Backpacking with the Saints by Belden C. Lane

Author:Belden C. Lane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014-09-25T14:28:00+00:00

Desert Fathers and the Lapses of Younger Monks

The Desert Christians were renowned for their strict discipline of prayer and fasting. Yet at the same time they were gracious to the extreme in dealing with the failures of others … especially those who were new to the spiritual life. In fact, says Dominican theologian Simon Tugwell, “The Desert Fathers seem to be rather casual about morality.” To the consternation of those more rigidly moralistic, they appeared almost reckless in the way they excused the mistakes of their brothers. Tugwell suggests that the monks practiced a “spirituality of imperfection,” putting a far higher value on humility than on achievement. As one of the early Fathers said, “It is better to fail with humility than to succeed with pride.”14

Numerous stories in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers speak of the sensitivity of the older monks to the weaknesses of the younger ones. The elders refused to judge or to shame them, always putting the finest possible interpretation on their behavior, whatever it might be. In one of the narratives, a young monk stole a valuable Bible from the cell of Abba Gelasius and took it to a bookseller in a nearby town to see how much money he could get for it. The bookseller told him, “I’ll have to ask around to see what it’s worth and then I’ll get back to you.”

When the monk returned a week later, the shop owner explained, “I had to ask Abba Gelasius, since he knows the worth of these books more than anyone else around here. He said you shouldn’t accept less than eighteen pieces of silver for it. This is a valuable book. You’ve got something precious here.” The young monk asked with chagrin, “Is that all he said? He didn’t ask you about who was trying to sell it?” “No, he didn’t say a thing,” responded the bookseller. The young monk then took the Bible back to the monastery and to Abba Gelasius, knowing he’d found something more precious than a valuable book. He’d found the forgiveness of an older brother.15

In an even more interesting story, some of the elders approached Abba Ammonas one day on their way to confront a lapsed brother over his moral failures with women. They asked Ammonas to join them. Now the young monk had been getting into trouble. In fact, there was a woman in his cell at the time when he heard that the elders were coming. So he hid her in a large barrel in the corner. When Ammonas came in, he realized what was going on and sat on the top of the barrel while the rest of the monks searched everywhere for the guilty party they expected to find.

Ammonas finally said, “What is this? May God forgive you for unjustly accusing this poor man.” After praying, he made all the others leave. Then he took the erring young monk by the hand and simply said, “Brother, be on your guard.” That was all. No lectures.

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