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Welcome to Wisdom from the Desert. For the next forty days, you will be receiving an email every day but Sunday. These forty days of Lent correspond to the forty days Jesus spent in the desert being tempted. Over the course of this series, you will be hearing from many kinds of Christians who have removed themselves from society. This will include hermits, monks, mystics and others. But today, we start with the man who literally escaped to the desert, and changed history: Saint Anthony the Great, Father of all Monks.

Anthony grew up in Egypt in the 200s, the son of affluent Christian parents. They died when he was a teenager. He became convinced that he was called by Christ to withdraw from society. He sold all his inheritance and headed into the desert for solitude. His first refuge was an empty tomb, where he spent a long time alone. In a biography written by one of his contemporaries, Athanasius, we are told that the devil sent many temptations to scare him back into society. In one temptation, the devil makes wild beasts appear in his tomb to terrify Anthony:

“The lion roared, wanting to spring at him; the bull seemed intent on goring; the creeping snake did not quite reach him; the onrushing wolf made straight for him – all together the sounds of all the creatures that appeared were terrible, and their ragings were fierce. Struck and wounded by them, Anthony’s body was subject to yet more pain. But unmoved and even more watchful in his soul, he lay there. 

And he groaned because of the pain he felt in his body, but being in control of his thoughts and as if mocking them he said: “if there were some power among you, it would’ve been enough for only one of you to come. But since the Lord ( Jesus) has broken your strength, you attempt to terrify me by any means with the mob; it is a mark of your weakness that you mimic the shapes of irrational beasts.” And again, with boldness he said, “if you were able and you did receive authority over me, don’t hold back but attack. But if you are unable, why, when it is vain, do you disturb me? And for faith in our Lord is for us as a seal and a wall of protection.” So, after trying many strategies, they gnashed their teeth because of him, for they made fools not of him, but of themselves.”

Anthony does not let his fear get the better of him,  he withstands the vision of the beasts, and so they vanish. 

This is the start of the Christian tradition of desert hermits and monks. Have you ever been wracked by fears and anxieties of what might be that proved to be illusions? Do you fear the worst at times? How do you calm yourself to dispel your terrifying beasts? Please remember that God is always with you, no matter how bad it gets. So much of what we worry about prove to be phantoms.

Tomorrow we’ll hear more from Anthony as he ventured deeper into the desert, and himself.

Peace

-Rev. Stephen Milton, Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto

If you would like to subscribe to this series, please contact stephen@lawrenceparkchurch.ca