The Place You Live, Don't Easily Leave It
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent – March 27, 2015
Someone asked Abba Antony, “What must one do in order to please God?”
The old man replied, “Pay 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.”
[Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, p. 2]
These are Abba Antony’s three keys to life: in every moment, attend to God, who is present always and everywhere; let the scriptures shape your heart so that all you do issues from an interior that has been molded by God’s Word; and have a sense of stability and consistency about your life . . . no flitting around.
The third part of Antony’s saying is particularly relevant this week related to endurance and perseverance. It is reflected, a couple of centuries after Antony, in the vision Benedict of Nursia had for his monks, which Benedict called the “vow of stability.” In modern language, the Rule of Benedict instructs that monks are to “stay put,” that they are not to get up and leave at the first sign of conflict or discomfort.
Benedict knew that life in close community – for instance, within his monastic community – was no bed of roses. Someone doesn’t clean the dishes right. Another person doesn’t sweep when they are supposed to. Someone else overcooks the vegetables. Still another is prone to anger and fits of rage. Yet another always seems disgruntled. Benedict wanted to make sure that this kind of arrangement became a setting for personal and communal transformation, not a reason to escape to another living place.
Antony and Benedict knew the human tendency to change locations (or jobs, relationships, social groups, and so on) at the first signs of resistance. We tend to think that we can change our situations by creating a different “where,” in which we live somewhere different or work somewhere different or have a different set of friendships. We fantasize that life would be better or easier or more peaceful in another location.
In reality, shifting the “where” of our lives ultimately solves little. Yes, there are times to move from one place to another, or from one job to another; but, wherever we go, we take ourselves with us. One of the Eastern traditions says wisely, “Wherever I go, there I am.”
And that’s the real issue. My spiritual journey invites consideration of “who I am,” not where I am. “Who I am” is the work that takes place within my soul. It involves how I relate to other people and how I offer myself in loving service to the world. If the “who” realm of life is spirituality’s first work, then the invitation is not to fixate on the “where” (or even the “what”), but to live out of the fullness of my “who” in whatever setting I find myself.
“The place where you are, don’t easily leave it,” Antony says. You won’t necessarily find a better life somewhere else. Attend to your life here . . . now. That is the path to spiritual becoming.
Someone asked Abba Antony, “What must one do in order to please God?”
The old man replied, “Pay 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.”
[Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, p. 2]
These are Abba Antony’s three keys to life: in every moment, attend to God, who is present always and everywhere; let the scriptures shape your heart so that all you do issues from an interior that has been molded by God’s Word; and have a sense of stability and consistency about your life . . . no flitting around.
The third part of Antony’s saying is particularly relevant this week related to endurance and perseverance. It is reflected, a couple of centuries after Antony, in the vision Benedict of Nursia had for his monks, which Benedict called the “vow of stability.” In modern language, the Rule of Benedict instructs that monks are to “stay put,” that they are not to get up and leave at the first sign of conflict or discomfort.
Benedict knew that life in close community – for instance, within his monastic community – was no bed of roses. Someone doesn’t clean the dishes right. Another person doesn’t sweep when they are supposed to. Someone else overcooks the vegetables. Still another is prone to anger and fits of rage. Yet another always seems disgruntled. Benedict wanted to make sure that this kind of arrangement became a setting for personal and communal transformation, not a reason to escape to another living place.
Antony and Benedict knew the human tendency to change locations (or jobs, relationships, social groups, and so on) at the first signs of resistance. We tend to think that we can change our situations by creating a different “where,” in which we live somewhere different or work somewhere different or have a different set of friendships. We fantasize that life would be better or easier or more peaceful in another location.
In reality, shifting the “where” of our lives ultimately solves little. Yes, there are times to move from one place to another, or from one job to another; but, wherever we go, we take ourselves with us. One of the Eastern traditions says wisely, “Wherever I go, there I am.”
And that’s the real issue. My spiritual journey invites consideration of “who I am,” not where I am. “Who I am” is the work that takes place within my soul. It involves how I relate to other people and how I offer myself in loving service to the world. If the “who” realm of life is spirituality’s first work, then the invitation is not to fixate on the “where” (or even the “what”), but to live out of the fullness of my “who” in whatever setting I find myself.
“The place where you are, don’t easily leave it,” Antony says. You won’t necessarily find a better life somewhere else. Attend to your life here . . . now. That is the path to spiritual becoming.
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