A Monk's Life

It is pathetically sad to hear about those monks. We see that extreme asceticism is widely practiced in Tibet, all those monastic guys wrapped in sheets wandering the hillsides begging for their supper are monks as we all know, but what is gained by their self-abnegation? Miss Ina K. Birkey, in her article "No Man Cared For My Soul," suggests that such extreme action is not so much a remedy as a symptom of something wrong, a restlessness in the heart, a void in the soul that can only be satisfied by faith in the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice on the cross for our sins. Self-flagellation and self-degradation will not accomplish righteousness. Nothing that we can do can make us holy enough to meet God's standard of perfection. We are sadly fallen. There is no one righteous, no not one. Only Christ, who by divine mystery was a man and yet also God's Son incarnate, was able to live a sinless life and pleased God. Only Christ can be our high priest in that His sinless life and death and resurrection qualifies Him to sit at the right hand of God making intercession for us. No other man can take His place.