. If a Mathetes had leisure and spare wealth, he would spend it as the Epicurean with a Cynic’s mind, prescribed in the Ecclesiastes, would spend it.