A Study Of “On The Character of Men And the Virtuous Life”: Part XV

Introduction and Part II

The next several paragraphs remind us of our relationship with God. First, we are told that we are never apart from the presence of God. All that we do is seen by God, who is omniscient; when we, made out of “dust” look out into the world, we can see many things at once, so we should not doubt that God can and does see everything at once.[1] It is not just God who is watching us; even when we are “alone” we are being watched by an angel. “When you close the doors of your dwelling place and are alone, you should know that there is present with you the angel whom God has appointed for each man; the Greeks call him the personal daemon. This angel, who is sleepless and cannot be deceived, is always present with you.”[2] And with the angel, is God, who is omnipresent; God, unlike material creation, is unlimited and cannot be contained, but is rather the one who contains all things, all humanity, “in His hand.”[3]

Next, we are reminded of the gratitude and praise we are to give to God. In doing this, we find our relationship with God is improved, which is important because this also leads to our own personal perfection. For example, as those in the military are shown to be loyal and thankful to Caesar because he provides them nourishment for their work, so we are to be thankful to God for providing all things for our sake.[4] We must live virtuously, in gratitude toward God; the rewards for such a life build up over time, and we must await them with patience, the same way those who farm the earth wait patiently for the fruit of their labor to come forth from the earth.[5] We must not put any trust in ourselves, but only in God; it’s not easy, and indeed, it is quite difficult to live life without sin.[6] We must understand our sins come, not from the circumstances we find ourselves in, but from the choices we make; it is for this reason we must use our intellect, to discern how we should act, and to “adore God through intelligent speech and thanksgiving.”[7]

Just as we act in such a way as not to be embarrassed before the sight of others, even more we should “cure the passions of the soul” so that we will not be ashamed before God.[8] We have the ability to act properly, to live life properly; no one can force us to sin.[9] However, because of our passions, which can misdirect us and lead us away from God, it is not an easy task; we must struggle with ourselves to make sure we live life virtuously.[10] We can either let our passions overrule us and turn us into their slave, or we can struggle against them, and lift ourselves up and be rewarded for our virtue.[11] “If there were no passions, there would be no virtues, and no crowns awarded by God to those who are worthy.”[12] We must always make sure our intellect remains pure. We should follow only those who know and heed that good, less we fall for the same vices of those who would lead us. “Those who know what is good, and yet do not see what is to their benefit, are blind in soul and their power of discrimination has become petrified.”[13]

Our life should be lived in thanksgiving to God. We must remember, however difficult our life is, we have been blessed with the gift of life. Being thankful to God helps clear our intellect, and allows us to achieve some peace and happiness in this valley of tears. Jesus, after all, came for us to experience a satisfying life (cf. John 10:10). We are able to participate in the kingdom of God, to find it inside us. When the world is seen in and through a thankful experience of God, we can see the beauty and glory of creation. This is not to say our life will be without hardships or sorrow. Even Jesus knew sorrow, even Jesus wept. The world is riddled with sin, and such sin causes us pain and suffering. God does not want us to ignore sin, but to overcome it. We are called to enter the world and to struggle against the powers of darkness within it. The struggle against sin is a necessary struggle this side of eternity, and those who find victory against it, will be crowned in glory. “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12 RSV).

God does not leave us in this world to struggle in it without aid. We are given our own guardian angel, someone who not only looks over us, but loves us. Because of that love, they grieve when we suffer, they feel sorrow over us when we sin, and they feel joy when they see us achieving some good. They are a close and personal friend, whose presence is all around us, even if we do not discern it. They are constantly interceding for us, and they bring our plights to God. Those who harm the poor, the weak, the “little ones,” will have to answer to the guardian angel of those they hurt: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10 RSV). How are we to understand these angels, what are their personality? Bulgakov says that the guardian angel has a similar character to the one they guard; they are able to be united with the person as their guardian and friend because of this similarity:

