How To Please God

Secondly, we read Anthony suggested we should heed the Scriptures. This is not too surprising. For in Scripture we find the wealth of God’s wisdom manifest in a form we can all engage and learn something from it. Moreover, Scripture is not just a simple text with one meaning, but rather, God has made it full of his wisdom, so it has multiple meanings and applications, where a simple reading might be the foundation by which a reader gets to know something about God, but then as they wrestle with the text, they see its true meaning is not found in its external form, in the letter of the text, but the spirit of the text which points beyond the text and leads us to the truth found in God himself. St. Basil indicated this was what was implied by Jesus when he said he had many things to say but his listeners could not receive them at that time (cf. Jn. 16:12); St. Basil explained that those teachings exist and are to be found hidden in Scripture itself: “From such passages we learn that Holy Writ contains a store of knowledge as limitless as is the incapacity of human nature to grasp in this life the meaning of the holy mysteries. Even though more knowledge is always being acquired by everyone, it will ever fall short in all things of rightful completeness until the time when that which is perfect being come, that which is in part will be done away.”[5]

By contemplating Holy Scripture, allowing its greater mysteries to be what motivates us, we will be encouraged by what we find, never allowing the mere letter of the text confuse us and turn us away from the love of God. We should not treat Scripture as being merely a historical textbook, but instead, a representation of the many ways people come to understand their relationship with God, often making mistakes like the rest of us along the path to their perfection. We can find ourselves encouraged by what we read of the saints of old. They show, in their lives, with all their faults, that God is merciful and generous and is willing to save anyone who should  open themselves up to his love; to keep to the Scripture is to keep to the presentation of love found in it, and so to see the path of salvation achieve its end in the salvation of so many before us.  Thus, St. Augustine wrote: “The reason why the Divine Scriptures contain not only God’s commands, but the life and character of the just, is this: that, if haply it be hidden in what way we are to take that which is enjoined, by the actions of the just it may be understood.”[6] Anthony, therefore, saw in the Scriptures the fall of humanity as it turned away from God, the call of God to humanity, and the eventual restoration to glory through the advent of Jesus Christ. To follow Scriptures is to understand the dispensation of God and to find hope in it, hope based upon the love of God for us manifested in the history of the world.[7]

Finally, Anthony tells us to stay where we find ourselves to be, to stay with our calling, and not go seeking all over the place for something else to do. We all have a mission in the world, a vocation; if we keep looking for the next, best thing, never staying put, never excelling at one virtue at a time, we shall never find ourselves on solid ground as we end up trying to do what we are not only not called to do, but unable to do. Either it is the pursuit of vainglory, or spiritual restlessness, acidie, which makes us to want to move on when we are not ready, to constantly find something new to do, instead of persevere where we are at and let God, through providence, direct us elsewhere if and when he should so choose. This is often the danger we face when we look at what God is doing with and through someone else: we glorify it so much that we think we should be like them, and so we move to be with them and try to do that which we have not the calling to do, and when we fail, it is easy to have a sense of despair, thinking worse about ourselves than we should. For a monk, this is an even graver concern, because novices often toil through some romantic notion of monasticism, and when that romanticism is not met, the would be monk would either look for a new community, which they will find is also unsatisfactory, or leave the monastic discipline, even if they are called, because they could not sit patiently and wait for the working of God in their lives. But this is true for all of us; we must always keep humble before God, do what we can, and stick with what we have to do until it is properly the time to move on, when we are ready for something new and it has been made properly available to us. It is as Paul said, we are to stand fast and hold on to what we have,  realizing where we are in the Lord is sufficient, and so what we do is not in vain (even if the world does not understand our mode of life): “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:59 RSV).  It is easy to get discouraged when it seems what we are doing is worthless, but when we see and understand that when it is done in cooperation with Christ, it will not be in vain, then we are able to stay put and continue; then we will not worry about what the rest of the world thinks of our labors, only what God thinks and follow after him with our love.

When we bring all three aspects of this saying together, the last admonition from Anthony also is able to make more sense: we are to find ourselves thinking of God, following after him and learning from him in the Scriptures, no longer moving away from him with any distraction which would veil his presence from our life. Once we have opened up to the experience of God, in and through a loving heart for God, we are not to move from that contemplative spirit; where we are that we can engage God in that spirit is where we belong. Only if God direct us further shall we move to someplace new, and then we shall move in accordance to his will, not ours, trusting that God will not lead us astray, otherwise, if we move, if we try to direct God and control God and tell him where we think we shall be, such movement will likely be away from God and end up being to our own detriment. Let us, therefore, not be quick to move, but stand fast where we are once we have found the love of God in our lives.

[1] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. trans. Benedicta Ward (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1984),2.

[2] John of Shmûn, “An Encomium of Saint Antony” in The Life of Antony: The Coptic Life and the Greek Life. trans. Tim Vivian (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2003), 25.

[3] Serapion of Thmuis, “To the Disciples of Antony” in The Life of Antony: The Coptic Life and the Greek Life. trans. Rowan A. Greer (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2003) 42.

[4] Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, Handbook of Spiritual Counsel. trans. Peter A. Chamberas (New York: Paulist Press, 1989),168-9.

[5] St. Basil, “Concerning Faith” in St. Basil: Ascetical Works. trans. Sister M. Monica Wagner, CSC (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1950) 62.

[6] St. Augustine, “On Lying” in NPNF1(3):470.

[7]  See, for example, St. Antony, The Letters of St. Antony the Great. trans. Derwas J. Chitty (Fairacres, Oxford: SLG Press, 1991), 14-6 [Letter V].

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