Here is something amazing! One ordinary person hearing but one verse of Scripture in the Church and, importantly, acting on it can change the whole world. This is what happened to St Anthony the Great, the father of monks. One day, in Church at the Liturgy in Egypt, he heard read the Gospel story of the Rich Young Ruler. We heard this story today in St Luke’s version; he heard it in that according to St Matthew, but the teaching of course and the result was the same. By the Holy Spirit he heard our Lord Jesus Christ speaking directly to him: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21).” And so he did precisely that. He sold all that he had, leaving some of his goods to his family and headed out into the desert to live simply in prayer before God and in service, eventually, to men. He wasn’t the first Christian monk but he was the father of all monks, male and female, in that no one before him had responded so quickly and totally to the call of Christ to give himself to the Kingdom and in such a radical, life transforming way. He was able to do this because he had no attachments, no strings of wealth, prestige or even family connections to hold him down.  He ran into the desert because, unlike the rich young ruler, he hung on to nothing and no one except his Lord.

We all know what happens now in sermons on this theme. The preacher invariably says something like this - “now of course, not all of us are called to follow Christ in the same way as St Anthony, most of us will have friends, families and other commitments and we can serve Christ in these as capably as in the more uncompromising call of the monk.” This needs to be said of course, and it is true, but if he is not careful the preacher can in a most subtle way let his people off the hook.  “This doesn’t apply to me” comes the response, “so I’ll just settle down and be inspired by what other people have been prepared to do for Christ.” This, of course, misses the point entirely. What is the point? The point is that St Anthony heard Christ speaking to him, personally, and he just did what He said. There are three stages in this following of Christ and they apply to each one of us without exception. Listen to Christ, trust in Christ and obey Christ. Let us look at these in turn.

Listen to Christ …

We are not going to be able to listen to Christ unless at some point we stop talking. I am referring to prayer of course. Some people are so scared of silence generally and particularly in prayer - maybe because they doubt that there is anyone on the other side of the silence; but there is, of course, the Lord.  However, we do have to train ourselves in this listening, and through practice, to discern His voice above and beyond the ceaseless chatter of our mind: some of it neutral, some of it demonic. Listening to Christ means abandoning everything imagined and all thoughts and reasonings which arise either bidden or unbidden. By cutting off the oxygen to our imagination, thinking and reasoning we will succeed not only in stilling the tongue but also in stilling the mind. If we succeed in doing that then there is a good chance that we shall actually hear the voice of the Lord, not drowned out by anything of our own, be it noble or ignoble.

Trust in Christ …

In the very process of learning to listen to Christ we must have the right attitude of faith toward him. In short, we must trust him. We cannot always work out things for ourselves in life, still less can we know what lies ahead. This is normal and it must be accepted. The courage to live such a life, however, will remain feeble if we do not truly believe that the Lord has us safely in the palm of His hand and He will not suffer His children to be lost if they, that is you and I, put our trust in Him. He is the one who is able to empower us and bring us to the goal of our lives which He, in his blessed providence, has in mind for us. Know that, trust that and, above all act on that.

Obey Christ …

The trendy footwear specialist Nike named the company after the Greek goddess of victory. The priest, if he is using the original words in Greek, will use ‘nike’ or rather a derivative ‘nika’ in the Divine liturgy when he exclaims: “ΙΗϹΟΥϹ ΧΡΙϹΤΟϹ NIKA”  … “Jesus Christ conquers,” (or is victorious).  Now the aforementioned footwear company, Nike, many years ago, developed a brand identity based on three little words … JUST DO IT. By adopting this short phrase they linked a notion of victory to that of immediate active response; just like St Anthony of course. He heard the gospel, he listened to Christ; he trusted in the Lord, (for He is trustworthy) and then he obeyed Christ - he just did it! No excuses were heard, no feeble protestations. He obeyed the gospel call and the Christian world, together with the wider world itself was forever changed. The movement he inspired saved the Church from worldliness at a time after Christianity’s legalisation when it was becoming rather fashionable to be a Christian; at a distance of course and in the safe ways of outward appearance only.  But, God is not mocked. Radical obedience to the gospel in mind, heart and life will have nothing to do with this sorry excuse of being a Christian, this scandalous demonic counterfeit. Monasticism purged the Church of these corrupting elements and made it quite clear to all believers, both actual and potential, that the call of Christ to each person remains for ever the same and the same wholehearted response of the soul to God, listening, trusting and obeying never, ever changes.

All of us must, therefore, just like St Anthony, but unlike the rich young ruler, drop everything and flee into our own interior desert where, unencumbered by any attachment or earthly thing we shall be able to hear the voice of the Lord amid the dunes of our mind and have the grace immediately to rise up as his trusting servants and follow his commands. Everyone can and should do that, whether they are in a physical desert or not. Who knows? Maybe if we do this the world will be changed again. God waits.