03/10/2023
๐ข๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ณ๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ต ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐
๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ ๐ข๐ ๐ง๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐๐ฅ๐๐ง ๐๐ก ๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ง ๐ข๐ ๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐ฅ๐ง
A brother came to Abba Anthony and said, โTell me what I can do, so that I may find life." The Abba replied, โIf you can bear to have your words and thoughts treated as if of no account, and find joy in this, you will cause the angels to wonder."โ from ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฃ๐ฃ๐ข ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐บ
Traditionally, we list Seven Christian Virtues as opposed to Seven Deadly Sins. The sins weโre familiar with, if not from memory, then by experience: pride, envy, anger, greed, gluttony, lust and sloth. The Virtues corresponding to these sins are: humility, kindness, patience, charity, temperance, chastity and diligence. This means that the โoffsettingโ virtue to sloth is diligence, of gluttony, temperance, and so on.
The wisdom embodied in these simple lists, and the understanding of human temptation and spiritual combat they teach has been lost of late. Over the years theyโve been the subjects of clever cartoons in ๐๐ญ๐ข๐บ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐บ and witty essays in ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ณ. The Deadly Sins have been transmogrified so that now theyโre neither deadly nor sinful: theyโve become faux pas and foibles. The โpost-Christianโ world has transmuted the Deadly Sins into the New Virtues.
If old Sin becomes new Virtue, what remains of the old Virtues?
If the world canโt quite bring itself to banish virtue, it can at least relegate it to inoffensiveness. Some of the harder to grasp virtuesโchastity and humility, for exampleโare best ignored, in hopes theyโll go away. Others, like temperance and diligence, can be stripped of their spirits and turned into civic virtuesโAA or one of its offspring can become a pigeonhole for temperance. The rest, if not good for everybody (because nothingโs bad for everybody), are good for some peopleโpatience and kindness, for example, are good for grandparents.
Of all the Christian virtues, the most misunderstood on the list is humility. Humility makes us uncomfortable, mostly because we donโt know what it is, and when we actually encounter it, we donโt know what to make of it. Instead of being the highest of virtuesโfierce in its combat with pride, the deadliest of sinsโhumility is the inoffensive virtue of the milquetoast, the refuge of the anemic.
So read what Abba Anthony has to say about humility. Be warned! His words breathe fire: โCan you bear to have your words and thoughts, to have even your presence treated as nothing?โ
Take that notion into your heart and mind and ruminate over it for a few minutes. How do you respond when somebody cuts you off in traffic or interrupts you in conversation? How do you react when someone treats you as if you are personally of no account or your opinions not worth hearing? Our response is immediate as the offense. We snap at mistreatment. We can attack viciously in an instant.
Abba, however, doesnโt only say, โCan you take it?โ He presses harder: โCan you find your joy in it?โ
What kind of disordered psychology is this? Take pleasure from being disregarded, when all our lives weโve been taught to stand up for our rights? When every third best-seller on the New York Times Bestseller List insists that we โLearn the Power of No!โ
People are people and always have been.. We donโt need somebody to tell us to โlove ourselvesโ or โforgive ourselvesโ or โvalue ourselves.โ We do those things naturally (which isnโt the same thing as saying we do those things โhealthilyโ; but โnaturallyโ and โhealthilyโ arenโt the same thing. Thatโs because of Original Sin). In Abba Antonyโs day, people then were just like us, in all the essential, unchangeable ways of our race. They had their own versions of Oprah and Dr Phil, etc., to make them feel better about themselves, too.
Things donโt change much as far as the world (as in โthe world, the devil, and the fleshโ) is concerned. Aristotle speaking with the ancient wisdom of the same world, said that humility was โthe virtue of slaves,โ not worthy of the wise. It was for milquetoasts and cripples.
Abba Anthony has a different visionโa Gospel visionโof humility. He sees humility at the center of the arsenal of spiritual combat; the invincible weapon God has given each soul in its warfare against โthe world, the devil and the flesh.โ Humility is a weapon so powerful, few Christians have the courage to wield it. Each who does quickly discovers the identity of his greatest, deadliest foe: himself.
(๐๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐๐ธ๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ)
