Silence and Scripture and St. Antony

04-30-2017Weekly ReflectionSeminarian Sam McCarty

St. Antony of Egypt is the most famous of the desert fathers, men who fled into the African wilderness in order to seek the Lord. The Life of Antony, written by St. Athanasius, includes an anecdote that I think bears an important lesson for us today.

Athanasius tells us that when he was about 18 or 20 years old, Antony was meditating on the lives of the Apostles and pondering how they left everything to follow the Lord. In the midst of these thoughts, the saint went to Mass and heard the Scripture passage where Jesus says, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” (Matthew 19:21). Believing that this was the voice of God directed to him, Antony did precisely what the Gospel invited him to do: he sold everything he had, gave the money to the poor, and began a life of poverty and prayer.

When I hear about this radical response to the Gospel, I am struck by St. Antony’s willingness to leave everything behind in order to follow the Lord, and I wonder how I can cultivate this same virtue of detachment in my own life. It’s not easy, but I think the key to Antony’s openness to God’s will – his ability to hear God’s voice and his readiness to respond to it – comes from his pondering the Word of God. Before his radical action, before he sells everything and begins a life of holiness, Antony was actively engaging the Bible. This is what allowed him to discern God’s call, and what gave him the faith to act on God’s promise.

A person can cultivate the same disposition in his or her own life by practicing a form of prayer called lectio divina. Ideally, this prayer is a dialogue with the Lord through a person’s pondering, thinking, or imagining. The steps of lectio divina are simple: first, read a passage from Scripture several times. Second, meditate on the words of Scripture by imagining the scene and placing yourself within it or by focusing on a word or phrase that stands out. Third, speak to God about your experience, and listen to hear what he may be trying to teach. Finally, rest in the presence of God and thank him for his many graces. This way of praying can sharpen our ability to hear God’s voice as well as increase our faith in his call. Purity of heart allows a singular focus on God, and is one fruit of this sort of engagement with Scripture.

As we go deeper in meditation on the Scriptures, we will see the same fruit in our lives as is seen in the life of St. Antony: the ability to withdraw from worldly things into solitude and find relationship and communion with the Lord. The culture today tells us that in order to be happy we need to be inundated with possessions and we have to fill every waking moment with some sort of stimulation. The Gospel message and the life of St. Antony witness to the truth that freedom is found in detachment from worldly goods and that peace is found in quiet conversation with God. Meditation on the Scriptures allows us to reach these goals. In our prayer let us invoke the intercession of the Blessed Virgin who pondered the Word of God in her heart, and because of this pondering was able to say “Yes” to the very Incarnation of the Word in her body. Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, pray for us!

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