A guardian angel has an affinity of individual character with a human. Inasmuch as individuality in general exists, it only consists in a particular how, in a form of perception for everyone’s sake of one and the same world – the Wisdom of God which is revealed in it. […] One can say that there exists a likeness between the hypostasis of a guardian angel and that of a human; it is one and the same individuality living in two worlds, in heaven and on earth. One must, of course, understand this likeness by taking into account all the distinctions in the disclosure of individuality there and here.[14]

Because the angel has a likeness and similarity to us, they can know and understand us in a way others cannot; they can appreciate even more the conflicts we face in our life, and seek, even better, to help us get through them. Because they are with us even as they are turned before the throne of God, their aid is pure; they represent our personality and character in an unfallen, spiritual fashion. Their existence has been sensed throughout history; Socrates’ daemon can be understood as his angel, and his ability to understand and communicate with that daemon (however imperfect it was) led him to a life of wisdom which, in many ways, anticipated the life of the one completely virtuous man, Jesus Christ.

Most of what we see here has been seen in other portions of our text. Anthony, as we have seen, proclaimed our need to struggle against temptation in order to be saved.[15] Anthony understands that it is through our trials we , and others, find out who we are, what we are made of. “Truly, my beloved, you know that when there is a fair wind, the captain of the ship boasts; but it is in the time of violent adverse winds that every skilled captain is revealed.”[16] In our present text, we find that this struggle not only leads to our salvation, but is also rewarded. This really serves as a complement to what we find in other Anthonite literature and reads as quite genuine.

Likewise, we read of Anthony encouraging those who came to him with great suffering, telling them to be patient, and to be thankful for God if God alleviates their ailments:

And with those who suffered he sympathised and prayed. And oft-times the Lord heard him on behalf of many: yet he boasted not because he was heard, nor did he murmur if he were not. But always he gave the Lord thanks and besought the sufferer to be patient, and to know that healing belonged neither to him nor to man at all, but only to the Lord, who doeth good when and to whom He will. The sufferers therefore used to receive the words of the old man as though they were a cure, learning not to be downhearted but rather to be long-suffering. And those who were healed were taught not to give thanks to Antony but to God alone.[17]

Though the circumstances between the intended reader of our text, and those who came to Anthony seeking his help, might differ, the similarity of spirit between the two reads as the thing Anthony might say. He certainly desired to have people to recall God in their daily lives, so that, with such a recall, they could live their life in the way God desired of them.[18] What we find in our text here is one way people can attain such a constant reflection of God, that is, by telling them that God is ever watchful and observant of what they do.

The most difficult, and questionable, text here is the discussion of guardian angels, and the recognition that the Greeks called them daemons. For the most part, we know of Anthony as a foe of all that is demonic; pagan gods were contested as being evil demons. Now, once again, we can either hold to the theory, said at the introduction of our text, that some of the things in here represents “notes” which Anthony took, as he learned about and considered various ideas from which he developed his ascetic ideals. If we follow with this line of thought, we can understand him looking to the pagan tradition and understanding that the pagans themselves often confused angels for daemons, and therefore, what we see here is him trying to point this out here. We must understand the time this text would have been written in, terminology was often in question. It predates Augustine’s contention that no one can call angels, demons, because the term demon had been used in Scripture and had, in his time, become used only as for something which was evil.[19] Origen, of course, preceded Augustine, and he also indicated that there could be no good “daemons,” but he seems to understand how the term could have been used by pagans, confused as they were without Christ.[20] Although we find so many speaking out in this fashion, we must  not be too hasty with asserting this was universal. Others were not so quick to make this claim. Thus, Calcidius expressed an interest in pagan daemonology from a Christian perspective. [21] Philo, moreover, was willing to see daemons as angels.[22] It is probable that the ordinary person also saw some relationship between the two (and why the relationship eventually had to be contested). Anthony, though learned to some degree, could have nonetheless also understood the common parlance and given a nod to it. This, however, is very speculative and seems, in the most part, to go contrary to what we would expect from Anthony himself, and so, we should see this as evidence against Anthony’s authorship of our text.