{"id":1344,"date":"2017-01-09T06:41:32","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T11:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/henrykarlson\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2017-01-09T06:41:32","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T11:41:32","slug":"how-to-please-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/henrykarlson\/2017\/01\/how-to-please-god\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Please God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"By<\/a>
St. Anthony by unknown Armenian artist derivative work: Gnesener1900 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Someone asked Abba Anthony, \u201cWhat must one do in order to please God?\u201d The old man replied, \u201cPay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes, whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because Anthony\u2019s sayings were recorded for the sake of a monastic audience, much of what was recorded was for the sake of fellow ascetics. The core wisdom contained within them therefore often needs to be discerned and then either explained or modified to make them useful for those not called to religious life. \u00a0And yet, in and throughout the sayings, there are some statements which have more universal appeal, and do not need as much, if any, adaptation, and they show how Anthony cared for and was concerned about all Christians, and not just the monks he shepherded.<\/p>\n

Anthony knew that what he had gained from his relationship with God was not for his sake alone. His way of life was twofold, going to God and experiencing the glory of being in God\u2019s presence, and then going back to the world, sharing with others what he had gained from his retreat with God, spreading the grace of the kingdom of God to all who should come in contact with him and his ministry. For, despite his desire to be a hermit away from others, he knew he could not be selfish and neglect his role in the world. His work, his prayers, was not for himself, but for the whole of the world, where he was seen as a great intercessor preserving the wellbeing of others through his ascetical labors. Thus, John of Shm\u00fbn exclaimed of Anthony, he was made a strong in grace and spiritual authority because he let himself become physically weak in his ascetical labors, whereby he shared that strength with others because of the great love he felt for all: \u201cAntony was also a power because the power of God was made manifest through his weakness and because he became a power for others.\u201d[2]<\/a> Serapion of Thmuis likewise saw his time at prayer was also for the sake of others, that Anthony\u2019s greatness included his role as mediator for the people of his time: \u201cAs long as he was on earth he spoke and prayed. And when he spread forth his hands, he spoke with God at great length, lifting up his thought and preventing them from coming down, [praying] that he would not allow his wrath to come down.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

In this saying, Anthony was giving universal advice, wisdom which he thought could and should apply to anyone seeking salvation; it could be said to anyone and not just fellow monks. Whatever vocation, whatever walk of life, three things together should help direct someone to salvation: constant remembrance of God, following the commands of God found in Scripture, and not being easily moved to and fro, the last which is the most monastic of the three but yet can be applied to all when properly understood.<\/p>\n

To remember God before us, which is the implication of keeping him before our eyes, can be done in two ways. One is to consider God is ever present, ever watching us, seeing all that we should do, so that we should prevent ourselves from staying and doing what we would not want to do before others. That is, if we would feel ashamed if others saw what we did, we can then consider that their views and opinions are nothing in comparison to judgment of God; if we would be embarrassed to act a certain way in front of friends and family, then the fear of the Lord, whose presence is before us, should also help us keep to the straight and narrow. Thus, we can read in this the wisdom of Solomon as expressed in the Proverbs: \u201cThe fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it\u201d (Prov. 9: 10-12 RSV).<\/p>\n

It is not, however, the fear of God which best motivates us, rather, it is the love of God, and keeping God in front of us, in our mind\u2019s eye, with the lens of love is far better for us than merely fearing God\u2019s wrath for our sins. Far greater than fear, love will motivate us to seek after and follow God wherever he should lead us; with love, we will sacrifice ourselves for our beloved, Christ, and then find ourselves restored in his resurrection, greater than we would be if we tried to hold on to ourselves and preserve ourselves in the form we exist apart from such self-sacrificial love. Salvation leads to divine union with God, a union which is a union of love, a union which follows the example of love shown to us by the death of the Son of God on the cross. At the heart of love is this giving over of the self to the beloved, and so to remember God and keep him before us, is to keep before us our beloved with the passionate embrace of love that will bring us to him. It is a recollection in prayer which brings God\u2019s presence to us in and through our love so that we can realize the actual universal presence of God in our lives and let love fulfill its aim. We can meet with God in that recollection, and open ourselves, heart to heart, our heart to the heart of God shown to us on the cross. For it is on the cross we find that the incarnate God-man gave us his all for us, his beloved, holding nothing back because of his great and universal love.<\/p>\n

