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| Abba Pambo (c. 303-373) |
It was not uncommon for sojourners to brave the wildness of the desert seeking the wisdom of the Desert Fathers. They wanted to know how to find salvation. How to be obedient. How to find peace with God. The answers they received resound with stark simplicity.1 Such were the questions which consumed these men, which had drawn them into the purging arid desert in the first place.
Here we find Abbot Pambo questioning Antony the Great about how to live. Antony's answer is threefold:
1. Put no confidence in your own virtuousness. Though the Desert Fathers are often best known for their asceticism, sayings like this one make it clear that they understood the futility of their own efforts to please God. It is sometimes hard for modern Christians to understand the theology of this time period but their asceticism was - in large part - a quest to live life out the new life given them by the grace of God in Christ. One can envision Antony gesturing to his own worn and dusty tunic while reciting the words of Isaiah:
For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isa 64:6 NAU)
2. Don't worry about things already done. One of the greatest stumbling blocks for those who believe in Christ is the testimony of their past. Not just the distant past, but the recent past. Yesterday. Last night. Five minutes ago in a moment of weakness. We want to wallow in our sacred guilt, believing that it will make our repentance more legitimate. It is really just another form of self-righteousness. God wants neither your shame nor your false piety. Get up, wipe the muck off and walk forward in his love because that love never falters. As the apostle Paul says, "One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead..." (Phi 3:13 NAU).
3. Keep your tongue and appetite in check. It is interesting to consider the priority here. Amidst the flurry of sins chastised by so many in contemporary American Christianity, one is hard pressed to find either of the ones mentioned here by Antony. The sins of the tongue (gossip/complaining/dissension) and gluttony (inclusive of all types of avarice) take the foreground above all other sins. Perhaps because these were the most common struggles for these hermits and communal monks. But I suspect there is more. Gluttony (greed) is at the root of many of the greatest tragedies in human history being the source of war, crime and murder and a single wild tongue can rip apart the foundations of any community, turning it in upon itself and destroying the unity God has called us to in Christ. At times I wonder if modern Christianity has lost sight of the roots of sinfulness and unwisely chosen to fight the symptoms.
To paraphrase:
1) Don't trust your own self-righteousness;
2) Don't be shocked when you prove your own unrighteousness;
3) Don't let failure keep you from pursuing real life in Christ.
1. Merton, Thomas, The Wisdom of the Desert, p. 12.
