Invitation to Love 20th Anniversary Edition by Thomas Keating

Author:Thomas Keating
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781441180445
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

13

Anthony in the Tombs

Freedom from Cultural

Conditioning

Periods of struggle move us to new levels of integration, and then we have to translate our relationships to God, ourselves, and other people into this new perspective. This may take some years. After it has been accomplished, the spiritual food that nourishes us at that level eventually becomes insipid and no longer nourishes. We find ourselves once again in a crisis of faith, and, after another extended struggle, we take the leap to the next level of faith and love. This does not mean that we are immediately well established at the new level. Rather, we must go through another lengthy period of integrating all our relationships into the new perspective.

So it was for Anthony. After the first round of battles with the demons, Anthony emerged into a period of relative tranquility and inner equilibrium—a plateau, as John of the Cross would call it. The plateau refers to the sense of freedom that emerges after the purification of the false self. But such a purification is not the end of the journey. Anthony knew that the devil was plotting further strategies against him. Accordingly, he did not presume on any progress he had made, but began anew each day, as if he were at the very beginning of the journey.

As Anthony completed the period of integration, he began to feel within himself a further call into the unknown, an invitation to take another quantum leap of trust in God. In Anthony’s story we read this simple phrase: “Anthony left for the tombs which lay at some distance from the village” (The Life of St. Anthony, No. 8, 26).1 If we were fourth-century readers, our hair would be standing on end at these words. “He’s going to the tombs!” we would exclaim in disbelief. In the popular imagination, the tombs, and especially the desert, were believed to be the strongholds of the demons. No one ever stayed in the tombs longer than was necessary to lay a deceased relative or friend on a shelf.

This one sentence in Anthony’s story may represent a whole year or longer during which Anthony was trying to discern whether he should take his battles with the devil into the latter’s territory. In the end, Anthony decided to take the offensive. Going to the tombs was thus an expression of tremendous courage, a stepping forth from the cultural conditioning of his time and place in complete disregard of the popular mindset.

As we have seen, Anthony was probably withdrawn and timid by temperament. He may have realized that there was still some residue of timidity in his character, and felt inspired by God to confront it. The difference between Anthony and certain starry-eyed ascetics is that his decision was an inspiration of grace. Some people attempt to imitate those who are advanced in the spiritual journey before they have taken their own first steps. They want to become perfect all at once and take on penances, trials, and ministries that are beyond their capacities.

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