To help bring God\u2019s presence to us, to let our love be realized in prayer, there are many forms of meditation which can help bring this about. One way is the Jesus Prayer, where in the prayer, the recitation of the name of Jesus brings Jesus to us, and thanks to his presence, we are able to receive the grace needed for our salvation. And as we pray it, we can see our love for God grows stronger as we realize in and through it God\u2019s great love for us, as Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain suggested:<\/p>\n

Let me again for a third time beseech you to have Jesus as the sweet contemplation of your heart; let Jesus be the preoccupation of your tongue; let Jesus be the honorable shape and idea in your mind. In brief, let Jesus be your breath and never grow tired of calling upon Jesus. From such a perpetual and most sweet memory of Jesus, those great theological virtues \u2013 faith, hope, and love \u2013 will grow and mature and become great in your heart. Know that when a lover is far away from his beloved there is no better consolation for him but to constantly remember the name of the beloved person.[4]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus, who is God, is \u201cfar from us\u201d only in the sense of the distance we keep from him due to our sin, a distance which veils his presence, and therefore the presence of God, from us. \u00a0Through his grace, Jesus pierces that veil, the light of his truth shines upon us, and so if we are careful and attentive, we should be truly enlightened and brought close to Go. \u00a0Then we shall find our love for God and others is full, as all the sin and its darkness and hatred has been melted away from us by the purifying fire of God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n

God is everywhere present and fills all things; there is nowhere that God is not. Our awareness of that presence can come and go, but we must not confuse our awareness and what we sense or do not sense as the full reality of God and his activity with us. Even when we have some sort of true and lasting experience him, we must not construe what we attain is the fullness of God, but rather, God as he is encountered in his activity with us, which is truly God and yet not the fullness of God as he is in himself. God will always be greater, and so he will always be able to direct and guide us further into his vast being for all eternity.
\n<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/a>
Picture by Henry Karlson of his own glass pyramid of St. Antony the Great from the Coptic Monastery in California<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Secondly, we read Anthony suggested we should heed the Scriptures. This is not too surprising. For in Scripture we find the wealth of God\u2019s 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: \u201cFrom 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.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

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 \u00a0open 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.\u00a0 Thus, St. Augustine wrote: \u201cThe reason why the Divine Scriptures contain not only God\u2019s 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.\u201d[6]<\/a> 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]<\/a><\/p>\n

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, \u00a0realizing 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): \u201cTherefore, 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\u201d (1 Cor. 15:59 RSV).\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. <\/em>trans. Benedicta Ward (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1984),2.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> John of Shm\u00fbn, \u201cAn Encomium of Saint Antony\u201d in The Life of Antony: The Coptic Life and the Greek Life. <\/em>trans. Tim Vivian (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2003), 25.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Serapion of Thmuis, \u201cTo the Disciples of Antony\u201d in The Life of Antony: The Coptic Life and the Greek Life. <\/em>trans. Rowan A. Greer (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2003) 42.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, Handbook of Spiritual Counsel. <\/em>trans. Peter A. Chamberas (New York: Paulist Press, 1989),168-9.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> St. Basil, \u201cConcerning Faith\u201d in St. Basil: Ascetical Works. <\/em>trans. Sister M. Monica Wagner, CSC (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1950) 62.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> St. Augustine, \u201cOn Lying\u201d in NPNF1(3):470.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a>\u00a0 See, for example, St. Antony, The Letters of St. Antony the Great<\/em>. trans. Derwas J. Chitty (Fairacres, Oxford: SLG Press, 1991), 14-6 [Letter V].<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Someone asked Abba Anthony, \u201cWhat must one do in order to please God?\u201d The old man replied, \u201cPay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes, whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2643,"featured_media":1345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[279,280,442,169,178,423],"tags":[283,537,14,198,565,415],"class_list":["post-1344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anthony","category-desert-monks","category-god","category-love","category-meditation","category-spiritual-reflection","tag-anthony","tag-desert-fathers","tag-god","tag-love","tag-scripture","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Please God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Someone asked Abba Anthony, "What must one do in order to please God?" 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