|
(Adapted from Thomas Merton’s “The Wisdom of
the Desert.”)
In the 4th century AD the deserts of Egypt,
Palestine, Arabia and Persia were peopled by a race of men who left
behind them a strange reputation. They were the first Christian
hermits, who abandoned the cities of the ancient Roman world to live
in the solitude and silence of the desert. Why did they do this? The
reasons were many and various, but they can all be summed up in one
brief phrase: the quest for salvation. Among these men (and women!)
the life and witness of St. Anthony the Great is unique.
St. Anthony, called “the father of monasticism”,
was born in central Egypt about 251 AD, the son of peasant farmers who
were Christian. In circa 269, he heard the Gospel being read in Church
and applied to himself the words of Jesus to the rich man: “Go, sell
all that you have, give it to the poor and come, follow Me.” He sold
everything he owned, gave the proceeds to the poor and devoted himself
to a life of asceticism under the guidance of a recluse living on the
outskirts of his village. Around 285 AD he went alone into the desert
to live in complete solitude. It was in this solitude and silence that
Anthony heard clearly the Word of God for his life. After 20 years in
solitude, Anthony emerged “as one initiated into the mysteries of
God and inspired by the Holy Spirit (he became) a physician given by
God to Egypt through whom the Lord healed many people.” He died at
the age of 105 in 356 AD and his biography, written by St. Athanasios
(whose memory we celebrate on January 18th!) created an immediate
literary and theological sensation throughout the ancient world.
What can we, more than 1500 years later, learn from
Anthony’s witness? What is the meaning of his flight from society
into the desert? First, society—which meant classical Roman pagan
society, limited by the horizons and prospects of life “in this
world” - was regarded by Anthony and the many other desert fathers
and mothers as a shipwreck from which each had to swim for their
lives.
These were men and women who believed that to let
oneself drift along, passively accepting the non-Christian tenets of
what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster. These
Coptic hermits—for Anthony—life so many of his brothers and
sisters, was a Copt and spoke no Greek or Latin—who left the world
as though escaping from a shipwreck, did not merely intend to save
themselves. They knew that they were helpless to do any good for
others as long as they floundered about in the wreckage. But once they
got a foothold on solid ground, tings were different. Then they had
not only the ability but even the obligation to pull the world to
safety after them. Perhaps we cannot do exactly what Anthony did. But
we must be as thorough and as ruthless in our determination to break
our spiritual chains, cast off the domination of alien compulsions and
find our true selves in Christ Jesus.
Abba Anthony said: “This is the work of
a great man: always to take responsibility for his own sins before God
and to expect temptations until his last breath.”
Abba Anthony said: “A time is coming when
people will go mad and when they see someone who is not mad, they will
attack him, saying, “You are mad, you are not like us.”
He also said: “Whoever you may be, always have
God before your eyes; whatever you do, do it in accordance with the
testimony of the Holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not
easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.”
|
