The LINK: 8/24
Friends,
As I write this to you in mid-July, there have been fires and heat waves, there have been difficult events in the headlines, there have been the things in your own family or life that you have been wrestling with. August is the time of planting and seeding, but also maybe a time of regrowing after things burn. For us, Christians are constantly growing in Christ (hence the religious name we collectively gave ourselves).
So I want to offer some readings from Desert Fathers and Mothers. After Christianity became the authorized state religion of Rome in the 300’s, many Christians moved into the desert of Egypt to achieve both solitude and small monastic communities as martyrdom for their faith was no longer an option. These communities were headed by lead monks or nuns called Abbas or Ammas. I am fascinated by the Desert Fathers (and Mothers!) because of the wisdom they share even thousands of years later. One of the ways they did this was through a collection of sayings that are meant to be slowly read and then reflected on. Here’s a sampling:
“Once a brother committed a sin in Scetis, and the elders assembled and set for Abba Moses. He, however, did not want to go. Then the priest sent a message to him, saying: “Come, everybody is waiting for you.” So he finally got up to go. And he took a worn-out basket with holes, filled it with sand, and carried it along. The people who came to meet him said: “What is this, Father?” Then the old man said: “My sins are running out behind me, yet I do not see them. And today I have come to judge the sins of someone else.” When they heard this, they said nothing to the brother, and pardoned him”
Pretty great, right? Here’s another:
“Amma Theodora said, ‘Let us strive to enter by the narrow gate. Just as the trees, if they haven’t stood before the winter’s storm cannot bear fruit, so it is with us; this present age is a storm and it is only through many trials and temptation that we can obtain an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven.’”
That’s worth reflecting on when things heat up. And since good things come in threes:
“A brother said to an old man: ‘There are two brothers [or monks]. One of them stays in his room quietly, fasting for six days at a time, and imposing on himself a good deal of discipline, and the other serves the sick. Which one of them is more acceptable to God?’ The only man replied: ‘Even if the brother who fasts six days were to hang himself by the nose [in penitence] he could not equal the one who serves the sick.’”
Humility, suffering, service. Those are three things that spiritual growth leads to. Pride, avoidance, and self-focus are just a few of the things that Christ is calling all of us out from, when he invites us into that great commandment to love God with all that you are and all you have, and to love your neighbor. For God in Christ loved us first, and back to that love we grow.
Grace and peace,