✝️St. Anthony the Great (c. 251-356), born in Coma, Egypt, is revered as the patriarch of Christian monasticism and one of the most influential figures in Church history. Born into a wealthy Christian family, his life was radically transformed upon hearing the words of Christ during the Liturgy: "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor." Obeying promptly, he withdrew to the desert, inaugurating the eremitic life in an organized manner and becoming the prototype of the anchorite. His journey in the desert was marked by rigorous asceticism, prolonged fasting, and intense spiritual combat against demonic temptations, which often assaulted him with terrifying or seductive visions, which he conquered through prayer and humility. His holiness and wisdom attracted numerous disciples, turning the desert into a "city" of monks seeking his spiritual direction. A personal friend of St. Athanasius, who wrote his famous biography, Anthony was also a bulwark in the defense of the orthodox faith against the Arian heresy, even leaving his enclosure to comfort persecuted Christians in Alexandria. He died in 356, at the age of 105, leaving a legacy that forever shaped Christian spirituality.
🎶Introit (Ps 36:30-31; Ps 36:1)
Os justi meditábitur sapiéntiam, et lingua ejus loquétur judícium: lex Dei ejus in corde ipsíus. Ps. Noli æmulári in malignántibus; neque zeláveris faciéntes iniquitatem.
The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom, and his tongue shall speak judgment: the law of his God is in his heart. Ps. Be not emulous of evildoers; nor envy them that work iniquity.
📜Epistle (Ecclus 45:1-6)
He was beloved of God and men: whose memory is in benediction. He made him like the saints in glory, and magnified him in the fear of his enemies, and with his words he made peace in his land. He glorified him in the sight of kings, and gave him commandments in the sight of his people, and shewed him his glory. He sanctified him in his faith and meekness, and chose him out of all flesh. For he heard him, and his voice, and brought him into a cloud. And he gave him commandments before his face, and a law of life and instruction.
📖Gospel (Lk 12:35-40)
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands. And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Be you then also ready: for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come.
🌩️The Cloud of the Desert and the Face of God
🕊️Today's liturgy draws a sublime parallel between the figure of Moses and that of St. Anthony, applying to the abbot of the desert the praises of the great lawgiver of Israel: "He was beloved of God... and brought him into a cloud" (Ecclus 45). Just as Moses ascended Sinai to speak with God face to face, Anthony entered the "cloud" of the Egyptian desert, not to flee reality, but to encounter the Supreme Reality. St. Augustine, in his Confessions (Book VIII), recounts the seismic impact that Anthony's life had on his own conversion: upon learning that simple men, without secular culture, were "taking heaven by storm" through asceticism and prayer, while he, with all his erudition, remained a slave to passions, he felt compelled to change his life. The Gospel completes this image with the command to have "loins girt" and "lamps burning." St. Ambrose explains that to gird one's loins is to restrain lust and disordered passions, an indispensable condition for spiritual vigilance. Anthony lived this perpetual vigilance, transforming the desert into a battlefield where the victory is perfect charity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 921) recalls that the eremitic life manifests the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, which is personal intimacy with Christ. The "law of life and instruction" mentioned in the Epistle was not learned by Anthony in books, but in the contemplation of the Word, proving that true theology is born on one's knees and that, for those who love God, the silence of the desert shouts louder than the noises of the world.
🔗See English version of the critical articles here.
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