St Anthony of Egypt

ST ANTHONY OF EGYPT

On 17th January, the Anglican Church, together with the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches of the East, celebrate the Feast of St Anthony of Egypt. So it seems appropriate to ask, who was St Anthony and what is his relevance to us today?

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Anthony was born about 250 AD to wealthy land-owning parents, in the city of Coma in Upper Egypt. Unfortunately, his parents both died when he was twenty years old.

Shortly after that, when he was in church, he heard the Gospel being read which included our Lord's words to the rich man: 'If you want to be perfect, go and sell all that you have and give the money to the poor and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow me’.

Anthony took these words as a personal invitation and gave away all the property he had inherited. He also sold all his other possessions and gave the proceeds to the poor and needy. He then moved away to live alone on the hillside on the banks of the River Nile. There he devoted himself to prayer, study and manual work.

Just as Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the devil, so Anthony was also tempted by the devil. In particular, he was afflicted with boredom, laziness and a phantom of women, but through prayer overcame the temptations.

Soon, others began to follow his example and turned to him for advice.

After living alone for some fifteen years, he left his retreat and devoted himself over the next five years to establishing small colonies of individual cells consisting of two or three individuals.

Having established these semi-religious communities, or cells, he returned again to the desert to live by himself. There he was to spend the rest of his life, dying at the ripe old age of 105 years.

Although he was not the first monk to live alone in the desert, he is nevertheless considered to be the Father of desert monasticism because of his powerful influence. Our information about Anthony comes from a biography written by Athanasius of Alexandria shortly after his death.

If you were to ask me to sum up the life of Anthony in one word, that word would be 'solitude'. Throughout his life he demonstrated the need and value of solitude in the Christian life.

It is interesting to note, in passing, that the word 'solitude' or ‘alone' comes from the Greek word 'monas' from which we get the words 'monk' and ‘monastery’.

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What then is the relevance of St Anthony to us today, who do not live by the River Nile in Egypt?

Are we expected to leave our comfortable homes, sell all that we have for the benefit of the poor, and go and live in some remote area?

Let me answer that question by telling you another story.

The Christian psychiatrist, Carl Jung, tells the story of a clergyman, who had been working 14 hours a day, coming to him suffering from emotional exhaustion. Jung's advice was that he should work only eight hours, and then go home and spend the evening alone in his study.

The clergyman agreed to follow his advice. On the first day, he worked only eight hours and went home to his study. There he played Chopin and read a novel by Hesse. The following day, he also worked only eight hours before going home to his study. This time he played Mozart and read Thomas Mann.

On the third day, he went back to Jung complaining that he was not feeling any better. 'But you do not understand' said Jung. 'l didn't want you with Herman Hesse, or Thomas Mann, or even with Chopin or Mozart. I wanted you to be alone with yourself!'

'But', protested the clergyman, 'l cannot think of any worse company'. Jung replied, 'Yet this is the self you inflict upon other people for 14 hours a day’.

Like that clergyman, you and I are often afraid of solitude in our lives. Rather than face the real self we prefer to escape by hiding behind our material possessions, our hyperactivity, our gregarious

social life and our endless chatter. Whilst all this may impress other people, I doubt it impresses God, who sees through all the pretence of life to the inward heart of you and me.

St Anthony recognised this when he said, 'He who sits in solitude and is quiet has escaped three wars: hearing, speaking and seeing: yet against one thing shall he continue to battle: that is, his own heart’.

How true that is! If we are really pushed, we can tolerate not hearing other people, especially if we are deaf. We can tolerate not seeing the world around us, especially if we are blind. And we can tolerate not speaking to others, especially if we have lost our voice. The loss of hearing, seeing and speaking may be inconvenient and irritating, but we can bear it.

But being alone with our heart, the seat of our emotions, that is another matter. There, in the heart is the internal battle ground of the real self against the false self. It is in the heart that we really come face to face with the living God in our lives.

And yet there can be no real growth in the spiritual life until we are at one, not only with God, but also with ourselves.

Hence the need for solitude in our lives. Times when we deliberately shut out all the distractions of the outside world and we are able to be alone with God. The alternative is spiritual death.

St. Anthony makes this point when he says, 'Fish, if they tarry on dry land, die. Even so, when monks tarry outside their cells or abide with the men of the world, they fall away from their vow of quiet.'

We all need times of solitude when we can be alone with the living God. Times when we can begin to peel away the layers of pretence, as one peels away the layers of an onion, in order that we may come to know the real self which is known only to ourselves and God.

As the late Cardinal Basil Hume once observed: 'We shall never be safe in the market place unless we are at home in the desert’.

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So, my friends, St Anthony of Egypt reminds us all of the need for times of solitude in our lives. We do not have to go to the desert to find such solitude for we can cultivate within our own pattern of life moments of solitude, when we can come to know our inner selves, and in coming to know our inner selves, we may come to know the living God who seeks to draw us ever closer to himself.

Most gracious God,

who called your servant, Anthony, to sell all he had

and to serve you in the solitude of the desert:

by his example, may we learn to deny ourselves

and to love you before all things;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen.