Who Can Feed You?

The men and women who went into the desert to draw closer to God sometimes harboured unwise ideas about faith. The monks would share their stories so new ascetics would not make the same mistakes. Today, Abba Moses shares a story about two monks who misunderstood how to trust in God.

The story begins with two monks who were living in the desert beyond Thebaid in Egypt. They decided that they would make a trek across the unforgiving desert. Knowing that they were to trust in God for all things, they made a vow not to eat unless God fed them directly. Here’s the rest of the story in Abba Moses’ words:

“When the Mazices (people more inhuman and cruel than almost any other barbarian nation, for they are driven to bloodshed by a ferocious temperament alone rather than by a desire for booty as other nations are) sighted the brothers from afar wandering in the desert and nearly dead from hunger, they approached them with bread, contrary to their own savage nature. One of the brothers, with the aid of discretion, received with joy and thanksgiving what was offered to him as it came from the Lord. He considered that the food was divinely ministered to him and that it was God’s doing that these men who always delighted in human blood, should have given life-saving sustenance to persons who were on the point of expiring and perishing. But the other, refusing the food as having been offered by him by a human being, was carried off by starvation.

Although the two men started out with a blameworthy idea, nonetheless one of them, with the aid of discretion, corrected what he thoughtlessly and foolishly begun. The other, however, held out in his foolish presumption and was totally ignorant of discretion. Thus, he brought upon himself the death which the Lord desired to keep from him, by not believing that it was by divine inspiration that cruel barbarians, forgetting their own savagery, had offered them bread instead of the sword.”

There is a tenderness in this story, despite its hardship. The two brothers are arrogant, and lack understanding of how God works. Yet, God offers to save these two foolish monks, using the desert nomads as God’s agents of mercy. The brother who accepts food from these fearsome people is not just giving into hunger, but is showing humility. He is no longer setting the terms of his salvation. The other brother dies in his certainty that he knows how God works. At times we need to ask ourselves: who are we expecting? The God we imagine, or God as God chooses to be?

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

Story source: John Cassian, The Conferences, Conference II, VI.

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