Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Anthony the Great (356).
Polyeleos Feast.
Hebrews 13:17-21. Luke 6:17-23.
Read Luke 6:17-23
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Today we celebrate our Venerable and God-bearing Father, Anthony the Great. Anthony lived from the third to the fourth century, fleeing the world to live in the middle of the Egyptian desert. He is considered to be among the founders of monasticism. Many people followed his example. The tropar for his feast which we sing today mentions that he “peopled the desert and strengthened the world by [his] prayers.”
Monastics seek to live the angelic life here on earth. They renounce their life in the world with all its earthly cares and attachments in order to live as fully as possible for the kingdom of God. In his epistle, St. John the Apostle wrote, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 Jn. 2:15). Similarly, John records in his gospel account that Jesus taught: “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (Jn. 15:18-19). Later, John records that Jesus prayed to His Father: “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (Jn. 17:15-16).
Even though the majority of Christians live “in the world,” we are not called to be “of the world.” It is to be expected that the world hates us because the world hated Christ first. In today’s gospel reading, we hear a portion of the Sermon on the Plain, including the Beatitudes. We hear, “Blessed are you poor,” “Blessed are you who hunger now,” “Blessed are you who weep now; “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’ sake” (see Lk. 6:20-23). We are told that those who have all these seemingly negative experiences in life are “blessed!” They are happy and blessed, for all their “misfortunes” according to the eyes of the world will be reversed, and they will be rewarded. Monastics especially recognize these “misfortunes” according to the eyes of the world and run full-speed towards them to embrace them.
As Christians, we must strive not to be “of the world.” To the best of our abilities, we should follow the example of Anthony the Great and the other monastic fathers and mothers who radically oriented their entire lives to God. Soon we will prepare to embark on the journey of the Great Fast. Keeping in mind the example of Anthony the Great, let us begin to consider our own attachments to worldly comforts and vanities. How can we challenge ourselves to better live according to the Beatitudes?